Andy Warhol

As a profound influence on the twentieth century pop art movement, Andy Warhol ascended to become a cornerstone in the modern art world. After taking cues from society in the mid-twentieth century, as well as conversing with Muriel Latow, Warhol did what many artists strived to do but failed. Andy also extracted many of his ideas from other artists and built on them. He put a culture on canvas and revolutionized pop art for a life time.

The nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties were periods of self righteousness and discovery. With many new styles and beliefs arising during those eras, Warhol’s imagination would begin to produce ideas that were unheard of but revolutionary at the same time. American values were altered and so Warhol saw a chance to highlight how easily people are influenced by the media and pop culture. He used many aspects of the new cultural society to create his artwork.

Warhol created his pieces by discovering what was popular, what stood out in modern art, and also something with standard American values. Warhol also took everyday objects and turned them into pop art sensations. He realized that the majority of the United States went food shopping and decided to create a line of supermarket products. This line of Warhol’s included the very popular Brillo boxes, price tags, the banana, and Coca-Cola bottles (Wrbican). His creation of Coca Cola Bottles in 1962 became very popular. The bottles are in the everyday life of an American which made them very familiar with practically everyone. “Warhol used to identify the nature of the great American society, anonymous and consumerist, devoted to conformism and with a pride in unanimity, was the ubiquitous Coca Cola bottle- “(Copplestone 12). To Warhol, a Coca Cola bottle seemed so simple but, also a universal icon in the United States.

Often in media people seem picture perfect, but their lives are disasters behind the scenes. The death of very popular movie star Marilyn Monroe sparked Warhol’s interest to expose the realities of the pop culture. Monroe was a sex icon, fashion icon, as well as a cultural icon for the nineteen fifties and sixties. “The potent memory of the pathos and mystery of Marilyn’s death with the long-lived speculation surrounding it elevated her to the greatest modern star status. Warhol’s paintings participated in the public consolidation” (Copplestone 25). “Andy exaggerated the features of Marilyn Monroe that had made her beautiful” (Bolton 19). Also, the popularity of celebrities such as Jackie Kennedy and Elvis Presley soon began to sweep the nation (Wrbican). Warhol saw these people as icons for the sixties and also saw them as an inspiration to what would become his new art works. Despite how happy, pretty, or ideal the celebrities seemed on television, they were disasters in reality and Warhol executed his exposure of these secrets through pop art.

After World War two had ended and the United States had entered the Vietnam War, the theme of mortality became less shocking to the population than in the years prior. With the acceptance of such things, Warhol decided to create a series of brutal artwork that would exemplify the understanding of life and death. “His series of death and disaster included paintings of electric chairs, suicides, and car crashes” (Wrbican). Warhol wanted the public to see what really goes on in society when people make destructive decisions. “Warhol used powerful, hard-hitting picture that summed up the way society was becoming so used to images of horror that they were no longer shocked by them” (Bolton 23). All of Warhol’s series had much to do with the changing fads of the current time period and how he showed the populace the realities of society.