Andy Warhol (1928.8.6-1987.2.22, translated as Andy Warhol in Hong Kong and Taiwan) is known as one of the most famous figures in the art world of the 20th century. He is the advocate and leader of Pop Art and the artist who has the greatest influence on Pop Art. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and is a descendant of Czech immigrants. Warhol loved painting since he was a child and studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In 1949 (at the age of 21), he left Pittsburgh and went to New York to look for opportunities to make a fortune. He understood that in order to achieve success in American visual arts, he must let people see him and know his existence. The mass media gave him a lot of inspiration. In 1952 (at the age of 24), he first achieved success with commercial advertising paintings in New York and gradually became a famous commercial designer. He designed greeting cards, window displays, and commercial advertising illustrations. These experiences determined that his works have a commercial style. His works emerged in New York as early as 1952, and in 1956 he won the coveted Art Director’s Club Award for advertisers. He hired a team of workers in his famous studio "Factory", abandoned classical art, and determined to engage in conceptual creation that subverted tradition. "Mass productions" include the faces of famous contemporary figures, and the transformation of soup cans and Coke bottles into works of art is also widely known. In 1954 (26 years old), Warhol received the American Society of Graphic Design's Outstanding Achievement Award for the first time. In 1956 (28 years old) and 1957 (29 years old), he successively won the Art Directors Club's Unique Achievement Award and the Highest Achievement Award. In the 1960s, he began to reinterpret daily objects as themes in his works to reflect the real life in the United States. With his painting "Comba Bisque", he became a representative figure of Pop Art. He created unique paintings with repeated impressions of famous actors such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth, using the impressions of comic-like photos and silk printing techniques. He likes to completely eliminate the manual operation of artistic creation. He often directly pastes U.S. dollars, cans, garbage and celebrity photos on the canvas, breaking the boundaries between elegance and popularity, and is deeply loved by the world.
As the most famous representative of 20th century Pop Art, he "distorted or packaged" Mao Zedong, Marilyn Monroe, the Velvet Underground band, Coca-Cola, the US dollar and Chanel No. 5, especially his The design of the Velvet Underground from content to form made this band the only miracle in the history of music comparable to the "Beatles", and the Velvet Underground has not stopped their influence on the world and its culture since then.
In addition to being a leader of Pop Art, Warhol was also a film producer, writer, rock composer, publisher, and a star artist who became popular in New York social circles and art circles. Warhol's works are not as conceptual, philosophical, and personal as European designers. His work style reflects pragmatism, commercialism, diversity, and humor. "Everyone can be a celebrity for 15 minutes." This is the most optimistic fable left by Andy Warhol in the media era. However, in terms of its huge impact on today's art, his own 15 minutes is far from enough. In the end, Andy Warhol is a legend both in his time and now, for America and the world.
As a teenager, Warhol was already a sharp-edged art student. With the encouragement of his teachers, he decided to try his luck in New York, the melting pot of art.
Initially he was only responsible for illustration design work for books and magazines, but he soon became famous in the New York pop art world. His most outstanding style is to turn characters into visual commodities through screen printing techniques and repeated images. His representative works include "Marilyn Dream" "Campbell's Soup", "Coke Bottle", "Car Accident", "Electric Chair", etc. These works were all mass-produced and copied by some amateur assistants in Warhol's New York studio (The Factory). Mass Production is always an indispensable indicator in Warhol's view of pop art. By 1961, Warhol was already known as another celebrity in the avant-garde art world after Dali and Picasso. Whether it was a roll of toilet paper or a toilet seat, as long as it was stamped with his seal, it would immediately become fashionable!
He became famous in 1962 for his exhibition of "sculptures" of soup cans and Brillo soap boxes. His painting patterns are almost the same. He used images taken from mass media, such as Campbell's soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, dollar bills, Mona Lisa and Marilyn Monroe's head, as basic elements to repeatedly arrange them in the painting. He tried to completely eliminate the manual element in artistic creation. All of his works are produced using silk screen printing technology, and the image can be repeated countless times, giving the picture a unique dull effect. Regarding his work, Harold Rosenberg once jokingly said: "The numbly repeated columns of Campbell's soup cans are like a humorless joke told over and over again." (Nichols) ·"Modern Art Concepts" edited by Stangos, translated by Hou Hanru, Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, 1988, page 247) He prefers repetition and copying. "I've been eating the same breakfast for twenty years," he explained. "I guess it's the same thing over and over again." For him, there is no "original" at all. His works are all copies. It is to replace the status of the original work with countless copies. He deliberately eliminated the color of personality and emotion in his paintings, and calmly listed the most ordinary images. He famously said, "I want to be a machine," in stark contrast to Jackson Pollock's declaration that he "wanted to be nature." His paintings, which are almost inexplicable, "can therefore arouse an infinite curiosity - a slightly terrifying vacuum that needs to be filled with chatter and idle talk." (Robert Hughes, "The Shock of the New Art") ", translated by Liu Pingjun et al., Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1989, page 307) In fact, the monotony, boredom and repetition unique to Andy Warhol's paintings convey a certain kind of indifference and emptiness. , the feeling of alienation, which expresses the inner feelings of people in the contemporary highly developed commercial and civilized society.
Marilyn Monroe’s head is one of the most concerning motifs in Warhol’s works. In the painting "Marilyn Monroe" painted in 1967, the artist used the head of the unfortunate Hollywood sexy movie star as the basic element of the painting, repeatedly arranging it row by row. The simple, neat and monotonous Monroe portraits reflect the helpless emptiness and confusion of people in modern commercial society.
Warhol's paintings often appear with smeared newspaper lines, immortal ink layouts, and rough images with inaccurate overprinting, which make people watch TV for a fleeting moment instead of watching carefully like appreciating paintings.
His works highlight a kind of irony and calmness. He depicts simple, clear and recurring things, which are the most memorable visual symbols in modern society.
Warhol broke the boundaries between timelessness and greatness; between crafts and mass production, Dada and minimal art, painting and photography, canvas and film. He adds tragedy to mediocrity and makes tragedy banal. He destroyed the hierarchy of "art" images and abolished the arbitrary boundaries that defined "art". He bridged the gap between Yangchun Baixue and Lower Riba people.
He has an intuitive ability to find the prototype of the painting he wants from the millions of photos and images sent by the mass media. After the production is completed, he uses it to express an objective evaluation of the mechanical and rigid modern life. If someone is disgusted with his paintings, he will also be disgusted with commercial culture.
In the 21st century when the world has entered commercial and economic competition, the Pop legacy of Warhols still has great practical value and special significance to both the West and the East.