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Andy Warhol and the Conceptual framework

Here is some information in note form on Andy Warhol, organised under the agencies of the artworld. In addition you should add extra notes from your research and from watching the first video from the series This is Modem Art.

Focus questions:

How do you imagine, publicity and Warhol’s notoriety have influenced the general public’s perception of his work?
How does the use of the conceptual framework help in understanding the artwork of Andy Warhol?

World

Pop art was a response to Abstract Expressionism in the USA in post World War 11, 1950s and 1960s. It was based on the culture of the masses: a world of popular culture, an affluent society, materialistic, hedonistic and technologically advanced.
Pop art was a world of television, cinema, magazines and mass produced kitsch.
It was a world of consumer products, comics, film stars, icons, the rich and the famous. This was also the world of the counterculture revolution with protest, dissent and challenge.

Artwork

Activities in relation to artwork are:

Investigate key artworks, by Warhol eg Marilyn Diptych 1962. Compare this work to other Pop artists work ie Rauchenberg, Lichenstein.
Investigate the processes of silk screening, the use of assistants, the mass-production techniques of repetition, cropping, overprinting and the use of the grid.
Critique Warhol's use of a “ready made” image of Marilyn Monroe from a commercial publicity shot.
Investigate how Warhol’s artworks mimic the processes and subject matter of mass production.
Think about how this artwork signals a loss of individuality for Marilyn Monroe: she is a multiple and she is banal, yet Marilyn is symbolically a most potent American icon.
Consider how Warhol’s artworks, particularly portraits, are a social chronicle of his time.

Audience

For critics and promoters, Warhol was a highly publicised artist; Warhol exploited the relationship between media, art and artists. He presented himself as a cult figure.
For dealers, museum curators, critics and historian audiences he was a significant figure.
For artist audiences he was a major figure in the artworld
He was rejected by the Abstract Expressionists, the New York School and Hoffman.
He was considered one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.
For a public audience, particularly the rich and famous, he was a cult figure, idolised and adored.

Artist

Some significant art historical facts:

Warhol was the son of Polish immigrants. A Catholic, he was a member of the first American generation to grow up with television. Before becoming an artist, he worked in advertising and design illustration.
He was a reticent and enigmatic figure who was also drawn to the darker side (as demonstrated through his Death and Disaster Series) and was fascinated by fame, fortune and glamour.
He understood mass media marketing and commodity fetishism. All this impacted on him as an artist.
A generation later, an artist called Jeff Koons inherited the legacy of Warhol.