Andy Warhol contribution to art industries
Andy Warhol was one of the prolific and popular artists of the 20th century who utilized both the avant-garde and prioritized on sensible commercial. Born as Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhood of Oaklands to Julia Warhola and Andrej Warhola on August 6, 1928, (“Andy Warhol,” n.p). The passion for the artwork developed at the early stages of Warhol’s life. While he was eight years of age, he was diagnosed with Chorea, otherwise known as St. Vitus’s Dance, a rare and severe nervous system disease. This resulted in him being bedridden for several months. During his stay at the hospital, his mother, Julia, brought him a camera. She as well offered training on drawing to Warhol while in the hospital.
This developed his passion for both drawing and film at such an early age. After elementary school education at Holmes, he opted to further mastery of these arts through free art classes at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh (“Andy Warhol,” n.p). He moved to New York later, where he becomes a successful ad and magazine illustrator of the 1960s Pop art movement. The current dialogues on the artist are forever engraved in his contributions and legacy attained while he was alive. The article’s purpose is to elucidate on Andy Warhol’s contributions to the art industries and bring forward notable controversies depicted by his work.
- Andy Warhol Campbell’s soup pop art
After graduating from the college with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1949, he moved to New York to pursue a commercial art career. He secured the initial employment with the Glamour magazine, where his undying commitment made him the most successful commercial artist of the 1950s. His initiative of creating drawings from the blotted line and rubber stamps won him various awards. This brought a new insight toward pop art. The famous quote by Andy Warhol goes as “once you ‘got’ pop, you could never see a sign from the same perspective again. And once you thought pop, you could never see America the same way again.”
The notable and most famous one is the Campbell’s soup cans. During the 1950s, Andy was more devoted to painting. His technique of drawing triggered him to indulge in the pop arts. His principal target was mass production of pictures on commercial goods. The mural on the Campbell’s Soup Can was unveiled in 1962. The exhibition created earned him the national spotlight and the power of the pop arts for the first time. Other famous pop artwork painting includes the vacuum cleaner, the hamb
urgers, Mickey Mouse, the face of Marilyn Monroe, Brillo boxes and the Coca-Cola bottles. The reason behind the success of his pop artwork was not the usage of the great imagery. Instead, it was his famous commentary on the product and how people should perceive it. This made the products with his artwork identifiable at a glance, and higher sales were recorded. On booming of his artwork, which was mainly hand-done, he switched to more mechanical mass production of the canvas through screen-printing.
- Contribution to the film industries.
Andy Warhol challenged the world to form the status quo through his numerous films. Throughout his career, Andy had filmed more than 65 movies with varied themes and subjects. His films are notable in the art industries. For instance, he did his portrait more than 100 times, each with little difference and slight shadow adjustment but eyes and his signature wig being prominent and through this generated a film. The earliest film Sleep was developed at the initial stages of his career, and it exploited the durational film techniques. It was a six-hours movie seeking exploration of the sleeping state of John Giorno’s naked body (Davis 388-390). The depiction of the naked body was attained through repetition technique. Andy later in his career produced controversial films such as Eat and Empire to a greater extent are explicit in areas such as homosexuality, oral sex, and gays activities. The many movies he reproduced are enshrined in the modern art archives and film institutes across the world. In the 1980s, Andy made a debut in the television world as host for The Andy Warhol’s TV and Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes on MTV.
- Use of painting to points on the society
Andy Warhol did numerous paintings of famous people or any picture to depict his thoughts, critique a person, or show his obsession toward a particular celebrity. The most magnificent drawing and painting include the painting of Mao Zedong, Marilyn Monroe, the oxidation painting, among many pictures. The depiction of Mao’s portrait was triggered by President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 (Davis 388-390). He obtained a black and white picture of Mao from Mao’s publication, The Little Red Book. Through techniques of painting and screen-printing, formed a giant portrait as larger as 15feet by 10 feet. The picture depicted the magnitude of the propagandist and cult personality that was invoked by Mao’s rule. The graffiti-like color slashes and red rouge and blue eyes defaced the Mao’s image as mean to instill rebellion against the communist propaganda. The expressionistic technique gained popularity and is used up to date.
The famous painting of Gold Marilyn Monroe gained popularity from the continuous recreation and publication of her picture. The idea behind the recreation of the image was Warhol’s addiction to fame and pop culture. The image was reproduced on a golden background, a technique called iconography. The image is reminiscent of a Byzantine religious icon in the faith of Orthodox (Davis 388-390). The proficiency reveals an ornate nature of the image, and this shows the level he glorified celebrities.
- From fandom celebrity level
Andy Warhol was initially an artist, and later, he becomes a celebrity but was, in fact, a fan. The journey to his stardom was developed from the fandom of artistic photography and painting. Through the numerous interaction, he had with celebrity built him a platform as a celebrity himself (Bull 329-349). He photographed Merilyn Monroe, did a self-portrait, painted the Chines Mao Zedong, among other notable iconic.
Andy Warhol’s Self-Portrait.
To further his pursuance for fame and celebrity interactions, he opened The Factory in 1964. It was a large warehouse, and silver in color art studio in New York that acted as the hotspot for lavish premiered parties attended by celebrities and socialites (Bull 329-349). Its notable guest includes the musician Lou Reed who acknowledged the work of the hustlers and the dynamism the diversities he encountered at the Factory through his hit song “Walk on the Wild Side.” The song highlights the fixtures of the legendary studio such as “Sugar Plum Fairly- Joe Campbell, Jackie Curtis, “Little Joe”- Dalessandro among other famous friends of his (“Andy Warhol Artworks & Famous Paintings, Prints+” n.p). He transcended beyond limits and became an iconic fixture at the famous nightclub in the city of New York, such as Max’s Kansas City and Studio 54. The famous quote during those commentaries was his observance that “more than anything else, people just want stars.”
Andy Warhol’s controversies
Most controversies that surround Andy’s life was on his celibacy and techniques he used to commercialize his artwork. The original purpose of the art was to promote nationalism, family unity, or proper dieting, but instead, Warhol used skills to critique or emulate popular icons of his time. Many stipulate that he was obsessed with materiality, fame, and money. In one of the interviews, he states that “making money is an art, and working is an art, and good business is the best art.” The perspective of Warhol on art was seen as a betrayal to the actual course of skills in exchange for money and fame. His famous art that showed triggered political rebellion against the cultural norms was the drawing of Mao Zedong of china (Davis 388-390). The Merilyn Monroe portrait indicated his fandom extent. He valued her as an idol to be emulated. He acknowledges controversies surrounding his artwork. In his book, he mentioned that “people always say time changes things, but you have to change them yourself.”
Andy opted for celibacy life. The bachelorhood gave him the chance to grow his career to star celebrity level progressively. He developed films that depicted gay cultures such as blow jobs and homosexuality in his film The Empire chronicles. Many tend to believe that this film was motivated by his sexual orientation. He admitted that he led a homosexual life evidenced by may male partners he had, though he remained virgin his entire life. Studies categorized this orientation as asexuality (“Andy Warhol’s Use of The Controversial Pop Art Style.” n.p)
. This implies that he never encountered external influence, and his ideas were not married or influenced by views of the spouse, attributing to the massive progressive he made in the art industry.
In conclusion, the article has exclusively handled a brief overview of the artist Andy Warhol. The troubled childhood and the motivation and support of his mother, Julia Warhola, played a more prominent role in his artistic journey. The pursuance for drawing education and a bachelor’s degree in arts cemented his commitment to the art industry. The article further explores how Andy used art, painting, drawing, photography to change the cultural norms, make money, and rise to the superstar level. Notable arts work that entailed blotted lines and silk drawing is the Campbell’s soup can, Coca-Cola bottle painting, among others. The picture and painting of celebrities such as Merilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong are some of the famous works. His work, however, is faced with controversies on his sexuality and attitude toward arts. The article discovers that he was homosexual and inclined to gay culture though he remained a virgin the entire life. The way he manipulated arts to earn money and fame is questioned. Generally, from the research, Andy Warhol can be attributed as a notable artist who contributed positively to the arts industry. He died on August 6, 1987.
Work cited
“Andy Warhol’s Use of The Controversial Pop Art Style.” GradesFixer, 05 Nov. 2018, https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/andy-warhols-use-of-the-controversial-pop-art-style/. Accessed March 31, 2020
“Andy Warhol.” Biography, https://www.biography.com/artist/andy-warhol. Accessed March 31, 2020.
Bull, Stephen. “Famous for a Fifteenth of a Second: Andy Warhol, Celebrity, and Fan Photography.” A Companion to Photography (2019): 329-349.
“Andy Warhol Artworks & Famous Paintings, Prints+.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/artist/warhol-andy/artworks/#nav. Accessed March 31, 2020.
Davis, Kathy. “Valerie Solanas. The defiant life of the woman who wrote SCUM (and Shot Andy Warhol), Breanne Fahs.” (2017): 388-390.