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Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans
Andy Warhol was raised in the Roman Catholic church, and to a certain extent his major silkscreens of the 1960s like the legendary "Campbell's Soup Cans" partake (somewhat paradoxically) of the nature of Catholic religious or devotional art. This does not mean Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" are meant to be compared to (say) Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: instead, the pattern they follow is that of the repeated imagery of icons. Catholic religious art has always had this running tendency, in which mass-produced religious art could be made available to believers to assist their prayers -- to the extent that Warhol was mimicking the tendency of sacred art, it was because he was imitating the anonymous but predictable craftsmen who sell statues of little Bernadette at Lourdes, or who sculpt the Virgin Mary in plaster of paris for people to place on their front lawns, or who illustrate holy cards and scapulars and other illustrated elements of Catholic religious practice that would have been familiar to Warhol...
But of course repetition is a large part of Catholic religious practice as well. The highly repetitive activity of praying on rosary beads -- in which the same pattern of eleven prayers is repeated, with miniscule changes of intent on each cycle -- is not unlike the highly repetitive, sheet-of-postage-stamps visual presentation of the thirty-two different Campbell's Soup Cans in Warhol's original 1962 silk screens.
Indeed the whole process of silk-screening is one in which miniscule differences are what give the work its individual character within an identical mass-produced feeling, and of course this is the larger implication of Warhol's paintings in this fashion. Just as Warhol called his studio "the Factory" and engaged in the manufacture of all sorts of cultural products which bore his imprimatur (ranging from rock bands like the Velvet Underground, to avant-garde cinema), there was a way in which Warhol was intending his artistic process to be a parody of American big business:…
Both men had significant events in their lives which made them change their art style almost 180 degrees from work that was similar to others to work that is most definitely their own. There has not yet been enough time passed to tell who will have the greater heritage. One would think that Warhol would be the less likely to be remembered as a true artist, simply because he
Andy Warhol and the Birmingham Race Riot Andy Warhol is considered one of the most important and influential artists of the Twentieth Century. His art focused not only on creating new modes and styles of artistic expression but they also functioned as insightful social critiques and commentary. To a large extent all of his artworks are an oblique and sometimes harshly direct unveiling of modern consciousness, society and the media. He
But the cool tone of the images in Warhol's works is one reason why a viewer might be tempted to read a kind of backhanded affection for advertising and consumption in Warhol's series, as well as satirical parody. What Hughes calls this affectlessness, a fascinated and yet indifferent take on the object, Warhol does not obviously express a point-of-view, rather he simply deploys sameness in different contexts -- advertising in
Coplans, John. Andy Warhol. England: The Curwen press, 1989 Kinsman, Jane, "Soup can mania." Artonview, no. 49 (2007): 38-9. http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/resultssinglefulltext.jhtml;hwwil sonid=HJWLOMQXHRMITQA3DIMCFF4ADUNGIIV0 Ratcliff, Carter. Andy Warhol. New York: Abbeville Press, 1983. Revy, Louisiana. Andy Warhol and his world: Nykredit, 2000 Image Source Image 1 : http://www.rock-hill.k12.sc.us/schools/elem/odes/soupcan.jpg Image 2 : http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pro.corbis.com/images/AALX0010 26.jpg%3Fsize%3D67%26uid%3D%257B5C9E6A2C-32BF-48FF-852F- A584E4902C13%257D&imgrefurl=http://pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx%3F CID%3Disg%26mediauid%3D%257B5C9E6A2C-32BF-48FF-852F- A584E4902C13%257D&usg=dRWPEt3QhPBV8UFoVwWUAgU2DCY=&h=480&w=602&sz=131&hl=e n&start=18&um=1&tbnid=N8ZN8VB12EzHM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Da ndy%2Bwarhol%2Bcoca%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1 Image 3 : http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flickernail.com/.a/6a00d83 455fcc969e2010536e658d5970b- 800wi&imgrefurl=http://www.flickernail.com/.a/6a00d83455fcc969e2010536e658d5 970b- popup&usg=rTgof6rDfVDvr1D73oDbYEgHrAw=&h=482&w=480&sz=60&hl=en&start=3&um= 1&tbnid=Is6uZh0a- RppqM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dandy%2Bwarhol%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN %26um%3D1 Image 4 : http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk83/arcadiarose/my%20signature/Andy- Warhol-Elvis--1963--double-Elv.jpg
The argument that I have been making is a twofold one. The first branch of this argument is that Pop Art, while it incorporates ordinary images and commercial motifs and tropes just as does commercial design, it does so in different ways and for different reasons than does purely commercial work. It is because the motivations of the Pop Artist (and I suppose we might say of the art objects
Fashion History of Fashion The history of fashion can be dated back to the development of the fashion industry in different time eras. Fashion was taken and applied in different forms depending on the situation of that era. It has been noted that clothing from the Roman and the Ancient Greek times is more dependent on the mere purpose of clothes rather than the style that was present. As it would be