Andy Warhol Research Paper
Research Paper: Andy Warhol
Background:
Andrew Warhola, better known under his artist’s name Andy Warhol, was an American painter, graphic artist and designer, filmmaker and main representative of the pop art movement. Warhol was born on the 6th of August 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a working class family. His parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. From the age of eight, Warhol became very interested in drawing, movies and photography. Later Andy Warhol finished an apprenticeship as a window dresser. From 1945 until 1949 Warhol studied pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute for Technology, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In the same year he graduated, Warhol moved to New York, where he dropped the ‘’a’’ …show more content…
off from his last name. From this point he started a career as a commercial artist under the name Andy Warhol. In the 1950s Warhol worked as a commercial artist for top clients like e.g. Vogue and Glamour magazine. He also successfully worked as a window dresser, where he designed window displays for a variety of clients. After this stage of life, Andy Warhol turned more and more into a well- known and established graphic artist in the 1950s, because of his paintings and drawings. In 1952 Warhol had his first solo exhibition in New York, where he exhibited fifteen drawings at the Hugo Gallery. In the 1960s Andy Warhol presented his concept of so called ‘’pop art’’. The subjects of pop art were everyday and mass-produced consumer objects. Warhol’s intention was to ‘’paint nothing’’. However, Warhol’s works merely just seems like superficial images of normal everyday life objects and events. In actual fact many people believe that Warhol tried to illustrate or even critique the consume behavior of the American people. Warhol exhibited his Campbell’s Soup Can series in 1962, as well as various celebrity portraits, which showed personages like for example Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. Andy Warhol’s art-studio, where he conceptualized, painted, filmed and partied, was called ‘’The Factory’’. The Factory had three different locations in New York between 1962 and 1984 and it became one of the most current cultural hotspots of that time. At that time Warhol managed the band the Velvet Underground. Andy Warhol was a good friend of the bands frontman Lou Reed. The Velvet Underground often recorded at The Factory and took part in Warhol’s performance artwork like for example in ‘’The Exploding Plastics Inevitable’’. Among 1963 and 1968 Warhol produced a range of video artwork like for example ‘’Empire’’ or ‘’The Chelsea Girls’’. In 1968 Warhol experienced an extreme turning point in his life, when he was shot by a woman, named Valerie Solanas. Solanas was part of his former video artwork and known as a radical feminist and writer. The matter why Solanas shot Warhol was the circumstance that Warhol dismissed to use a script she had written. Warhol survived the planned assassination but he had to stay in the hospital for nine weeks. Additionally Warhol was from now on dependent on a surgical corset for the rest of his life. After the shooting, Warhol wrote several books, produced further video artwork and hosted his own TV-shows in the 1970’s and 1980’s. On February 22, 1987 Andy Warhol died at the age of 58 years. The reasons for his early death were health problems that led to sudden cardiac arrest.
Major Works:
Besides Warhol’s famous work in the fields of video art, fashion illustrating, sculpturing, photographing and performance art, he is still best known for the pop art paintings he created in the 1960’s.
’’Eight Elvises’’
One of Warhol’ most famous pop art paintings is named ’’Eight Elvises’’.
The painting illustrates the famous rock n’ roll singer Elvis Presely dressed as a cowboy. The artist used a photo effect to illustrate the picture of Elvis Presely eight times in an overlapping sequence to give the picture a perception of movement. This art piece was produced with the method of silkscrenning on canvas. The measurements of this piece are 6.5 ft. in length and 12 ft. in height. The pictures colors are mainly silver and a bit of black. It was created in 1963 and got sold in 2009 to a private collector for 100 million dollar, which made ’’Eight Elvises’’ one of the most valuable paintings of all time.
‘’Campbell's Soup …show more content…
Cans’’
The ‘’Campbell's Soup Cans’’ is one of Warhol’s most notable art pieces.
It is made up of thirty-two single canvases, that all illustrate a single soup can from the company Campbell. The measurements of each canvas are 20 inches in height and 16 inches in width. The piece is completely hand painted with synthetic polymer paint. It was first exhibited in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles in 1962. The piece was originally exhibited on shelves, to create the notion or impression of products in a supermarket. The ‘’Campbell’s Soup Cans’’ clearly reflect Warhol’s former work as a commercial illustrator, which is said to be the source of inspiration for his pop art pieces. Warhol’s intention was to simulate the consistency of advertisements by serially repeating the same object. He played with the notion of changing an objects meaning by serially repeating it over and over again, until the meaning is completely vanished. The discussions about the ‘’Campbell's Soup Cans’’ had a significant impact on the rise of the pop art movement, because it’s style and subject were fuel for discussion and an insult for the movement of abstract expressionism in the United States. Today, the piece is owned and exhibited by the Museum of Modern Art in New
York.
’’Marilyn Diptych’’
This painting is considered the most known art piece Andy Warhol ever made during his career. The panting illustrates a photograph of the actress Marilyn Monroe, which is reproduced fifty times with the method of silkscreening. The measurements are
80 inches in height and 114 inches in width. The piece is divided into two halves, with twenty-five pictures of Marilyn Monroe on each side. This way of presentation is the reason why the piece is considered a diptych. The twenty-five images on the left side of the painting are brightly colored and lively painted, while the images on the right side are colored in black and white, with an out fading effect. The painting was created in 1962 and published during the weeks after Marilyn Monroe’s early death in the same year. The arrangement of a diptych is believed to illustrate the contrast between Marilyn Monroe’s glamorous life and her tragic early death. Warhol had the intention to show how celebrities like Marilyn Monroe became a product for the masses and how meaningless the real person on the photograph becomes. By showing her face over and over again he draws attention to the ‘’consumption’’ of those persons, and how fame and glamour fade away.
This original artwork is currently owned and presented by the Tate Gallery in London.
The artist’s view on his own work
Andy Warhol behaves extremely nervous, almost anxious in interviews, especially when it comes to the topic of his own work. It is not much known about Warhol’s opinion on his own work. Actually he was even famous for the distance he kept towards his own work, because he never really gave a statement about it in detail. His character was obviously very sensitive, but some interviews say that he suppressed his feelings, which imposed a detachment that gave his artwork the famous objective character. When Warhol was questioned about why he started to make his video artwork more complex and moving away from the raw and simple videos from the ‘’Screen Test’’ series, Warhol said that he got bored from simple work with the camera. He wanted to try bad camera work on purpose to make it ‘’so bad but doing it well’’ by e.g. having scratches on the film or using a bad camera angle (cf. Warhol, 1966). It was just to easy and boring for him to shoot a movie, that’s why he wanted to make film/video artwork (cf. Warhol, 1966). While concentrating on video art, Warhol stepped back from painting, in order to explore the possibilities of video. For example he was very interested in combining music and art. Warhol said that video art seemed like an interesting approach to combine music and art by producing projects with the band The Velvet Underground (cf. Warhol, 1966). Resulting projects were for example ‘’The Exploding Plastics Inevitable’’. My own opinion
I chose the Artist Andy Warhol, because in my opinion he redefined art with his concept of pop art. He created a complete different perspective on e.g. mass-produced products or celebrities by revealing the aesthetics of those subjects through his work. For me, his work is a reminder that beauty and art are omnipresent in everything we do or deal with in our life. Warhol’s ability to present those everyday life subjects in a different light fascinated me. It made me think over the meanings those subjects can have, even though it seems like they don’t have a meaning at all at first sight. Furthermore I was interested in the artist, because his work offers so many possibilities for interpretation, which makes his work way more interesting. His personal appearance and character match perfectly with his art, because nobody really knows what to think about him. To me, Andy Warhol was like a walking piece of art. Additionally I really liked that he was active in so many different areas of art, but that you can always spot his specific style. The piece what motivated me the most to do my research about Andy Warhol was his piece ‘’Andy Warhol eating a Hamburger’’. Due to our Video as Art lectures I could understand why this would be considered art and how great this piece is. I really like the discourse Warhol created, whether his work is art ort not. I think I now understood that the question whether his work is art ort not, is directly the answer to the question.
Resources
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans- 1962 http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875 https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-double-elvis-1963 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-marilyn-diptych-t03093 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0KxWkXoCzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SRuO4ch344&t=2421s
Background:
Andrew Warhola, better known under his artist’s name Andy Warhol, was an American painter, graphic artist and designer, filmmaker and main representative of the pop art movement. Warhol was born on the 6th of August 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a working class family. His parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. From the age of eight, Warhol became very interested in drawing, movies and photography. Later Andy Warhol finished an apprenticeship as a window dresser. From 1945 until 1949 Warhol studied pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute for Technology, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In the same year he graduated, Warhol moved to New York, where he dropped the ‘’a’’ …show more content…
off from his last name. From this point he started a career as a commercial artist under the name Andy Warhol. In the 1950s Warhol worked as a commercial artist for top clients like e.g. Vogue and Glamour magazine. He also successfully worked as a window dresser, where he designed window displays for a variety of clients. After this stage of life, Andy Warhol turned more and more into a well- known and established graphic artist in the 1950s, because of his paintings and drawings. In 1952 Warhol had his first solo exhibition in New York, where he exhibited fifteen drawings at the Hugo Gallery. In the 1960s Andy Warhol presented his concept of so called ‘’pop art’’. The subjects of pop art were everyday and mass-produced consumer objects. Warhol’s intention was to ‘’paint nothing’’. However, Warhol’s works merely just seems like superficial images of normal everyday life objects and events. In actual fact many people believe that Warhol tried to illustrate or even critique the consume behavior of the American people. Warhol exhibited his Campbell’s Soup Can series in 1962, as well as various celebrity portraits, which showed personages like for example Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. Andy Warhol’s art-studio, where he conceptualized, painted, filmed and partied, was called ‘’The Factory’’. The Factory had three different locations in New York between 1962 and 1984 and it became one of the most current cultural hotspots of that time. At that time Warhol managed the band the Velvet Underground. Andy Warhol was a good friend of the bands frontman Lou Reed. The Velvet Underground often recorded at The Factory and took part in Warhol’s performance artwork like for example in ‘’The Exploding Plastics Inevitable’’. Among 1963 and 1968 Warhol produced a range of video artwork like for example ‘’Empire’’ or ‘’The Chelsea Girls’’. In 1968 Warhol experienced an extreme turning point in his life, when he was shot by a woman, named Valerie Solanas. Solanas was part of his former video artwork and known as a radical feminist and writer. The matter why Solanas shot Warhol was the circumstance that Warhol dismissed to use a script she had written. Warhol survived the planned assassination but he had to stay in the hospital for nine weeks. Additionally Warhol was from now on dependent on a surgical corset for the rest of his life. After the shooting, Warhol wrote several books, produced further video artwork and hosted his own TV-shows in the 1970’s and 1980’s. On February 22, 1987 Andy Warhol died at the age of 58 years. The reasons for his early death were health problems that led to sudden cardiac arrest.
Major Works:
Besides Warhol’s famous work in the fields of video art, fashion illustrating, sculpturing, photographing and performance art, he is still best known for the pop art paintings he created in the 1960’s.
’’Eight Elvises’’
One of Warhol’ most famous pop art paintings is named ’’Eight Elvises’’.
The painting illustrates the famous rock n’ roll singer Elvis Presely dressed as a cowboy. The artist used a photo effect to illustrate the picture of Elvis Presely eight times in an overlapping sequence to give the picture a perception of movement. This art piece was produced with the method of silkscrenning on canvas. The measurements of this piece are 6.5 ft. in length and 12 ft. in height. The pictures colors are mainly silver and a bit of black. It was created in 1963 and got sold in 2009 to a private collector for 100 million dollar, which made ’’Eight Elvises’’ one of the most valuable paintings of all time.
‘’Campbell's Soup …show more content…
Cans’’
The ‘’Campbell's Soup Cans’’ is one of Warhol’s most notable art pieces.
It is made up of thirty-two single canvases, that all illustrate a single soup can from the company Campbell. The measurements of each canvas are 20 inches in height and 16 inches in width. The piece is completely hand painted with synthetic polymer paint. It was first exhibited in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles in 1962. The piece was originally exhibited on shelves, to create the notion or impression of products in a supermarket. The ‘’Campbell’s Soup Cans’’ clearly reflect Warhol’s former work as a commercial illustrator, which is said to be the source of inspiration for his pop art pieces. Warhol’s intention was to simulate the consistency of advertisements by serially repeating the same object. He played with the notion of changing an objects meaning by serially repeating it over and over again, until the meaning is completely vanished. The discussions about the ‘’Campbell's Soup Cans’’ had a significant impact on the rise of the pop art movement, because it’s style and subject were fuel for discussion and an insult for the movement of abstract expressionism in the United States. Today, the piece is owned and exhibited by the Museum of Modern Art in New
York.
’’Marilyn Diptych’’
This painting is considered the most known art piece Andy Warhol ever made during his career. The panting illustrates a photograph of the actress Marilyn Monroe, which is reproduced fifty times with the method of silkscreening. The measurements are
80 inches in height and 114 inches in width. The piece is divided into two halves, with twenty-five pictures of Marilyn Monroe on each side. This way of presentation is the reason why the piece is considered a diptych. The twenty-five images on the left side of the painting are brightly colored and lively painted, while the images on the right side are colored in black and white, with an out fading effect. The painting was created in 1962 and published during the weeks after Marilyn Monroe’s early death in the same year. The arrangement of a diptych is believed to illustrate the contrast between Marilyn Monroe’s glamorous life and her tragic early death. Warhol had the intention to show how celebrities like Marilyn Monroe became a product for the masses and how meaningless the real person on the photograph becomes. By showing her face over and over again he draws attention to the ‘’consumption’’ of those persons, and how fame and glamour fade away.
This original artwork is currently owned and presented by the Tate Gallery in London.
The artist’s view on his own work
Andy Warhol behaves extremely nervous, almost anxious in interviews, especially when it comes to the topic of his own work. It is not much known about Warhol’s opinion on his own work. Actually he was even famous for the distance he kept towards his own work, because he never really gave a statement about it in detail. His character was obviously very sensitive, but some interviews say that he suppressed his feelings, which imposed a detachment that gave his artwork the famous objective character. When Warhol was questioned about why he started to make his video artwork more complex and moving away from the raw and simple videos from the ‘’Screen Test’’ series, Warhol said that he got bored from simple work with the camera. He wanted to try bad camera work on purpose to make it ‘’so bad but doing it well’’ by e.g. having scratches on the film or using a bad camera angle (cf. Warhol, 1966). It was just to easy and boring for him to shoot a movie, that’s why he wanted to make film/video artwork (cf. Warhol, 1966). While concentrating on video art, Warhol stepped back from painting, in order to explore the possibilities of video. For example he was very interested in combining music and art. Warhol said that video art seemed like an interesting approach to combine music and art by producing projects with the band The Velvet Underground (cf. Warhol, 1966). Resulting projects were for example ‘’The Exploding Plastics Inevitable’’. My own opinion
I chose the Artist Andy Warhol, because in my opinion he redefined art with his concept of pop art. He created a complete different perspective on e.g. mass-produced products or celebrities by revealing the aesthetics of those subjects through his work. For me, his work is a reminder that beauty and art are omnipresent in everything we do or deal with in our life. Warhol’s ability to present those everyday life subjects in a different light fascinated me. It made me think over the meanings those subjects can have, even though it seems like they don’t have a meaning at all at first sight. Furthermore I was interested in the artist, because his work offers so many possibilities for interpretation, which makes his work way more interesting. His personal appearance and character match perfectly with his art, because nobody really knows what to think about him. To me, Andy Warhol was like a walking piece of art. Additionally I really liked that he was active in so many different areas of art, but that you can always spot his specific style. The piece what motivated me the most to do my research about Andy Warhol was his piece ‘’Andy Warhol eating a Hamburger’’. Due to our Video as Art lectures I could understand why this would be considered art and how great this piece is. I really like the discourse Warhol created, whether his work is art ort not. I think I now understood that the question whether his work is art ort not, is directly the answer to the question.
Resources
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans- 1962 http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875 https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-double-elvis-1963 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-marilyn-diptych-t03093 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0KxWkXoCzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SRuO4ch344&t=2421s