How Did Andy Warhol's Use Of High Culture

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.

In the late 1950’s, Warhol began to have the interest in painting. He painted his first well-known paintings, which was based on comics, and ads he found in 1961. The next year the big spots lights came on and he had his big introduction on the Campbell’s Soup Can series, which changed him completely. Shortly after, Warhol got the inspiration and started working on a large variety of movie star portraits, including Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, and the biggest of all Marilyn Monroe. Using screen-printing process, and knowing that Marilyn was one of the biggest deaths in a while, he decided to take that for granted and come up with this marvilent idea to make him go viral.

The sixties were a time of social and political change in America, and the art world was not left untouched. Early in the decade a new movement focused on popular culture and national icons began to develop. It was aptly named Pop art. "Many critics were alarmed by Pop, uncertain whether it was embracing or parodying popular culture and fearful that it threatened the survival of both modernist art and high culture..." (Stokstad 1101) Pop artists were not the first to make cultural statements with their work, however controversial art always draws criticism and attention. One of the most well known artists of the Pop movement was Andy Warhol, a young commerial illustrator from manhattan. Warhol's use of popular icons and brands as the focus

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.

Even though the CIA and other forms of government tried to express and support the Abstract and Modern Expressionist movement, they were truly critical of it as they were fans of Regionalism pre-war art. The influence of funding modern art within America not only was used as a weapon in the Cold War, but it also ultimately opened up the art world and refined the concept of freedom within America. During the rise of the 1950s and 1960s, “the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art.” Although the popularity of modern and Abstract Expression grew, there was much disapproval throughout the nation, especially within the government and among political figures. President Truman influenced the popular view when he said in 1947, “If that’s art, then I’m a Hottentot”. His displeasure was caused by a group of abstract, modern, and artistically creative paintings in which were a great contrast to the favored traditional and conservative Regionalist paintings at the

Andy Warhol was the artist who wanted to use the methods around him that were developing. He was the artist who accepted the change of the culture. Similar to his idea about the development of technology, the mainstream of Pop art was to be more positive on creating new forms of expression rather than the Abstract Expression that was the traditional style of art in America at the time using new methods.

Many of the Avante Garde contemporary art were either laughed about in cartoon strips, puzzled viewers or made them angry. The American people felt the European art often relished by wealthy art connoisseurs was a step backward in American culture. Moreover, several Americans found the primitive, distorted imagery threatening to American civilization and the United States progress. Also many American’s were afraid the art form itself represented an adaptation to modern society.

Photo Essay– How Campbell’s Soup Influenced the Art World, Warhol Style Andy Warhol’s impact as a Pop artist has gone far beyond just your typical “starving artist”. He, still to this day, is considered to be one of the most influential artists who went from painter to commercial artist, being the most popular figure in the world of Pop Art. He’s also considered as one of the most important figures in the world of contemporary art and culture. Andy Warhol was the most successful and definitely the most famous and highly paid artist of his time. I took this photo of a mural on the corner of Melrose Ave.

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 the name most recognized in the history of pop art, one of the founders of the movement. Pop art uses the imagery of mass media, recognizable celebrities and advertising, in order to comment on the authenticity and the uniqueness of the ideas behind art itself. Warhol bridged the gap between high and low art, through his use of different mediums and recognizable celebrities. He uses icons of the media such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor and recognizable objects from the modern household such as Campbell soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, these objects bridge the gap between the classes of fine and commercial art. By using these images and mass-producing them he questions the role and meaning behind fine art,

According to ‘The New Yorker’ magazine, by the ‘1960’s, Warhol had become one of the most successful commercial artists in New York’, and was one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century’.

In order to discuss pop art I have chosen to examine the work and to some extent lives of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol who were two of the main forces behind the American movement. I intend to reflect the attitudes of the public and artists in America at this time, while examining the growing popularity of pop art from its rocky, abstract expressionist start in the 1950s through the height of consumer culture in the 60s and 70s to the present day.

Andy Warhol, born 1928 in Pennsylvania Pittsburgh , born into a poor family, and his father had died when he was young. He wanted to be successful, he always wanted to be more than just normal, but although his standards were set high, his confidence was low, seeing ass he was bad with people, and a bit autistic… But still tried to be what he dreamed of, an artist. No one seems to believe in Andy, but he eventually believed in himself enough to work on his goals all on his own terms, he was all he had. Finally, in the 1990’s he became known, and would transformed the way people look at art forever. During his career he wanted to make the world a better place a safer place, and he wanted to go to hollywood eventually. But, his career starting

There are few people in this world who can be called an american painter, printmaker, sculptor, draughtsman, illustrator, film maker, writer and collector (Livingstone). In fact, there is only one man who can be called all of those, and that man is Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol was born in 1928 (Rodgers). Andy had many pieces of art by the time of his death in February of 1987. 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans was one of Andy’s most famous works of art. In these pieces, he painted thirty-two soup cans which seemed to look the same but if the viewer looks at each painting closely, tiny differences in the paintings come to light. “The tiny variations give the viewer hope that, despite the monotony of mass-produced society, glimpses of originality can still break through” (Fallon 34). People who came to see Andy Warhol’s 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans were shocked a gallery would show such dull, emotionless art. A few years later, Warhol became known as the “Prince of Pop,” and owes his fame to the 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans painting set which, although dull and emotionless was the beginning of Andy’s legacy (Edward 7-8). Andy Warhol rejected the idea of emotion in his artwork and his passion for art was never reflected in his many pieces of art.