Andy Warhol: An American Pop-Artist

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Creativity
Painting
Sexuality
Influence of post-modernism
Evaluating the artist
Conclusion
Works cited

Introduction

Andrew Warhola or Andy Warhol, as he was better known, was a versatile talented person who excelled in various departments. He was best known as an American artist, in the context of pop art, and his fame and ventures covered different pastures as a filmmaker, printmaker, and record producer. He was also an author and stalwart of visual art movement with initial commercial illustrator career. Warhol (1928 –1987) reached his zenith with his painting Eight Elvises (1963) and it is regarded as his best work of art and it was priced $100 million. (Colacello, 88)

Creativity

Creative process of Andy Warhol is a psychological and societal process relating to the creation of new innovative ideas or conceptions, or new relations of the creative mind among accessible notions, thoughts or perceptions. The creative process is driven by the development of either conscious or unconscious awareness. A different idea of creativity is that it is purely the process of creating or generating something new and original. In the process of describing the creative process of Andy Warhol it is evident how closely the word ‘Genius’ is intertwined with their creativity. Intellectual brilliance in combination with highest quality of creativity brings in the concept of genius. Beautiful ideas and their proper implementations which have a profound influence on the observers get tagged with the label of creative genius. Individuals are often said to be creative on the basis of his lifestyle, his works in respective fields and their attitudes. The creative process can be perceived as imaginative, supple, not stereotyped, influential and authoritarian. (Weisberg, 1993)

Warhol’s Creativity may intuitively appear to be simple but in actuality it is a complex phenomenon. Creativity is definitely an elaborate process with the product being an outcome of the implementation of the creativity. Though author Daniel Joseph Boorstin mentioned in his book ‘The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination’ that “even the greatest Greek sculptures, potters, painters and architects were not individualists” (Boorstin, 94) it can be stated that art and creativity is fundamentally governed by the flow of emotion.

It commences in a wide spectrum physical word and lies in its preparatory stage. When struck with a novel idea or concept the first thing which sets in is a vision of how beautiful it will be when it actually comes into existence. The mind thinks about the way the idea may work. Along with vision comes anticipation which makes the mind believe that the idea will work out to actually be something striking. The following action requires the conceiver of the idea to take the plunge and implement the idea. This is the most decisive part of the entire process. There are many creative ideas which do not have an outcome and remain unfinished because of being curbed at this stage. There may be many emotions such as excitement and suspicion involved at this stage. As the process advances the clarity of the idea is enhanced and implementation proceeds. Subsequently, after a long tussle in the creators mind a product finally emerges and is validated by the real world. (Weisberg, 165)

The genesis of his artistic composition is subject to the dichotomy between inspiration combined with innovation and elaboration in consort with skillful organization. His creative process was often a combination of the two. His works highlighted craftsmanship but at the same time he held spontaneous innovation in high esteem. Contrasting the different available versions of art and sculpture compositions reveal that isolated bars were cut without substitution and in addition, the arrangement in which formal segments came into subsistence is frequently very dissimilar to the consequent versions. However, he upheld a relatively conventional notion of work of art across his career. The concept of ‘work in progress’ (which actually has a Romantic origin) or the post-modern perception of open work can only be associated with the artist’s creative process. The poetic detail in the conceptual phase of the composition provides a deep insight into the artist’s creative process.

Painting

The painter Andy Warhol epitomized post-modernism more absolutely and added an additional thrust to it to move it further more than any other artist. The style’s extremism was rooted in the resolve to paint not mere reality but the bearing in mind of reality, the act of awareness and perception of nature itself, by presenting how light, particularly bright light, is likely to liquefy the colors and appearance of the scene. The explanation of this effect was anchored in unprompted, broken, prancing brushwork — if possible articulated in paint applied in front of the focused item, en plein air. The imagery formed is so recognizable at the moment that it’s possible to fail to remember that post-modernism brought in a newly multifaceted consciousness for its original spectators. The occurrence of light was superior, and along with that the physical boldness of the painted exterior was also enhanced. Paint and actuality existed together in finely tuned tension. His illustrious lifestyle is presented to be equally a private utopia as well as a very fundamental part of his creative processes. While he time and again refused the utilization of drawing as an essential part of his creative process, which was a stance well documented in talks and discussions with his critics, documents which tend to challenge this view have come out in the recent past. The part that Andy Warhol’s graphic work plays as a primary facet of his creative process has been intricately been studied and continues to be extensively scrutinized. (Boorstin, 85)

Sexuality

The idea of Andy Warhol on gender is very unique. He believed that the male sex is basically an incomplete sex whereas the female is complete. However egoistic a male may be it is certain that the male himself feels that he is lacking in definite ways what the female actually possesses in respect of tenderness, love, affection and cerebral relations. In a way a man is an incomplete woman and a man knows that quite well deep inside. In certain ways a male is always interested in becoming a female and sexual intercourse is one way of getting as close as possible to a female experience for a male. The inability to acquire the qualities of a woman makes a man indulge in matters that are unnecessary and artificial like going into war and inventing the concept of money with an unlimited lust for meaningless and needless power exercise and manipulations. The male also manipulates his emotions on being a father by imposing himself and considering the offspring as commodities. The male acts as if he is a sperm bank and as in the modern days there are artificial sperm bank available there is hardly any need of the male in the society. Being territorial and maintaining privacy are other aspects of a man that proves his incompetence and as he knows this open secret quite well enough he tries to acquire as much as room possible for himself. This sense of territory makes him go to the extent to make a woman a distinctive sex that is specifically different from him. This is almost a case of identity crisis for a man. Thus to protect his identity he creates authority, morality, religion, philosophy and other conceptual prejudices. (Husslein, 115)

Influence of post-modernism

Defining Andy Warhol’s Post Modernism or post-modernist art is not an easy task since it has acquired characteristics from a wide spectrum of periods, while integrating a variety of architectural values gathered by people of different places into a particular style, which was then popularized as Post-Modernism. According to Charles Jencks, the matter of Andy Warhol’s post modernism is an amalgamation of different ideas and thought processes and together there was referred to as postmodernism. Zimmerman believes in the context of Andy Warhol aspects of art under the parameter of multicultural environment. It is denoted that under modernism the juxtaposition of cultural milieu was an initial set up but during the development of globalization and post-modern ethical principals it is a fundamental need to indulge into the multicultural dimensions. However, it is also to be mentioned that multi-culturist environment is not easily championed and there several ethical problems related to it. From the parameters of art, it is suggested that one must involve deep into the cultural differences and understand the ethical and social differences while incorporating an architectural setting in a foreign culture environment. (Zimmerman, 78-79) Though Andy Warhol sometimes borrow style from historical inspirations to achieve what should be regarded as aesthetically pleasing, it breaks away from the rigidity that the structural grids of Modernism insists, and disregards Modernism’s values of character and order of traditions. Ultimately, Andy Warhol’s Post-Modern art persisted to fly into a design that is full of expression and fantasy with the object of entertaining rather than impressing.

Evaluating the artist

The main characteristic of Andy Warhol as an artist is anything that anyone does which has a profound effect on somebody or something else. Some artist can be considered more complex, and some art can be considered simpler in contrast. But, the fact of the matter is, in the eye of the beholder, artist’s expression could be anything. Simply put, something that is aesthetically pleasing is something that appeals to the senses.

For instance, if Andy Warhol wanted to create a painting to give off an aesthetic feeling of hope, probably there would not be an over abundance of dark colors. Dark colors are often used to show calmness or even more commonly, something sad and depressing. Also, when painting, if you use wider and more circular strokes with a lighter press on your brush, you’ll give off more depressing tones and colors. So, it would be more advisable to use lighter colors and more agile handling of the brush. Lighter colors often give off a feeling of warmth and happiness, which is something that you would like to be doing if you would like to create something hopeful. But, to truly create something that gives off a strong aesthetic presence, you usually must feel some sort of emotional attachment to whatever it is you are working on.

The characteristic of a postmodern artist lies in the feeling for whatever it is you are working on. Only then will you truly pour out everything from your heart and mind. When you can accomplish this, you can create something with true aesthetic value in the line of a characteristic of the artist. If you can describe your emotions in your artwork, it becomes easier for others to understand what you were trying to do, and more often, give them a stronger emotional sense. In a way this creates a bond between the artist and the observer, allowing true aesthetic value to be created within a work of art and this is the main characteristic of the artist.

In a way, Andy Warhol’s works became something more than the vision and installation for the viewer. It becomes identification of postmodernist ideology too for an individual. It became the tool of decentralized exhibition and sub alters manifestation too. Several artifacts and art movement objects appear to be scattered all along the artwork that started off with individuals being interested into specific issues that has been ignited within them by the dint of visual and mental panorama. This is in complete alignment with the basic aspects of postmodern influenced thought process. (Lamb, 229)

It is true that the meaning of visual aesthetics varies from person to person and beholder to beholder but the end means of Andy Warhol is to provide an effective instrument of self-realization and self-enlightenment other than being just a medium of communication. It is true the meaning of postmodernism is vast and it can be determined that everything that has been mentioned in this regard and is the understanding of this vastness and its meaning mush like the construction of the Eight Elvises in a deconstructive and decentralized manner. (Lamb, 225)

Thus, it can be seen that to a person viewing can be a multi dimensional tool of existence strategies. For an individual visual impetus comes out of the nature and subsequent material to ascertain the proper value of existence and survival in proper and just manner of sanity so much so that he tries to breaks all barriers to use vision as a medium of artistic expression too. As a result, it can be ascertained that the meaning of vision, in accordance to the architect, is much more far spread than it is conceptualized in common conceptions. (Lamb, 224)

Conclusion

One curious aspect of Andy Warhol is the multiple dimensions of truth used in the image. The artist is presenting his versions of his personal achievements to the spectators to gain access to him and these are more always presented in half-truths and lies through vision, which the spectator is to decipher. These half-truths, illusions, and lies are represented in the artwork as costumes and sets are generally in base colors like green, blue and red. Apart from the aspects of philosophy and political correctness, the basic theme of Andy Warhol, what are most significant about his artworks are the breathtaking clarity in presentation of thought that presents stillness and action sequences at the same frame.

Works cited

Boorstin, Dean. The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination. New York: Random House, 2003.

Colacello, Bob. Holy terror: Andy Warhol close up. London: HarperCollins, 1990.

Husslein, Uwe. Pop goes art: Andy Warhol & Velvet Underground. NY: Wuppertal, 1990.

Lamb, David. Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization. Wellington: National Book Trust Weisberg, Richard. Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius. LA: Freeman & Company, 1998.

Zimmerman, Michael. Ethics, Multiculturalism, and Globalization. Tulane University Professional Ethics, 2003.

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