Art As A Vehicle For Social Commentary

When we eat a slice of pizza we tend to wash it down with a bottle of Coke when we 're feeling sick we tend to have some Campbell 's chicken noodle soup when we think of rock 'n ' roll the name Elvis Presley comes to mind and for America 's sweetheart and movie actress there is none other than Marilyn Monroe. These for iconic objects and figures all have one thing in common they have stood the test of time and continue to be a part of American culture. Today I 'm going to talk about one man who took these ideas and started a new movement in the early 1960s it movement coined pop art where everyday recognizable images that have stood the test of time and continue to influence and be a part of American culture. This man goes by the name of Andy Warhol.

Art is not always pleasant, but neither is society. Art and society have a reflective relationship with one another. During social, religious, and political controversy, artists such as Frida Kahlo incorporated imagery into their portraits of society which are often disturbing to the viewer. The role of an artist often includes acting as a social critic, to show us aspects of our cultural landscape that are unpleasant. In this manner, the art acts as a commentary on the negative aspects of Western civilisation. During the thirties and forties, Kahlo incorporated the hidden realities of economic and social depression into her works.

Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South and Madonna Enthroned are very similar images that were produced by very different cultures. Both images were produced during the 13th Century. The image of Rathnasambhava, the Transcendent Buddha of the South was produced in Tibet during an interesting period of the country’s religious history. The branch of Tibetan Buddhism is led by a religious and sometimes political leader called the Dalai Lama. It was during the 13th Century during the reign of Kublai Khan, around the time of the production of this painting, that Tibet experienced the first incarnation of the Dalai Lama. One has to wonder if this painting is somehow related to that occurrence. According to

Activists make their messages and movements known through art in order to express messages, validate identities, and to make struggles known, calling themselves ARTivists to show that there is an often undervalued intersection between the two. But before the coining of the term, activists have been creating art to advance themselves and their communities. ARTivists within the Chicano community have especially been creating art in order to validate and record their own experiences. ARTivism is crucial in today’s society and culture as it intersects art and politics in order to emphasize injustices that are deeply rooted within these structures. By decolonizing and deconstructing exploitive structures, ARTivists liberate the oppressed while creating a more socially conscious future by allowing the oppressed to create their own voice and tell their own stories.

When studying artists, styles of art and their respective time period, it is always important to find a few key artists that were responsible for the rise of new art trends. Traditionally, art has often a reflection of the most important elements within its respective time period, such as wars, religions, royalty, culture and expression. This is why the study of art history is needs to look deeper than simply understanding how certain artworks were created. Among the various artists studied in the course, Andy Warhol is definitely one of the most influential. Far ahead of his time in thinking and talented in several media forms, Warhol was a product of his time and defined his era with the use of his artwork, giving rise to other artists within the same time period. This paper will argue that Warhol was not only an influence to modern art, he defined the concept of "pop art", which combined consumerism and pop culture, creating works that questioned the norm of society at the time, while providing a strong influence to future artists. Warhol was hugely successful in his artistic efforts and several of his staple works will be discussed in regards to its significance and representation of its respective period of time, as well as Warhol’s influence on the history of art.

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.

n reflecting on this week’s readings, I can see the connection between the previous readings on the Harlem Renaissance and the one on Abstract Expressionism, especially as it relates to art being used for social change. Just as our society was moving at a fast pace, so was our art. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how racism, women’s rights and war brought on so many different attitudes and the art of the 20th century represented these different ideas. As it relates to war, many people were concerned about the dangers of democracy, while others emphasized patriotism. In either case, you can see a split between people’s perceptions and beliefs. It’s clear that most of the artist of the 20th century that we discussed were always on the cutting edge toward cultural change. Their shocking and innovative techniques reflected the changing values that represented a forever changing society; and often times their art helped shaped our culture, and at the same time, reflected that culture back on to us. From all the different art movements discussed during this course, this week’s readings represents the changing role they art is beginning to play in the political area. I believe that art plays a vital role in democracy, by creating openness and the freedom of expression. It’s amazing how art, be that it through a painting, literature, sculpting or through music can bring about change. Art really makes an impact on our culture and society, from instilling values or by changing opinions. It seems at the heart of every major change throughout our history, you will find an artist that created that change through his or her works. We form our ideas by seeing,

Art can be expressed in many forms but one of the best has got to be political art, as it expresses art in a relevant form for many to understand, it doesn’t require knowledge in history. It puts out a statement in a bold way so that people may better understand what is trying to be expressed. Many artists use art in topics like reproductive rights, equality, gun control, human rights, the environment and war to express desire for change. One of the most outspoken political artists is Barbara Kruger, who has had her work installed in many well-known museums. Kruger has become even more known because of her relevance using art to criticize well-known public figures like Kim Kardashian and George W. Bush, she has also been a proud supporter of reproductive rights. One of her most known works is “Your body is a battleground” which was printed in 1989 in her support for the “March for Women’s Lives”. To show the positive and negatives sides of the inner struggle, the good and the evil. She has a reputation of supporting feminism ideas but she hasn’t stopped there, she’s even had her work put on display in the Hirshhorn Museum. She has gotten the attention of The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times because of her distinctive contemporary works. The beauty of her art is that it relates to many, her art ranges from domestic violence to compulsive shopping and everything in-between, it is also really easy

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.

The nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties were periods of self righteousness and discovery. With many new styles and beliefs arising during those eras, Warhol’s imagination would begin to produce ideas that were unheard of but revolutionary at the same time. American values were altered and so

Even in his very early year of life, Andy Warhol knew that he wanted to grow up and be a part of the artistic world. Throughout his life, his dreams and aspirations were focused on creating art. His aspirations were so obvious in fact, that his father was able to recognize his talents and begin saving money for him to receive a college education. This education was relatively rare during the 1940’s, and therefore set him apart from many other artists of the time. Throughout his later life, Warhol was able to represent himself as an artist who did not conform to the norms of society at the time. His creative use of Pop Art is something that is still very relevant even in today’s society.

Andy Warhol being not simply a Pop artist, but an American artist who was known as the master of Pop Art, and about two of Warhol’s most famous paintings; Coca-Cola and Campbell’s Soup Cans. Andy Warhol was an artist and filmmaker, an initiator for the Pop Art movement in the 1960s. Warhol used mass production techniques to elevate art into the supposed unoriginality of the commercial culture of the United States. Warhol’s early drawings frequently recalls the Anglo-Saxon tradition of nonsense humor, a characteristically childlike exuberance, and the fact that Warhol was successfully earning a living in the advertising industry at the time was sufficient for many to dismiss his entire artistic output during this period as “commercial art”. Fifty years ago, Pop art captured the spirit of Warhol’s young art, but that basic structure has been (to most people) a revealing profitless movement for years. Pop art was a 1960s movement that focused on everyday objects, comic books and mediated images — now seems quaint and playful, but not Warhol. In the first part of Andy Warhol’s career he was an iconoclast, in the second, the artist as businessman. In 1960 Warhol’s graphic works underwent a fundamental change in terms of subject matter, accompanied at about the same time by a change in technique. Warhol’s graphic work covers areas not normally associated with the art of the twentieth century, and which might even be considered unique. In Andy Warhol’s paintings and prints of

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.”

Andy Warhol was definitely well known for his works of art during the pop art movement. Pop Art consisted of bold, glamorous and flashy pieces that were massed produced to appeal to all audiences. I want to talk about two of Warhol’s famous pop art pieces, one is the Campbell's soup cans and the other is going to be his silk screening art of Marilyn Monroe. I want to compare these art works in relation to the pop art area in the 1960s. I also want to talk about how Warhol created these masterpieces using curtain techniques. He clearly made memorable artwork that is recognized all over the world today.