Hailed as the founding father of the Pop Art movement in the late 1950's and early 1960's, Andy Warhol, through his endeavors, brought forward society's obsession with mass culture and allowed it to become the subject of his art. He produced works that defied and challenged the popular notion of what art should be by disputing the "traditional conventions pertaining to the uniqueness, authenticity, and authorship" of art (Faerna 28). However, it is an injustice to say that Warhol's goals primarily included the desire to create such a ground-breaking and salient style of American art or to entertain the public by making his own artistic contributions. Rather, Andy Warhol's interests were more entwined in his own self-interest and greed. Although a fraction of Andy Warhol's inspiration resided in his ambition to create a "unique" and exotic style of American art, his main motivation was purely materialistic and involved acquiring large sums of money and publicity to fuel his obsession with wealth and fame.
Andy Warhol's experiences throughout his difficult and poverty-stricken early life are one among many possible explanations for Warhol's addiction to materialism later on in his life. Born on August 6, 1928 into the slums of Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol was the fourth child of working-class Slovakian immigrant parents who barely spoke English. As a child, Warhol developed chorea, an illness which causes abnormal involuntary movements. Consequently, this contributed to his isolation as a child as he was often bed-ridden and thus became an outcast at school (Gale American Decades). During his early years, he also developed a fascination for fame and recognition as he would constantly amass pictures of celebrities and movie sta...
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...sted in the chemical processes that went into forming Oxidation Painting; rather, he was more concerned with converting these bodily fluids into something precious and valuable. Oxidation Painting was an attempt by Warhol to project his persona into the media in order to garner publicity and attention. Furthermore, Oxidation Painting remains as Warhol’s most economically valuable work.
Now, twenty-three years after Warhol’s death, his face and art are on T-shirts, iPods, blue jeans, sunglasses, Christmas cards, handbags, skateboards and wallpaper. His reputation and popularity are both endless and his works of art continue to fetch enormous sums of money. Even with his death, Warhol’s name continues to be met with both publicity and infamy. Ultimately, Andy Warhol’s legacy lies with his outlandish and exotic style of art and his lust for materialism and wealth.
Andy Warhol was a graphic artist, painter, and film maker, amoung other things, also associated with Pop Art. He moved to New York, around 1950, where he did his first advertisements as a comercial artist and, later, began showing in expositions. One technique employed by Warhol involved repeditive silk screen prints on canvas. He used this method to produce many series of prints with various, easily reconizable images. Between 1962 and 1964 in his self titled studio “The Factory”(Phaidon 484), Warhol produced over two thousand pictures. One of these, Lavender Disaster, was made in 1963 and belonged to a series of pictures all including the same image of an electric chair.
The earliest forms of art had made it’s mark in history for being an influential and unique representation of various cultures and religions as well as playing a fundamental role in society. However, with the new era of postmodernism, art slowly deviated away from both the religious context it was originally created in, and apart from serving as a ritual function. Walter Benjamin, a German literary critic and philosopher during the 1900’s, strongly believed that the mass production of pieces has freed art from the boundaries of tradition, “For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependance on ritual” (Benjamin 1992). This particular excerpt has a direct correlation with the work of Andy Warhol, specifically “Silver Liz as Cleopatra.” Andy Warhol’s rendition of Elizabeth Taylor are prime examples of the shift in art history that Benjamin refers to as the value of this particular piece is based upon its mass production, and appropriation of iconic images and people.
Known for being the father of Pop Art, and a giant in pop culture, Warhol dominated the art scene from the late fifties up until his untimely death in 1987. However Warhol’s influence spread further then the art world, he also was a major player in the LGBT, avant-garde and experimental cinema movements. Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Slovakian immigrant parents, Warhol came from humble beginnings. Becoming widely known for debuting the concept of ‘pop art’ in 1962. Warhol’s reach grew further when he started experimenting with film, becoming a major player in the LGBT, avant-garde and experimental cinema movements. Warhol’s artist studio, known famously as ‘The Factory’ became a hub for experimentation, and a go-to point for celebrities, musicians and trans folk. During this time, Warhol came out as an openly gay man, challenging the status quo of the day, a time when being homosexual was illegal. While also producing highly experiential films such as ‘Blow Job’ (1964) and ‘Sleep’ (1964) which were highly political and provocative, at the time. As art critic Dave Hickey asserts, “Art has political consequences, which is to say, it reorganized society and creates constituencies of people around it” (Hickey, 2007), Andy Warhol’s art and lived experience created a political constituency which can be best recognised in the function of the “Silver Factory” on
Warhol, Andy, and Pat Hackett. POPism: the Warhol '60s. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. Print.
"Mr. Scott, Ms. Maddox? Here's your baby boy!" These were the first words that Kathleen Maddox heard when she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, to whom she would later give her maiden name. Charles Milles Manson, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 11, 1934 (FAQ's 1), seemed to be a normal child, when, in fact, he was trouble from the start. The two had not planned to have a child, and certainly did not expect him to end up being the most notorious killer of the 20th century. In the summer of 1969, Manson made the residents of California afraid to leave their homes (Fillmer 2). Charlie Manson committed grotesque crimes, controlled his trials, and now resides in the California State Prison (FAQ's 1).
Jackson Pollock was an American abstract artist born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912. He was the youngest of his five brothers. Even though he was born on a farm, he never milked a cow and he was terrified of horses because he grew up in California. He dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen and proceeded to move to New York City with his older brother, Charles, and studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Thomas Benton was already a great artist at the time in which Pollock studied with him. Benton acted like the father figure in Pollock’s life to replace the original that wasn’t there. Benton was known for his large murals that appear on ceilings or walls. “Jack was a rebellious sort at all times,” recalls his classmate and friend, artist Harold Lehman. He grew his hair long and helped pen a manifesto denouncing athletics, even though “he had a muscular build and the school wanted to put him on the football team,” says former teacher Doug Lemon. Pollock always was upset with himself in his studies because he had troubles drawing things like they were supposed to look. From 1938 to 1942, Jackson joined a Mexican workshop of people with a painter named David Siqueiros. This workshop painted the murals for the WPA Federal Art Projects. This new group of people started experimenting with new types of paint and new ways of applying it to large canvas. People say that this time period was when Jackson was stimulated with ideas from looking at the Mexican or WPA murals. Looking at paintings from Picasso and the surrealists also inspired Jackson at this time. The type of paint they used was mixing oil colors with paint used for painting cars. Jackson noticed that the shapes and colors they created were just as beautiful as anything else was. Jackson realized that you didn’t have to be able to draw perfect to make beautiful paintings. Jackson started developing a whole new way of painting that he had never tried before and his paintings were starting to look totally different from before.
Charles Manson Charles Manson. He and his cult, "The Family," together killed. seven people, bloodied and butchered. The people who he and others killed. the Tate and LaBianca families, were wealthy and well-off.
Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City on October 27th, 1923. He described his childhood as quiet and uneventful. His father was a realtor; his mother was a housewife. Art was not taught at the school Roy attended, but when he turned fourteen he began taking Saturday morning classes at the Parson’ School of Design. After he graduated from high school in 1940 he attended the School of Fine Art at Ohio State University. He was drafted however in 1943 in the middle of his education at Ohio State. While he was in the military he served in Great Britain and Europe. When he returned to the U.S. in 1946, he completed his studies for his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Ohio State University in 1949. After he got his degree he immediately began teaching at Ohio State and kept teaching there until 1951. He then taught at New York State University College, Oswego from 1957 until 1961 when he transferred and began teaching at Douglas College of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ he stopped teaching there in 1963. Later that year Roy moved to New York where he was commissioned by the architect Philip Johnson to produce large format painting for the New York State Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York. This year he also had his first one-man exhibition in Europe at the Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris. He was given his first American retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Cleveland in 1963 also. Other exhibitions where Roy was represented in ...
While I still feel there is a lot of under appreciation for things that are not fine arts related— Andy Warhol forced us to acknowledge the fact that art is all around us. Without Andy Warhol, there wouldn’t be nearly as many people upon the earth that could look around them, and simply appreciate those behind the making of their comfortable home and the film they’re watching on their beautiful, cozy furniture. Warhol opened us to what was all around us, but what we never really saw before. Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup series was important to the growth of our society, and I’d glad it’s here with us
Pop art is an experimental art which surfaced in Great Britain in the early 1950’s. One of the major art movements of the twentieth century, it came into its own in the United States in the late 1950’s. This art form incorporated photographs in ways that had not been utilized before. It utilized mass-culture imagery and iconography, in contrast to the traditional tendencies of fine art. Pop art is considered to be one of the last modern art movements and served as a precursor to postmodern art. The art form is characterized by themes and techniques derived from mass culture, including advertising and comic books. Perhaps one of the most famous Pop artists, is Andy Warhol.
Charles Milles Manson was born on November 19, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Charles Manson is an American cult leader and convicted mass murderer. Manson is the son of Kathleen Maddox, who gave birth to him at the age of 16, after running away from her strict religious household. Maddox later marries a man named William Manson, and Charles keeps the last name even after his mother's short marriage. This would be the start of a very rough childhood for Charles. His mother, Kathleen, had a reputation of drinking too much and even spending some time in jail. She never presented herself as being a good mother to Manson, she seemed to not want to be a mother at all. Manson shares a chilling story about his mother that really exposes how she acted
The article Artists Mythologies and Media Genius, Madness and Art History (1980) by Griselda Pollock is a forty page essay where Pollock (1980), argues and explains her views on the crucial question, "how art history works" (Pollock, 1980, p.57). She emphasizes that there should be changes to the practice of art history and uses Van Gogh as a major example in her study. Her thesis is to prove that the meaning behind artworks should not be restricted only to the artist who creates it, but also to realize what kind of economical, financial, social situation the artist may have been in to influence the subject that is used. (Pollock, 1980, pg. 57) She explains her views through this thesis and further develops this idea by engaging in scholarly
A family of killers that swarmed California in the late 60s. This is no ordinary family. This family is lead by the notorious cult leader and manipulator mastermind Charles Manson. With his followers: Charles “Tex” Watson, Bobby Beausoleil, Mary Brunner, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, Bernard Crowe, Leslie Van Houten, and Steve Grogan. This family would brutally kill innocent people they brought a reign of terror to California. (Crimemuseum)
Pop art got its name from Lawrence Alloway, who was a British art critic in 1950’s. The name “Pop Art” reflected on the “familiar imagery of the contemporary urban environment” (kleiner, 981). This art form was popular for its bold and simple looks plus its bright and vibrant colors. An example of this type of art is the oil painting done by Andy Warhol, “Marilyn Diptych” (Warhol, Marilyn Diptych) in 1962. The Pop art movement became known in the mid-1950 and continued as main type of art form until the late 1960’s. The Pop art movement, was a movement where medium played a huge part in the society, with it reflecting on advertisements, comic strips and even celebrities, like Marilyn. This movement also has a large background and artist that are deeply connected.
The subject of Andy Warhol 's art is not blatant it 's very subjective, his art was a look not only to himself but into the world of culture. The subject of Warhol 's Art ranged from celebrities to car crashes to even a can of soup, though this may seem unappealing Andy Warhol had a way of turning these basic things into Master works of art. However Leonardo da Vinci 's artwork is vastly superior and was based on a vast array of multiple subjects including not only humans but animals even inventions he made himself. Because of lack of modern technology at the time you know the Vinci subjects had to be special they had to sit in a certain spot looking a certain way for weeks at a time for one piece of work just to be made. The subject of the piece of art that 's trying to be collected is important when they are just put enough time into it its collectability is value just skyrockets at an unprecedented