[Assignment/Research]

1. Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
By Nurul Syamimi binti Mohd Mokhtar
Andy Warhol was part of the pop-art movement. Like many of the more modern
movements, it didn't focus so much on technique (like say, impressionists) but more on
subject matter and in particular, questioning what is art and breaking down or stretching
symbolism to it's limits. Pop-art, in essence, tried to take the old, stuffy, pretentious "fine
art" world and instead do the reverse. Instead of subjects being classical stories or grand
landscapes or other "classy" subjects, they made their art about the present world and
everyday stuff. Warhol in particular emphasized mass media, things that were reprinted
and ubiquitous, hence doing stuff like painting a can of soup or highly uses screen
printing in his stuff.
His original 32 paintings of Campbell’s canned soup (titled Campbell’s Soup
Cans) played a major role in defining Andy Warhol’s artistic career. Apart from helping
him get his first solo exhibition the Campbell’s Soup Cans steered the direction of
Warhol’s future work.
Andy Warhol, Campbells’ Soup Cans, 1962 © 2014 Andy Warhol Foundation / ARS, NY / TM Licensed
by Campbell’s Soup Co. All rights reserved. Source: MoMa
When Warhol first exhibited Campbell’s Soup Cans, in 1962, each of the thirty-two
canvases rested on a shelf mounted on the wall, like groceries in a store. The number of
paintings corresponds to the varieties of soup then sold by the Campbell Soup Company.
Warhol assigned a different soup variety to each, checking them off on a product list
supplied by Campbell once their “portraits” were completed.

2. He liked to use bright colours and silk screening techniques to mass-produce
artworks based on publicity photographs of stars, like this famous image of Marilyn
Monroe:
Andy, Warhol, [no title] 1967. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./ARS, NY and
DACS, London 2014
In Marilyn Monroe, Warhol found a fusion of two of his consistent themes: death and the
cult of celebrity. The star died tragically in August 1962. In the following two years,
Warhol made thirty silkscreen paintings of her, always using the same
publicity photograph from the 1953 film Niagara. This set of ten screenprints was
produced in 1967, in an edition of 250. The repeated image serves as the basis for a series
of startling colour transformations.
Silk-screening is a process which can create lots of artworks/prints that look the
same. The design is separated out into individual colours, and the position of each colour
is marked out by a stencil. By pushing ink through the stencils one at a time, the colours
build up to form a picture. Sometimes Warhol would switch colours around and present a
group of prints with inverted or contrasting colours together:

3. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./ARS, NY
and DACS, London 2014
Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, having overdosed on barbiturates. In the following
four months, Warhol made more than twenty silkscreen paintings of her, all based on the
same publicity photograph from the 1953 film Niagara. Warhol found in Monroe a
fusion of two of his consistent themes: death and the cult of celebrity. By repeating the
image, he evokes her ubiquitous presence in the media. The contrast of vivid colour with
black and white, and the effect of fading in the right panel are suggestive of the star’s
mortality.
Warhol's work might contribute to introduced: brand equity, clothing, fashion and beauty,
imagery, packaging and self-concept.
In my opinion, the importance of the work wasn't necessarily it's aesthetic
qualities, but the questions it posed and how it reframed what people thought defined
"art."