Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American

A Review of Andy Warhol’s work at the Whitney Museum of (North) American Art in 2018/2019

  Donna de Salvo, chief curator, had known the artist and his work for many years.

 

 

Basics

 

Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into a family of Slovak immigrants. Poor;  a community somewhat isolated from other groups in the city.

 

 

 

Living Room, 1948, watercolour. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Collection of the Paul Warhola family on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

 

Warhol moved to New York after college in 1949 to pursue a career as an illustrator. From 1951 onwards, his mother lived with him until her death.

 

He began the practice of fine art while he was earning his living as an illustrator.  He worked for many different kinds of clients and became, in short order, a very successful practitioner.

 

The curators of this exhibition noted that his clients appreciated his technical versatility as well as the sensitivity – in his work – of reaction by his clients to that work.

 

 

Shoe drawings.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.

(Sammlung Froelich Leidenfelden-Echterdingen, Germany loaned to the Whitney in 2018/19) 1956, collaged metal leaf and embossed foil with ink on paper. 

Warhol’s most important commercial client was the shoe company, I. Miller and Sons.  His drawings for them in 1956 produced a commercial revival for them with younger customers.

 

 

 

 

In the Bottom of My Garden, 1956, twenty-two offset prints, some hand-coloured, hardcover bound. 

Loaned by the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

 

The curators used the word ‘macho’  more than once in describing the hegemony of the Abstract Expressionists who held a vice grip on the art establishment in the first 25 years of Warhol’s time in New York.

 

They compared this macho with the fine line drawings which Warhol, who was openly gay in a 1950s when homosexuality was accepted only in the community of homosexuals, made of his friends and lovers. 

These drawings were not shown publicly.

 

 

 

Portrait of John Butler with Dancer, 1952, oil and ink on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.  Loaned by a private collection to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Male Nude, c.1957, gold leaf and ink on paper. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Kenneth Jay Lane with Butterflies, c. 1958, ballpoint pen and watercolour on paper. 

 Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

Before and After (4), 1962, acrylic and graphite on linen.  Whitney Museum of Art, NY. Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.

 

One of four paintings which the artist based on an advertisement for rhinoplasty. 

The museum identifies these paintings with the immense pressure the artist felt prevailed in post-WW2 North America to conform to certain norms of appearance and behaviour.  

 

The artist dropped the final ‘A’ from his second name and in the late 1950s, had his nose ‘thinned’ to conform to mainstream notions of beauty at the time.  

 

 

 

 

Where is Your Rupture (1), 1961, water-based paint on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by the Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles to the Whitney Museum of Art, NY in 2018/19

 

 

 

In 1968 the artist and one of his collaborators were shot by Valerie Solanas (1936-1988), also a sometime collaborator. A third collaborator was spared because the gun jammed.

Warhol almost died.

 

 

 

Facsimile of  New York Daily News, June , 1968 (“Actress Shoots Andy Warhol”, 1968.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. New York Daily News archive (with light interference).

 

 

 

 

Andy Warhol, 1970, oil and acrylic on linen.  Alice Neel, 1904-1980, American.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.  Whitney Museum of (North) American Art, NY

 

The artist is presented here in ways which are opposite to the ways in which he normally presented himself.  His scars are obvious, as is the supportive corset which he was forced to wear after he was shot. He is alone.

 

Alice Neel’s comment from 1970 is that she found him personally very kind and reticent and she hoped that shows in the economy of her vocabulary in this painting.

 

 

In 1987, Andy Warhol died following a medical operation.  He was 59.

 

 

Portraits, Self-Portraits

 

 

 

Portrait of Ted Carey and Andy Warhol, 1960, oil on linen. 

Fairfield Porter, 1907-1975, American.  Whitney Museum of Art, NY 

 

 

 

 

Self-portrait, 1963-64.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Self-portrait, 1964, acrylic on silkscreen ink on linen, 1964 (gallery reflected in this painting). 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Art Institute of Chicago on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2019

 

 

 

 

Andy Warhol, The Factory, NY, 1965-66. 

American. Exhibited at MOMA, NY in 2018 ? Taken by?

 

 

 

Rod LaRod, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey, 1966-67, New York. 

The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, on view at MOMA, NY in 2018

 

 

 

 

Self-Portrait, 1966, acrylic, silkscreen ink, and graphite on linen. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. The Art Institute of Chicago on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

Self-portrait, 1986, acrylic and silk screen ink on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Solomon R. Guggenheim on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2019

 

 

 

Work and Work Techniques, taken from the notes of the Whitney Museum of Art

 

In the 1950s, as an illustrator, Warhol used several devices to produce and reproduce his designs. This included stamps, stencils and a technique where he blotted a design made with ink to reproduce that same design.

 

In the 1960s, the artist adapted the reproductive techniques of his illustrations to fine art. He added the overhead projector and photostat machine.

 

In 1960, he chose objects in mass circulation to which to apply these methods.  Newspaper headlines, advertisements.

 

1962 saw a shift from an attempt at an Abstract Expressionist Coca-cola bottle to one which looks as though it is mechanically reproduced.

 

This move linked his two artistic worlds: the illustrative and the fine arts.

 

 

 

Children learning about techniques used by the artist in front of Coca Cola (2), 1961 at the Whitney Museum 2019 (I don’t know who owns this painting).

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American

 

 

 

Coca-Cola 3 (1962), casein on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by the Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

In 1962, Andy Warhol arrived at his signal break-through:

the silkscreen technique which is a mode of mechanical reproduction. 

  

The artist further evolved his technique to screenprint photographic imagery directly onto the canvas.

 

 

 

 

 Green Coca-Cola bottles, 1962, acrylic screenprint and graphite pencil on canvas, and detail. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Whitney Museum of Art, NY 

 

The museum noted that, while the format looks like mechanical reproduction, the black outlines of these bottles were probably stamped by hand from a single carved woodblock onto green areas printed in a grid pattern. Thus the variation in the look of the bottles.

 

 

The photograph became both the subject of the painting and the means by which the painting was made.

 

 

Children being restrained from moving too close to the image.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Whitney Museum of Art in 2019

 

 

 

 

Campbell’s Soup Cans, 1962, casein, acrylic and graphite on linen, 32 panels.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. MOMA, NY on loan to the Whitney Museum of Art, NY in 2018/19

 

 

Superman, 1961, casein and wax crayon on canvas.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

A little girl colouring her own Warhol flowers during this exhibition

 

 

 

 

3 views of Flowers, made between 1964 and 1965 of acrylic or spraypaint or fluorescent paint and silkscreen ink on linen.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.  Loaned by a variety of private collections and foundations to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

The artist created 500 images of four hibiscus flowers taken from a magazine.  They were silk-screened on canvases of different sizes.  He used them to create immersive environments in exhibitions.

The Whitney reprises here a 1971 exhibition at the Whitney where these flower images were hung on the artist’s Cow Wallpaper at his request.

 

 

 

Brillo Boxes, 1969, (version of 1964 original), silkscreen ink on wood, fifty parts.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

A number of other products – food products – joined these boxes when they were all first exhibited.

 

These are not the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp.  These were made by the artist and his colleagues using a factory assembly model.    

The museum noted that this mixed media assemblage draws a line between the artist’s practice of commercial design and minimalism.

 

 

It is with screen printed photographs that Warhol created his most famous images: stars, celebrities.

 

 

 

Gold Marilyn, 1962, silkscreen ink and acrylic on canvas.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loan to the Whitney Museum from a foundation in Germany.

 

  The message? Invite yourself into the picture?  You know you want to…

 

 

 

Silver Liz (diptych), two panels, 1963, silkscreen ink, acrylic, spraypaint on canvas.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum, NY in 2018/19

 

The same message:  Put yourself in the frame.  You know you really, really, want to…

 

 

 

Andy Warhol’s family were devout Byzantine Catholics, a denomination which uses the iconostasis and for whom icons are not simply images to revere, but also representations which have innate powers. 

 

The iconostasis, placed between the sanctuary and the rest of the church, is a device which connects the two worlds in which congregants live: the divine and the secular, the metaphysical and the physical.

As child Warhol faced the iconostasis every week at every mass.

It was reported some time after his death that he was devout and attended mass and afternoon prayers in New York throughout his adult life. 

 

A wall of images and colour,  floor to some way above the heads of children and adults.  Gold and silver; glittering.  Bearing inherent powers.

 

 

 

Iconostasis of the Dormition Monastery, Tikhvin, Russia.  Photo from the web.

 

 

I imagine that the iconostasis was an important source of  the artist’s multiple, stacked images.

 

 

Marilyn Diptych, 1962, acrylic, silkscreen ink, and graphite on linen, two panels. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by Tate, London to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

A secular iconostasis of great hypnotic attraction.

In front of us the heart’s desire of millions.  Behind us the cold, unwelcoming world.

All the artist’s depictions of the actress were done in the aftermath of her death in 1962.

All his images of Marilyn Monroe were based on a publicity still taken by Gene Kornman for the 1953 Niagara.

 

 

 

Green Marilyn, 1962, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

Triple Elvis, 1963, acrylic, spraypaint and silkscreen ink on linen.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2019/19

 

 

 

Silver Marlon, 1963, silkscreen ink and acrylic on linen. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. ? loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/2019

 

 

The artist taught Richard Rauschenberg silk screen printing and made him a memorial of his (Rauschenberg’s) family.

 

 

 

Let us Now Praise Famous Men (Rauschenberg Family) and detail, 1962, silkscreen-ink print on canvas.  

Andy Warhol,1928-1987, American.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC on loan in 2017 to MOMA, NY

 

MOMA, NY noted, in an exhibition about Rauschenberg that Andy Warhol asked Rauschenberg if he could make a portrait of him.  This is the result made from one of several phtographs dating from the 1920s and 30s of members of Rauschenberg’s family in Port Arthur, Texas. 

Warhol’s title comes from a celebrated 1941 book of photos of the Depression in the south of the US of James Agee and Walker Evans.

Rauschenberg, a famously collaborative and generous artist, was not famous in 1968 and the title is taken as expressing Warhol’s regard for him.

 

 

 

Thirty Are Better Than One, 1963, silkscreen ink on linen.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.

Private loan to the Whitney Museum, NY in 2018/19

 

Jacqueline Kennedy had orchestrated the loan from the Louvre to the US of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  Warhol made this shortly after this loan.

 

 

 

Children discussing  the many expressions of Ethel Scull 36 Times, 1963, silkscreen ink and acrylic on linen, 36 panels.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Jointly owned by the Metropolitan and the Whitney Museum, NY

 

 

 

 

Crowd, 1963, silkscreen ink on linen, and detail. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.  Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

The photo reproduced here is from April 1955 of a half million people outside St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome awaiting Pope Pius XII on Easter Sunday. 

 

 

 

129 Die in Jet, 1962, acrylic and graphite on linen.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Museum Ludwig, Cologne on loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

Warhol painted this by hand to mimic the qualities of the printing process.  This crash of an Air France airliner was the deadliest to this time. 

The first work in the artist’s Death and Disaster series.

 

 

 

 

Mustard Race Riot, 1963, silkscreen ink, acrylic, and graphite on canvas, two panels, and detail. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

This is a recontextualized, cropped and blurred reproduction of a famous photograph by Charles White of an attack by Birmingham, Alabama police on a civil rights demonstration.  White’s photo and essay appeared in Life in May, 1963.

  A work in the Death and Disaster series.

 

 

 

Tunafish Disaster, 1963, silkscreen ink and acrylic on linen, and detail.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Cy Twombly Foundation on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

  A work in the Death and Disaster series.

 

 

 

Lavender Disaster, 1963, acrylic, silkscreen ink and graphite on linen, and detail. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loan by the Menil Collection, Houston to the Whitney, NY in 2018/19

 

The electric chair at Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, NY from an article dating to 1953, just before the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  The last execution here was in August 1963.

A work in the Death and Disaster series.

 

 

 

 

Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times, 1963, silkscreen ink, acrylic and graphite on linen, two panels, and detail.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. MOMA, NY loan to the Whitney Museum, NY in 2018/19

The museum also noted that in 1963, Warhol began offering an extra blank panel to his customers for additional cost.  Its inclusion in this image is interpreted as Warhol’s approach to the Abstract Expressionism of two artists whom Warhol admired, Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly.

 A work in the Death and Disaster series.

 

 

 

Visitors walking past a wall of portraits of  alleged criminals, Most Wanted Men, 1964, silkscreen ink on linen or on canvas (with light interference).

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. On loan from a several private collections and institutions.

 

The museum explained that the architect, Philip Johnson, commissioned a work from Warhol for the New York State Pavillion at the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens. 

Using a booklet of photographs circulated by the New York Police Department called ‘Thirteen Most Wanted’, the artist produced a mural.

The mural was overpainted with the artist’s final consent because the Powers That Be wanted an upbeat message only. 

He also produced a homoerotic film series: ‘Thirteen Most Wanted Boys’ (1964-66). 

 

The museum points to this work as evidence of the  interest that Warhol had in anti-heroes as well as heroes and celebrities.

 

 

Nine Jackies, 1964, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, nine panels.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Whitney Museum of Art, NY 

 

 

 

Detail of Selections from Flash-November 22, 1963,  1968.  One of eleven screenprints, colophon and silkscreened text with screenprinted cloth cover in a Plexiglass box. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Whitney Museum of Art, NY

 

The artist appropriated Kennedy’s image from a 1960 campaign poster.  The screenprints together made a book of Kennedy’s assassination and represents the artist’s very great interest in this assassination and its context.

 

 

 Andy Warhol completed major series in the 1970s and 1980s whose subjects are the traditional ones of fine art:  portraits, still-lives, nudes and landscapes. 

 

 

 

Sunset, 1972, two separate portfolios of screenprints.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum , NY in 2018/2019

 

These are eight of a total of 632 unique prints of sunsets each with different colour combinations.  They were commissioned by Philip Johnson for the Marquette Hotel in Minneapolis.

 

 

 

 

Mao, 1972, acrylic, silkscreen ink and graphite on linen. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned to the Whitney Museum by the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018/19

 

The source of all the images of Mao made by Andy Wharhol was a painting by Zang Zhensi on the front of The Little Red Book.  This work follows news of Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972.

 

 

 

Mao, 1973, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY not loaned to this exhibition

 

 

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 1975, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen.

Top row, Alphanso Parnell;  Ivette and Lurdes

Bottom row:  Helen/Harry Morales; Marsha P. Johnson (who took an important part in the Stonewall Rebellion for LBGTQ rights).

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.

 

An Italian gallerist commissioned this work of members of the trans women and drag queens.  He asked that they not be famous members of the community.

Warhol had his assistants recruit models from bars and meeting places in lower Manhattan where this community gathered.  He paid each $50 or $100 and photographed them. 

The project became very large and resulted in hundreds of paintings, collages, drawings and prints.  

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, (Wilhelmina Ross), 1975, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by the Louis Vuitton Foundation to the Whitney Museum, NY in 2018/19

 

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, (Wilhelmina Ross), 1975, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Baltimore Museum of Art

 

 

In his series in the 1970s and 80s, Warhol often used photographs of objects which he placed in theatrically- lit settings.  

 

 

 

Skull, 1976, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, and detail, (the gallery reflected in both).

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

In the skull’s left eye is reflected a work on an opposite wall depicting a gun. In his right the image of a cross.

 

 

 

Cross, 1981-82, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by Kolumba, Cologne to the Whitney Museum of Art, NY in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Oxidation Painting, 1978, gold metallic pigment and urine on linen. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Loaned by a private collection to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19.

 

One of several experimental paintings in the 1970s in which Warhol used urine or semen.  Gold metallic paint changes colour to black or greens when exposed to urine. 

This painting was made using the drip method made famous by Jackson Pollock and has been interpreted both as homage and as a sardonic comment on the machismo of the Abstract Expressionists at the tail end of their reign.

 

 

In 1978, the artist moved away from objects and focused only on shadows (‘Shadows’).

Some of these were reproduced in ways which moved the artist into abstraction. 

 

From the start of his foray into fine art, Warhol’s art was classified as ‘Pop’ for his  roots in advertising, his depiction of common-and-garden objects, his uses of images from comic books and newspapers and other easily available sources; his bright colours. 

 

This move into abstraction was condemned by his critics.  He, however, persisted with techniques which rendered abstract images.

 

He produced more than 100 shadow paintings.

 

Shadow (Diamond Dust), 1978 and 1979, acrylic, diamond dust, and silkscreen ink on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Each is owned by a different institution and all  were loaned to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

In the 1980s, Andy Warhol moved further into contemporary media.  He launched his own TV show.

 

In 1981, Andy Warhol met Jean-Michel Basquiat and made hundreds of paintings with him. 

 

He was one of several artists who persuaded Warhol to go back to painting by hand.  This Warhol had abandoned in 1966.

 

 

 

Third Eye, 1985, acrylic on canvas, and detail. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American and Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1960-1988, American.

Private collection, Zurich on loan to the Whitney, NY in 2018/19.

 

Warhol made hundreds of works with Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

The museum quoted Basquiat that Warhol would begin by painting “something very concrete like a newspaper headline or produce logo, and then I would sort of deface it.” 

Their collaboration would continue until a balance was reached between Warhol’s images and Basquiat’s abstract marks, texts, numbers and pictographs.

 

 

 

In 1986, he used an early computer, a Commodore Amiga, to relay a portrait of the singer, Debbie Harry, to a live audience.

 

 

 

Rorshach, 1984, acrylic on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American.  Private loan to the Whitney Museum, NY in 2018/19

 

 

From 1968 on, Warhol’s fame was such that he received hundreds of commissions for portraits.

 

These portraits are selfies which he mediated because these subjects were self-promoted; or these portraits were requested by friends, publicists etc.

 

 

 

A view of portraits made by Andy Warhol between 1963 and 1987

 

Left:  Irving Blum and Kimiko Powers, both 1972

Right: Ileana Sonnabend, 1973 and Henry Geldzahlher, 1973-74.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. All acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen.  Loaned by various to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

 

A view of portraits made by Andy Warhol between 1963 and 1987

 

 

 

Joseph Beuys, 1980, acrylic, diamond dust and silkscreen ink on canvas. 

Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

Last Work 

The artist’s last series of paintings centered on The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci.

 

These works reference Warhol’s faith which, it seems, gave him his first understanding of the enveloping power of images to reflect and give meaning to and shape a world. 

 

 

 

 

Camouflage, Last Supper, 1986, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas. 

Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum in 2018/19

 

Details of Camouflage, Last Supper, 1986

 

The museum noted the tension in this work and its date which is at the beginning of a widespread AIDS epidemic in which, it has to be recalled, those who were ill were allowed to die by their government. 

There are black bands of mourning and oblivion framing this work.

 

 

 

Warhol’s art

 

The artist developed techniques which – starting  from his experience as an illustrator – moved him to raise to the surface his culture’s obsessions and fascinations.

 

Products; flowers; celebrities; political leaders; members of communities not usually lionized by anyone; symbols;  assassinations; the death penalty and executions; widely available consumable items; accidents; disasters etc.

Life in general.

 

Once at the surface, the artist flattened the subject. Humans he exsanguinated.

 

 

 

Marilyn, 1967, part of the portfolio Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), colour photoscreenprint and colour screenprint. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Philadelphia Art Museum 

 

 

The artist isolated all subjects, human and other, from any other context.  The focus is the subject itself. 

 

Warhol’s was a remorseless spotlight on the commodification of everything;

on the desire to own things in an economy in which commodification/consumption is the primary engine of growth and regulator of individual status.

 

And, concomitantly, on the reduction of everything that cannot be treated this way to unimportance, to no value. 

 

Here is Warhol’s 63 images in one frame of the Mona Lisa; one of the most reproduced images in Western art. 

 

 

People viewing 63 White Mona Lisas, 1970, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on loan to the Whitney Museum of Art in 2018/19

 

 

The artist has made her almost invisible in a haze of whites, greys and grey-whites.

 

 

Detail of 63 White Mona Lisas

 

He is mocking us.  He is making a point.

The commodification of this image has rendered the Mona Lisa invisible.  We have seen her image so often, we no longer clearly see her. 

 

We might remember her enigmatic smile.  Perhaps. 

 

For the rest this image is as lost to us as Warhol’s haze suggests.

 

 

Detail of 63 White Mona Lisas

 

 

Warhol made the expression of our mass commodification on canvas and in film

fashionable, glittering, pricey, delicious, desirable

to be bought and sold and displayed for status.

Warhol then went further.

 

He made his expression of this commodification into a business and himself into a businessman.  He was paid handsomely for everything that he did. 

 

This ‘Business Art’ disturbs people.

Now they are disturbed by latter day artists who have taken up Warhol’s idea with enthusiasm and pump out their art as in a factory, aided by studio assistants.

For eye-popping prices. 

 

There continues to be an influential view of Warhol as the desecrator of our lives, the man who evacuated the depths of our civilization with an art of the flashy, empty surface.

 

According to the art historian, Neil Printz, there is “no place for our spiritual eye to penetrate it (a Warhol canvas.)” 

 

 

The Last Supper, 1986, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. MOMA, NY 

Details of The Last Supper

 

Dove is the patented name for personal care products made by Unilever, a multinational company, originally Anglo-Dutch. 

GE is General Electric, a large American conglomerate corporation.

 

Is it his canvases or our  civilization which makes it difficult for the spiritual eye to land?

 

Was it Warhol who made the Christian symbol of  peace an advertisement for bath soap?

 

Andy Warhol did not create this society.  It pre-existed his arrival in New York.  It exists now.  Exported all over the world.

 

He showed it up in his work practices and in the entertainments of his studio  (The Factory, 1962-1984 at three locations in New York), where people were encouraged to express their sexual and gender preferences).

 

 

 

Self-portrait with skull, 1978, acrylic and silk-screen ink on canvas. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on  loan to the Whitney in 2018/19

 

 

 

I think Warhol’s was an astounding achievement.

He was born poor.  He lived in an American heartland industrial city far from the centers of everything.

 

He was a retiring and sickly child,  marginal, observing. 

 

His talent, his focus, originality and tenacity made him, with Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, among the most important American artists in the second half of the 20th century. 

 

A group of people whose work vastly expanded what it means to be an artist and to make art.

 

Nor can it be forgotten that Warhol did not hide his sexual orientation and was accepting of the experimentation in gender variation of his colleagues and friends. Decades before the rest of our society.

 

Andy Warhol had an American dream of a life. 

 

Made hard and brought to an early end by the violence of a gunshot wound. All-American also.

 

 

 

Lips, c. 1975, silkscreen ink on paper, 104 sheets, hardcover bound  (the arms of the photographer reflected over the image). 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Private collection on loan to the Whitney in 2018/19

 

 Lips and angel wings.