Andy Warhol

Learning about art all year opened my eyes to how many genres and styles can exist within its domain. The Pop art movement caught my attention and the work of Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. Warhol attended college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Pictorial Design. He definitely put that to good use. Through various mediums he became quite a famous and influential artist. He did silk screen paintings, film, writing and even sculptures. It was the 1960’s when he was pushed most into the celebrity light. Warhol was painting everyday objects and portraits of famous people which catalyzed the Pop art movement. Some of his most famous pieces are the “Campbell’s Soup Can” and his Marilyn Monroe portrait. He was doing something different and in the process he was changing art and making it not as high brow or definitive. He was one of the most popular artists throughout the Pop movement in America. His iconic images created in his studio, the “factory”, are still popular today.

Whenever anyone is learning about Pop art, Andy Warhol would have to be mentioned. Pop art includes pieces which emulate elements of popular culture, specifically related to commercialism and advertising. This is exactly what Warhol was doing. I would say one of his most famous and widely produced prints are the portraits of Marilyn Monroe. However, even though he is still remembered today, does not mean that everyone appreciates his work. Some people hold the view that his images are nothing more than a simple knife or soup can that cannot symbolize anything. His meanings have been misinterpreted and taken for a lack of talent or intuition. However, these were not just simple soup cans; all of his work had cultural meanings behind them. His paintings dealt with the war and different views specific to the American culture at that time.

Andy Warhol sparked my curiosity. The bright colors and altered versions catch your eye and then the cultural meanings behind them hold your interest. By creating my own piece I realized how a lot of thought needs to go into the work as a whole. I do not believe Warhol applied random colors and shading to the four images due to the fact that they all had to be aesthetically pleasing. Then my partner and I had to come up with a simple image that could portray something about our time. Warhol was criticized for painting a soup can or doing other plain images. But through those pieces, he was able to portray so much. I love how that is possible. I am really happy with our own version of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe piece. We called our painting, “The New Face of Communication”. We constructed the top half of a body with a cell phone in place of a head. That was our portrait, our Marilyn. What was being portrayed is the loss of human communication and contact. We are losing human elements through technology. The cell phone has become the main and primary source to communicate with less and less demand for direct communication. I really appreciated this experience and the act of being in the artist’s shoes. It adds a whole new dimension to learning about art.