The Boundary of Art: Andy

The Boundary of Art: Andy Warhol In the middle part of the 20th century, Abstract Expressionism rules the visual arts scene with a sense of serious experimentation that was in its own way very constraining. The next generation of artists would appeal to the media of popular culture as a way to simultaneously be liberated from the prejudices of Expression and to broaden the palette of commercial art. Turning concepts such as mass consumerism, the commoditization of mankind and general materialism into a pointed philosophical statement, the so-called 'Pop Art' movement would change significantly the both the visual presentation and intended statement of the work dominating the scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As our research shows, this would be a genuine transition, as "n the later 1950s, Abstract Expressionism, which had controlled the trend of art about ten years, ceded to a generation of artists who experienced popular media: they were artists of Pop Art." Where Abstract Expressionism was identified with such mercurial figures as Jackson Pollock, famous for the shapeless splatter paintings that represent his genre, Pop Art is more commonly associated with such figures as Andy Warhol (1923-1987), who helped to popularize the theory that those forms of visual expression often dismissed as commercial design were in fact a valid form of artistic expression. Pop Artists would proceed from the notion that the differentiation between fine art and commercial art is a socioeconomic prejudice which inflates the value of patrician visual expression over more popular forms. In demonstration of this belief, Warhol would make himself the center of historical and artistic debate by using commercial icons, images and media to provide commentary on society.

1. Different ideas about essence of "art" Like the Expressionists before him, Warhol attempted to create a new use for art. In many ways, this was a more democratic way of looking at artistic expression. Warhol perceived that art was a profession which required financial compensation, not just for himself, but for purveyors of visual arts throughout history. It would only be in the patronage of the wealthy that 'fine artists' would be elevated in their compensation. To Warhol, this excluded the common man both from creation and from ownership of appealing artwork. Therefore, he determined to democratize the form by creating works that could be mass produced. In this way, the earning potential for the artist would be raised and the cost for the appreciator could be lowered. Thus, it is understood that Warhol understood the principles of classical art but philosophically eschewed them. According to his biography, "it is firmly true that although Warhol studied Fine Art in Pittsburgh, he was quite interested in advertising and its mechanisms even as a student." In spite of the fact that Warhol was a successful illustrator in commercial art, he wanted to create new work using mass- produced methods, silk screen of illustration; he chose to use the necessities of life in the mass-produced era. Therefore, Andy Warhol made new perspective that has combination of both "art" and design.

2. Andy Warhol is an artist who creates and tries new things One of Warhol's distinguishing features would be his boldness of concept. Though he would observe the lessons given by the Abstract Expressionists and through his own classical education, these would form a counterpoint as he sought to introduce new ideas to the field. He would succeed in doing so, not just drawing on the media and images of material culture for his expression, but even copping its mass production theories in the mechanized silk-screening that helped to spread his images epidemically through 1960s New York Indeed, Warhol commanded his own scene where the novelty of his ideas flourished, with his studio becoming "a favored meeting place for the artists, actors, dropouts and photographers that Warhol knew, as well as for other members of the glitterati." In the studio, a lot of works were created. Andy Warhol expressed images of the canned goods and Coca Cola, ordinary products for repetitive or reproducible image. John Coplans says that "the money, Coke, airmail and S&H stamps, glass label and Campbell's soup can paintings enforce the issue of multiplicity of the image itself, which as a motif is endlessly repeated." This is demonstrated in the analysis hereafter:

Image 1: Campbell's Soup Can, 1962 Image 2: 5 Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962 Perhaps Warhol's most iconic image, the Campbell's Soup can is a statement on the way that brand names and familiar labels have achieved a sort of elevated status in society based on our dependency upon consumer goods. More importantly, it disrupted the formalism and prejudicial seriousness of the art community, inviting mass culture to understand and interpret his image.

Image 3: Marylin Monroe, 1967 Image 3: Double Elvis, 1963

Andy Warhol's silkscreens were of a medium that he chose for several purposes. "Ever since the Marilyn series, Warhol has always used photographic silkscreens." The method of silk screen that is used to make prints in quantity was his main method and connects important key points between the business activity of a capitalistic age that gets profit by making products in large quantities and selling Warhol's work. Starting with her death in 1962, Marilyn Monroe became a familiar subject of Warhol's work. He would use chromatic permutations to recast a nearly identical image to reflect a limitless range of emotional possibilities. Warhol's intention was to employ an assembly line effect to depicting Monroe, who's succumbing to the inhumane pressures of her objectification was precipitated by the iconography he elucidated. So was this true of Elvis Presley, here depicted and similarly crushed under the weight of his own celebrity. Warhol's perspective is distinguished from the conventional glorification of Monroe or Presley's beauty, instead focusing on the implications mass consumption and commodification are the primary means to achieving happiness. Monroe's darling stature, social preeminence and irreproachable achievement of perfect beauty had rendered her humanity a separate being from the product for which she was the face. This is the shred of the woman that Warhol seizes upon, screening the heavily airbrushed headshot that adorned so many objects through filters of pointedly unnatural color, presenting the heartbreaking bombshell in garish fluorescence, absent of person