Paste your essay in here..Who was Andy Warhol? A pop artist, a commercial illustrator, just another notorious name from the 1960s? Andy Warhol was one of the most prolific and prominent artists of his time using avant-garde and innovative use of readymade abstraction and the painterly sublime from the 1960s to the 1980s. Not only was he a prodigious artist, Andy’s career included successful forays into photography, movie making, writing and magazine publishing. Before he gained mass success, he was the most auspicious and highly paid commercial illustrator in New York. His work first appeared in a 1949 issue of Glamour magazine, in which he illustrated a story called “What is Success?” An award-winning illustrator throughout the 1950s, some of his clients included Tiffany & Co., I. Miller Shoes, Fleming-Joffe, Bonwit Teller, Columbia Records, and Vogue. In 1961, Andy Warhol debuted with his concept of pop art, however, it wasn’t until the Campbell’s soup cans exhibition in 1962 at Stable gallery that pop art caused an enigma in the art world. This show paved the way for Warhol’s debut in the limelight. A 1964 exhibit entitled The American Supermarket proved a pivotal point in Andy’s career. It was held in Paul Bianchini’s Upper East Side gallery and presented a classic American supermarket environment, outfitted with meat, posters, canned goods, etc. The exhibit featured several conspicuous pop artists of the time including Warhol. At the exhibition, Warhol sold paintings of his Campbell’s soup cans for $1,500 each and individual autographed cans for $6. This exhibit is considered one of the first events to defy the public with the notion of pop art and explore what art could mean overall.
The Andy Warhol exhibition “Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again,” at the Whitney Museum—the first Warhol retrospective organized by a US institution since 1989— reconsiders the work of one of the most inventive, influential, and essential American artists. It illuminates the broadness, depth, and interrelation of the artist’s production: from his beginnings as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, to his iconic pop masterpieces of the early 1960s, as well as his avant-garde cinema classics in the 1960s and 70s. The show compromises 350 works, from student drawings of the late 1940s to Polaroid-based portraits of celebrities from the mid-1980s. Warhol’s paintings included music and a few of my favorite movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Elvis Presley to name a few. What appears to be the first room presents some of his most famous work, including Brillo Boxes (1969), which is a version of the 1964 original installation, and his paintings of Campbell’s soup cans, from 1962. The show goes on to portray his earlier work as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s for designers, fashion magazines, and department stores. I felt as though this was a crucial part in the entire show as to showcase the tribulations and triumphs of Warhol’s career as he was just beginning his quest to a monumental legacy. It composed of a series of gold mixed-media collages of ladies shoes incorporating metal leaf and ink on paper made in 1956. Illuminating a much more somber tone is “The Nation’s Nightmare” (1951), a drawing commissioned by CBS for a radio program on drug abuse in the United States, and published in the New York Times as an ad for the broadcast. The drawing shows a young man injecting heroin into his arm as he is turned away. Warhol’s vision was to showcase the predicaments of American Culture, and the aspect which would feature in much of his later work, such as the 'Death and Disaster' series and some of his films of the mid-1960s.
I thought the exhibition was wonderfully organized with huge, colorful, perfectly hanging pieces. It begins on Whitney’s fifth floor, where the majority of the exhibition is housed. There you find a 1985 quote which states “Everybody has their own America, and then they have the pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there and cannot see… And you live in your dream America that you’ve custom-made from art and schmaltz and emotions just as much as you live in the real one.” You find the exhibition to be grouped thematically and not chronologically as you would imagine. I thought this is what made the exhibition so organized and aesthetically pleasing. You move along to rooms of his famous multiples, and a room of his early drawings before he was famous. There is where you found his beginning experimental drawings using stamps and stenciling. I definitely appreciated this room as I find this work to be authentic and refreshing. My least favorite room was filled with his “Cow Wallpaper”. It was plastered as the background for his flower prints and was too lackluster for my taste as it lacked depth and originality in concept. I became overwhelmed when all I saw was a bunch of pink cows and flowers in pop-art print. As I was not able to fully delve into all 350 pieces of work at the exhibition, I have to say my favorite pieces were those of Marilyn, Elvis and Brando’s Pop paintings. Maybe this is due to my obsession with Hollywood stars but I hope to go back and find new inspirations from Warhol.
“Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again,” showcased Warhol’s work to be contemporary even decades later than when originally debuted. It was amazing to see the visual aesthetics of such extraordinary paintings that are so influential to pop art & culture. Warhol’s combination of celebrity inspired status, advertisement, and collective art techniques displayed versatility and experimentation at a time where it was in-exsistent. His fascinations of celebrity, American consumerism and capitalism, as well as social and sexual personae are prevalent more than ever in today's society. His work is inescapable even in our current climate, as you presently see it all over the internet, fashion and art museums. Through his appetite for consumption and dissemination, he became the information, the culture, and the machinery that so fascinated him, and which everyone now increasingly trades in on a daily basis. Warhol’s life and work concurrently satirized and celebrated materiality and celebrity, showcasing his fascination with glamour and status. However, his paintings of distorted brand images and famous faces could be read as a critique of how he viewed a culture obsessed with money and personalities. In his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, he spoke about this illusive contradiction between his life and work writing that“ Making money is art and working is art, and good business is the best art.” Andy Warhol has cultivated both the art world and pop culture, 25 years later his name is recognized and celebrated around the world. His work has reimagined the time he lived in and has now conceptualized the world we live in. His authentic portrait of society illustrates the reality and misconceptions of America and continues to be a prominent figure in art and film. His authenticity of feelings, culture, and life captivates anyone who delves into his legacy and finds an illustrious yet perplexing man.