Andy Warhol : Consumerism, Business And Authenticity

In Andy Warhol’s time he was seen as very commercial and not truly a defined artist. Warhol was very popular to average society but never quite Throughout his whole life he has had struggles with Sydenham’s chorea, terrible shyness, and lastly making artwork acceptable to other artists. And as we get farther from his time we see how much value and meaning there was in his work.

When considering the life and works of Andy Warhol, one thing is agreed upon for good or bad, he changed the visual construction of the world we live in. His window advertisements were the beginning of an era, where art would be seen in an array of forms away from the traditional paintings and sculptures of the old world. He made people see everyday material objects in a whole new light; through "Pop Art" he could transform mundane into extraordinary. He was a working man, a social climber, a builder, an acquirer of goods, and a known homosexual. These attributes all contributed to the interesting and complicated nature of his art.

America’s infatuation with labels was a relatively new trend in postmodern society. Andy Warhol’s “Silver Liz as Cleopatra” as well as his other pieces impacted societal views on modern art in relationship to value. Warhol had a strong belief that the loss of something in replicating an image was over powered by something of new value being created.

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.

Almost every person who knows anything about the art world has heard of the artist named Andy Warhol. A prominent figure in his field during his time, he had a large influence on the public, as well as other artists of that day. He inspired many and brought a new flair to art that made people happy during a time of innovation and change, some good some bad. He is still widely known and recognized today by older and younger generations, who all agree that his art is and always will be timeless. Artists that came after him look at him with admiration, and use his influences and creativity to create and discover new ways to make magnificent art.

Since the beginning of art, typical mediums have consisted of oil paints, marble, pastels, and charcoals. As time has progressed, and aesthetics have changed, so has the extensive list of mediums found in art. One medium in particular, known as the use of “found objects” has become increasingly more popular since the days of the Renaissance. Found object art can be as straightforward as Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” which is a urinal fountain that is simply orientated sideways and signed; this, bordering the line between art and an object from everyday life, brings forth many questions and lots of public controversy. Art has always caused this same controversy, but one main argument frequently surrounding found objects is the extent unto which the piece must be abstracted or reincorporated in order to be considered “art.”

Andy Warhol was the artist that revolutionized art in a way that drew people into the creativity of this new form of art. He was both famous for seeing beauty in everything in his art and yet controversial due to the fact that he was homosexual. There are two classes of people that had different thoughts of Andy Warhol and his work. One group saw him as a Visionary, a person who thought about or planning the future with imagination or wisdom. This shown through his works"Campbell's Soup Cans" and "Gold Marilyn Monroe" which made him famous worldwide.

Warhol first emerged onto the fine art scene in 1962 with a solo show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. This show promoted his first run of soup cans. Thirty-two different flavored soup cans were displayed. The paintings were listed at $100 each, not even one of the paintings sold and the whole lot was purchased by the gallery owner. (Koestenbaum 62) The next show put on by Warhol was in New York. Here he had portraits of Marilyn and Elvis, as well as the disaster series. From here, Warhol's career as an American artist took off and he made millions through his famed portraits. Warhol also enjoyed working with photography and film. His popularity was huge and everyone wanted Warhol to put his spin on their product or logo. Andy became a New York

Andrew “Andy” Warhola was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928. His parents Ondrej and Julia were immigrants from Northeastern Slovakia. Andy had two brothers, James and Pavol warhol.He grew up during the Great Depression in a dusty industrial city. At an early age he showed a very high talent for drawing. Due to an illness at the age of 8 he was confined to bed. His mother and brothers would keep him company him for hours by teaching him how to draw, trace, and print images. Andy loved to draw during his childhood. When his father died, his father told him to use his life

I was looking at a bunch of Warhol’s paintings and I was confused. I was just staring at them and I’m thinking “why don’t you look like a Warhol?’ Then I realize that these paintings are from when he was younger. This was before he defined his aesthetic. I believe this was his discovering phase then he goes into his silk screening phase. Andy Warhol used current icons from the world for his work. One of the famous icons was the Campbell’s soup can. In 1962 Warhol displayed his Campbell's soup piece, one canvas for each 32 types of Campbell's soup. In 1960, Warhol began producing his first canvases, which he based on comic strip subjects. In 1961, he started using the method of silk screening. Silk screening starts with a stencil drawing then transferred with glue onto silk. Warhol's first silkscreen was Campbell’s Soup cans. Campbell’s Soup was an icon in the 1960s that gave you a sense of comfort. In spite of that, Warhol’s Soup Can paintings were to provoke concern about value. At first glance it may seem like a joke but it’s actually a sophisticated and thought-provoking artistic statement. In the 1960s Andy Warhol made a sculpture that was extension of what Warhol had done with the Campbell's Soup Cans, Brillo Boxes. The Brillo Boxes were made out of wood but made to look accurately like the boxes found in the

One of his jobs was to design the weather map for NBC’s morning news. In 1952 Warhol held his first exhibit, it was not a financial success, but it enhanced Warhol’s reputation as a commercial artist. But his spare time was now taken up with pop art, inspired by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, two young pop artist, Warhol had come across in 1958. He began to paint, draw and print everyday objects such as, dollar bills, soup cans, postage stamps, comic strips, and soda bottles. According to Warhol, these were some of the consumer products “on which America is built.”

In the mid 1980’s iconic pop artists Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat teamed up on a series of highly influential untitled paintings. Situating this body of work within Neil Brown’s model as adressed in “Paradox and Imputation,” (Brown) can provide a comprehensive consideration of this series of collaborations, placing the pieces within a wider historical & socio-political context. In considering this body of work, it is important to situate it within the broader practice of each artist, in order to note the trajectory towards this series. These two painters cross-identification is a testament to the revolutionary capabilities of collaboration, particularly between icons of different cultural standing and eras for

Arthur C. Danto in “The Artworld” provides us with the argument that, “To see something as art requires something that the eye cannot descry-an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” Danto shows us the importance of the artworld in order to know that a work of art is more than just what we can plainly see. Danto provides two theories he calls the “IT” (Imitation theory) and the “RT” (Reality theory). With these two theories, Danto explains how we can define art and why “The Artworld” is needed to help understand art, because after all, “these days one might not be aware he was on artistic terrain without an artistic theory to tell him so.”

Andy Warhol is probably the most infamous artists to emerge from this time period. Not only was Warhol a painter, he was also a commercial illustrator, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, and author. His affection for consumerism and pop culture led him to create pieces of controversial art that is still popular today. Warhol was infatuated by

As onlookers peer into the artworks in front of them, there is no question as to whether or not they considered what the artwork means, where it came from and what the artist was interested in who created it. The