Andy Warhol: Into the Silkscreen

Andrea Manrique 11/20/13 AHI 186 Andy Warhol: Into the Silkscreen Question: What is Pop Art trying to say? Answer: I don t know. Question: What do your rows of Campbell soup cans signify? Answer: They re things I had when I was a child Question: What does Coca Cola mean to you? Answer: Pop. 1 There is probably nothing more iconic about Pop Art, than Andy Warhol; in fact the two seem to flow together. Although Pop Art had its start in Britain, it is without a doubt, that Warhol brought it to the States with a bang. His artwork speaks of a time when the mass media ruled all and the American dream was beginning to expand past the white picket fence houses of suburbia. It was the time of Marilyn, Jackie O, JFK, Elvis, and the Rolling Stones. It was a high time for pop culture and he was the storyteller. His stories spoke about everything: politics, the media, consumerism, music, movies, and religion. He had his superstars and his silver factory. He was the King of Pop Art. To begin an assessment on Warhol s work, I believe it s important to choose pieces from different dynamics. As previously stated, Warhol dabbled his silkscreen techniques in many different areas. Although the image was replicated, the messages never were, his ideology focused on the consumerism society of the era, and how he could represent it to an unaware audience. An article by Nicholas Wegner states Warhol managed to combine the skills of a classical artist with a biting critique of the culture in which he worked. He was able to use the 1 Warhol, Andy. Art Voices. December 1962. 1

new technologies developed in the 20th century to parody that culture in a way which the culture admired and accepted. His work, rooted in the alienated culture of the 1960s, restored moment, place and person to a central position in western art. 2 In order to grasp a wider view of Warhol s process as an artist and storyteller it s important to look at pieces that symbolize different issues of the time. The following artworks will be visual analyzed: Turquoise Marilyn, 1964; Brillo Box, 1964; and, The Week That Was I, 1963. Before diving into the analysis, it s crucial to understand where Warhol came from. Origins are always important in understanding where someone comes from and how they see the world. Andy Warhol was an artist with a commercial art background. He came form a fairly poor Czechoslovakian immigrant, working class background, but never let that get in his way, and he was able to attend Carnegie Institute of Technology. He was noted for always having a graphic skill. He used lines and color in a way that brought more significance than every before. Before he fell in love with the repetitive nature of the silkscreen, he was mostly doing illustrations. These commercial works of the late 1950s were his attempts at making real art. He also admired the Minimalist movement and used its view of repetition to bring a sense of harmony and order to his works 3. His high point, where he achieved superstar status, was the 1960s, and this is where we will begin. Turquoise Marilyn, 1964, is without a doubt one of the most popular pieces of Andy Warhol s career. His entire series of Marilyn Monroe is up to par with his Campbell soup cans, of being classic Warhol. Observing only the image, all we see is an over the top Marilyn. Her yellow hair pops from her pink skin. Her blue eye shadow is heavy and almost drag like. Her 2 Wegner, Nicholas. "Andy Warhol: An Analysis." CV: Journal of Art and Crafts 2, no. 3 (1989): 28-30. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1320588880?accountid=14505. 3 John A. Walker, Cross-Overs: Art Into Pop, Pop Into Art (New York: Methuen, 1987), 47. 2

lips are plump and red, so red that Warhol let her lipstick stick to her teeth. This is an image about sex appeal she gives off the sense of a man-eater in some regard. Here she is flaunting her sexual femininity with a seductive stare and a grin that just speaks sex. One would naturally assume that was all to it, just a superficial, shallow portrait of a sex goddess of the 1960s. This painting is a magnificent example of Warhol s style. He loved the grittiness of the newspaper photographs. He wanted them to stay the same, as if he still wanted the media s view to sneak through the painting. Since the photographs are rough and pixilated when he uses them, once he was expanded them and gone through multiple copies, it is easy to see that rough texture. In many of his pieces the pixilation is clear and gives a sort of comic-bookesque feel to the piece. Especially with Marilyn, and the way her life was constantly bombarded by the media, when he decided to paint her, he still wanted the feel of Marilyn Monroe the public object, not the person. Is that all it is though? Is that what Warhol wanted to get across? Just an over the top sexualized image of a woman whose reputation was only skin deep? It doesn t seem like something he would do, and it is not. The portraits of Marilyn Monroe do not happen until after her untimely death in 1962. Marilyn was having a difficult time before her suicide. She was fired from her last unfinished film, was being hounded and vilified by the press, and the drugs that would be her doom were starting to affect her life and her work. It would turn out, however, that this same media would be the ones to praise her life and mourn her death that fateful day in August. Women and even men across the country mourned her death 4. Unearthed emotions began to come out in the mourning of this movie star. 4 Sara Doris, Wendy Grossman, Andy Grudberg, Greg Metcalf, and Christopher Murray, Reframing Andy Warhol: Constructing American Myths, Heroes, and Cultural Icons (College Park, Maryland: The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, 1998), 28. 3

Why would they care so much about a shallow sex icon? It is because she was more than that, she was person with a soul, and although her personality was set aside, and her fame was focused on her body, when she passed everyone seemed to finally realize it. She was objectified during her career. An article states that Monroe was the stuff of unfulfilled sexual desire. 5 Because no one knew her, she could be anything a man fantasized. And in a way when Warhol over does her makeup and hair and makes her more sexualized, we begin to see the real picture. Her image as a hyper sexualized actress would be a symbol for the dark side of fame. Because everyone was too busy looking at her physically, we missed the person that she was. This portrait made her into a tragic figure, a martyr for young starlets. The press cast Monroe in the role of a tragic victim, a woman whom no one had really understood and whose Hollywood image had driven her to death. 6 Warhol himself states I just see Monroe as just another person. 7 It is because her femininity is so extreme that one can begin to truly see the sadness of her life. She left the world as an object and it took her death for everyone to realize she was more than her body. Another iconic piece from Warhol was not a silkscreen, but a box, Brillo Box to be exact. Created in 1964, this is one of Warhol s most classic attempts on the subject of commercialism and how it began to be synonymous with the American way of life. The pile of Brillo boxes in the corner of a gallery spoke true of the ideals behind pop art in that first, Pop art and pop culture were evidence of the powers of postwar market capitalism in the United States. Second, the use 5 Whiting, Cé. 1987. "Andy Warhol, the Public Star and the Private Self." Oxford Art Journal 10 (2): 58-75. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1320543214?accountid=14505. 6 Whiting, Cé. 1987. "Andy Warhol, the Public Star and the Private Self." Oxford Art Journal 10 (2): 58-75. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1320543214?accountid=14505. 7 Sara Doris, Wendy Grossman, Andy Grudberg, Greg Metcalf, and Christopher Murray, Reframing Andy Warhol: Constructing American Myths, Heroes, and Cultural Icons (College Park, Maryland: The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, 1998), 30. 4

of such imagery challenged the standards of taste and what is art. And lastly, the aesthetic rebellion was going along the lines of the political movements and revolutions of the time. 8 Walking through a gallery as a spectator, one might think why are there so many boxes on the gallery floor. It may take a minute to realize that they are there on purpose. These boxes that resembled those that could be found in stores at the time, was next to repetitious silkscreens of Campbell soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles. One might even think they re in their kitchen and not at an art gallery. However, it is this repetition that is they key aspect in Warhol s work. The Brillo boxes were piled high, all of them completely identical. None of them stood out from the pile. They are just ordinary white, red, and blue boxes, why were these considered art? Arthur Danto states in an article that Warhol went a step further by using the commonplace as the subject of his work and thereby raised questions about what constitutes a work of art and the difference between a faithful representation of a banal object, which is a work of art, and the banal object itself, which is not. 9 These were also the giant size 24 count packages. Inside each box were more boxes; everything was a copy of a copy. These massive boxes former a massive pile, almost making it seem like part of a warehouse, but that was part of the aesthetic. These boxes, which no one would have given a second glance at, are now being presented as art. And not only that, but they tower above you as you stare at them. It brings a bit of an intimidation factor. Has the success of capitalism post World War II gone out of hand? Are the products we buy becoming overwhelming. If these boxes of soap pads are being displayed as art, and if art is a reflection of social and cultural issues, has consumerism becoming all-powerful? This might seem like the message Warhol was trying to bring out. 8 Michael J. Golec, The Brillo Box Archive (Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Press, 2008), 83. 9 Danto, Arthur C. 1993. "Andy Warhol: Brillo Box." Artforum 32 (1): 128-129. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1320656341?accountid=14505. 5

These Brillo boxes becoming all consuming and make one feel as if they are just another product. The ideas of consumerism are that everyone gets the same thing; nothings different, the products are all the same, the people consuming them are all the same. American s ideals have shifted into what they own and how much they have rather than unique thoughts and ideas, things that people need in order to start a revolution. In the time of such political and social strife how could Warhol, a man criticized for his lifestyle, for being different, not want to evoke the unanswered question? Have I just become a copy of a copy? Has the ideals of consumerism taken over my life and thus make me one of those boxes in a pile. Although Warhol has been noted saying, that there is no deeper meaning than the surface, and to look at the surface, one would see his true self 10. It is hard to not dig a little deeper. Especially now, looking backwards at a time where so many things were happening, Where so many rules were being broken and people were beginning to do things outside the norms of suburban life. Equality, creativity, revolution these words are the essence of the era. Things were becoming so commercial, that even art was becoming repetitious. It was time to break down barriers and do something new to think outside the Brillo Box. Another look into Warhol s excellent choice of subject matter was when President Kennedy was assassinated. Warhol s love of celebrity and the secrets that hide beneath it drove him to choose this tragic time in American history as the subject of his next work of art. JFK left America feeling like the glimmering promise of America had faltered, and therefore, with its 10 Sara Doris, Wendy Grossman, Andy Grudberg, Greg Metcalf, and Christopher Murray, Reframing Andy Warhol: Constructing American Myths, Heroes, and Cultural Icons (College Park, Maryland: The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, 1998), 13. 6

saturated historic context, Warhol jumped at the chance in making Jackie Kennedy s struggle his next subject. 11 This four by four panel silkscreen tells Jackie s unbelievably tragic story. A story now printed in every American history book is seen through a different prospective in Warhol s piece. Here we see eight photographs of Jackie Kennedy. Each are copied once and flipped to give the opposite view. Some are photos of her smiling, however, it is evident that this is a portrait of tragedy. Warhol seemed to have a secret admiration for female celebrities going through tragedies, and found something so fascinating about them. 12 Jackie s gentle and warm smile is suddenly lost amidst the look of horror and utter sadness and grief of the other six photographs. Her eyes are vacant in some, trying to hold back tears in others. Her sadness floats off the canvas enveloping any who look upon it. Jackie was America s grieving widow. Before, seen as merely an icon of fashion and the First Lady, now she is evoked as a pillar of strength and courage in an unimaginable situation. Warhol may only have chosen to this piece because of the history behind it, but what he did was momentous. He captured solitary and private moments and made them into public art. Usually Warhol s repetition is meant to symbolize a lack of entity with his pieces, in which the more there are, the less important they have become. However, I believe that the cloning of these pieces may have to do more with observing Jackie Kennedy at every angle. Because we seem to view the image at different angles it makes it seem like she is not hiding anything from us. All of her raw emotion is there. All of her pain and sorry is right there in front of us. 11 Andy Warhol s Sixteen Jackies Expected to Sell for $30 Million at Sotheby s in New York, ArtDaily.org. Nov 21 2013. http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=47129#.uppkzmrdtu4 12 Terri White, Warhol and His Women, Stylist.Co.UK. Nov 22 2013. http://www.stylist.co.uk/home/warhol- and- his- women#image- rotator- 1 7

Although the silkscreen images are religious, because of the organic method they are created with, none are completely identical to one another. Some are darker and some are more faded. One of the panels is blue. Another two are highlighted white. This again is another of Warhol s strengths. He can be repetitious and at the same time be original. Although there are times when he wants his work to be the exact same, for example, with the Brillo Boxes, in this piece, he does not want Jackie to have that mindless copying affect. There are duplicates, but they are still unique, and together they make the piece truly beautiful tragedy, one of a kind. Cavalier: Are you interested in what the critics say about your work? Warhol: No, just Henry Geldzahler. He s a good friend a fan. And I want him to care. Whatever anyone else says has no value to me concerning my work. I don t need approval. I have confidence in what I m doing. Cavalier: What is the future of Pop Art? Warhol: It s finished. 13 Warhol, was without a doubt, a one of a kind artist. His works are still influential to this day. And although it s been over twenty years since his death, it is an ode to his genius by noting how influential his work is. His grainy and edgy style along with his sense of social and cultural ideas made for very unique art pieces. He touches on any subject his heart desires. Whether it s the sorrows of young women, the repetitive nature of the suburban life and consumerism, the heated politics of race, the untouchable subject of religion, the freedom of sexuality, or the urge just to be himself, there was no area left untouched. Warhol went to places many artists never dared. He pushed himself constantly striving for something new, for the next big thing. For the best way we could express himself. And now here we are in the twenty-first century. Several decades since the turbulent times in New York City, since the Civil Rights Movement, since JFK s assignation, Marilyn Monroe s suicide but here we still are, looking in amazement at his creativity. It may have been a long time since The Factory has closed, but the 13 Warhol, Andy. Cavalier. By Sterling McIlhenry and Peter Ray. September 1966 8

spirit of Andy Warhol still lives on in his paintings, sculptures, and movies, and icons that inspired him. 9

Artworks: Andy Warhol, Turquoise Marilyn, 1964. 102 x 102 cm. Silkscreen on canvas. Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964. 43 x 36 x 43 cm. Paint on wood. 10

Andy Warhol, The Week That Was I, 1963. 204 x 162 cm. Acrylic and silkscreen ink on 16 joint canvases 11