warhol, andy - art in the classroom december...

Updated November 30, 2015

Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987

Pop Art

In the vertical art storage rack you will find the following reproduction and posters: Large reproductions: The Campbell Soup Series II (1968) Marilyn Diptych (1962) Posters:

• The Art Elements & Principles posters to use in the discussion In the black cabinet you will find a white binder with a copy of this presentation and several 8.5 x 11 prints of the other works referenced in this presentation.

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Art in the Classroom North Stratfield School

Personal Information Name: Andy Warhol Nationality: American Born: August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Died: February 22, 1987 in New York City, New York Lived: Born in Pittsburgh, Andy moved to New York City in 1949, when he was 21,

and lived there for the rest of his life. Family: Warhol’s father (Andrej) and mother (Julie) were both Carpatho-Rusyn

immigrants who came to the New World (America). His father settled in Pittsburgh in 1913, and his mother joined him in 1921 after caring for relatives during World War I. Andrej and Julie had three children – Paul, John, and Andrew (Andy). Andy was a solitary person who never married, and had no children.

Professional Information

Type of artist: Painter, Graphic Artist, Filmmaker, Publisher, Manager of a rock band –

Warhol did not work in any one particular medium as you can see by the list of “jobs” he had. The pieces that we will look at in this presentation are silkscreens.

Artistic Credo: Warhol is known for his statement that “In the future, everyone will be famous

for 15 minutes.” “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my

paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.” Style/Technique: Pop Art – A period in the late 1950s and 1960s when artists focused on products

of commercial art (photography, television, magazines, comics, etc) catering to popular culture and used them as their subject matter. Pop Art began in London in the mid 1950s with artists who were fascinated by the impact of American media on British life.

Artist Background Andrew Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. His father Andrej was a coal miner, and his mother, Julie, a housewife. Andy was the youngest of three children. He was a sickly child, and spent much of his early school life at home with his mother who protected him from the taunts of his peers who did not understand why Andy did not play with them. In addition, she wanted to make sure that Andy knew of his European heritage: Carpatho-Rusyn is the area of Europe that is now Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine. She would tell stories and news of relatives still living in Europe to give him an understanding of life in her homeland.

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Andy was an artistic child and his mother encouraged his artistic growth by allowing time in his day for drawing, reading comic books and movie star magazines. Andy became fascinated with rich and famous people, and decided that he needed to become rich and famous. In fourth grade, he was enrolled in Saturday Art Classes at Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. He attended these classes for four years. As he neared the end of high school, he decided to enroll in the University of Pittsburgh to study teaching. However, uncomfortable at the size of the classes, he changed his mind and applied to the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). After gaining entrance to the school, he enrolled in painting and design classes. At Carnegie Tech, he developed his talent and skill as an artist (although he struggled with his other academic studies). Due to the support of his mother, his art teachers, and professors at Carnegie, his self-confidence grew. Upon graduation from Carnegie Institute of Technology, Andy moved to New York City – penniless. Once in New York he began to look for work with his art. He got a job at one of the large fashion magazines in the city as a fashion illustrator. During his time as a fashion illustrator, he won several awards as a commercial artist. Shortly after he moved to New York, his mother joined him. As she had been in Pittsburgh, Julie continued to be a strong source of security, support and religious grounding for Andy until her death in 1972. Not content with his role as a commercial artist, in the 1960’s, Andy strove to become a “real artist” by painting a comic strip, and then moved into items found in everyday life – such as Coca-Cola bottles, dollar bills and Campbell soup cans. This change to common subject matter vaulted Warhol into the life of a celebrity. During the 70’s and 80’s, Warhol continued to explore a spectrum of media (film, magazine, video, rock band, etc.) to express his opinions, views and desire for people to view “image” as an important aspect of our lives. Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987 due to complications from a routine surgery. Artistic Persona

Andy Warhol was an artist who wanted to be in the center of everything, but at the same time, he wanted to be aloof. He understood that it was easier to communicate a persona through the media than it was to communicate an object or painting. Therefore, he exploited media and style to his advantage. It has been said that he was original in his unoriginality of subject. It was his commercial artist background that drove his art. He wanted a viewer to look at the aesthetic qualities of the everyday images that we take for granted, and see the true artistic aspects of them. This was the basis of Pop Art, and Warhol was one of the most famous Pop Artists. Pop art took images from popular culture and commercial art (television, photography, magazine, products, cartoons, etc.), and transformed

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them into “high art”. Typically, Pop artists viewed their own work with personal detachment. His art was not based on story telling in fact, it confronts us with repetition, and boredom. There is no emotional attachment to the subject matter for the viewer. During the 1960s, Warhol became interested in the use of commercial art techniques in the creation of his works. In the early 1960’s he painted his first Campbell soup cans by hand, but as the 60’s progressed, he turned to silkscreening as his preferred method of production. Ask: Can anyone guess what silkscreening is? Definition: Silkscreen – A photomechanical process of placing ink onto a page by passing it through a fabric screen. Certain areas of the fabric are treated with a chemical process that are impervious to the ink while other areas allow the ink to pass through and onto the paper. Typically one screen is used for every color that the artist wants to use. Any number of different screens can be used on the same piece of paper to allow for the layering of many colors onto the paper Silkscreening allowed Warhol to mass-produce his works. In fact, he began to employ assistants in greater number, to greatly increase the volume of work his studio could produce. He took from modern culture the ability to repeat (endlessly) his art. Warhol once said “I want to be a machine.” He loved the sameness of the mass product – an infinite series of identical objects — soup cans, coke bottles, dollar bills, Mona Lisas — silkscreened over and over again. He strove to print, to repeat repetitiously. His artistic goal was boredom. While he was the king of hype, and the ruler of the ultimate “in crowd;” once he was in the center of things he wanted to project aloofness and detachment, and did, both in his work, and his life. In the end, his achievement will likely be seen more in the realm of how art relates to society (and vice versa) than the domain of art or painting itself. Warhol did more perhaps than any other artist to turn the art world into a business. Warhol worked with and seems to have greatly assisted in the raising of the value of an image in our society. From him, things like the Cannon TV commercials with Andre Agassi where “image is everything” are possible. It is not the thing itself; it is the image that we make of it, that really counts.

Featured Artwork The Campbell Soup Series II (1968) (Silkscreen) The Campbell’s soup can had become a staple in American culture as a product that was seen everyday in the supermarket. Warhol further made the simple functional design an icon by painting/silkscreening it repeatedly in many forms (ripped, crumpled, and in different flavors). He first painted a can in 1960. Later, they were reproduced by multiple silkscreen prints, which was a signature Warhol style.

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The image is powerful in its simplicity, and famous because so many people, who have seen it, have seen it so often they know exactly who made it. General Discussion: • Have you seen this picture before? If so where? (Food store, pantry closet, poster store.) • What do you think is going on in this image? (Not much. It is a large representation of a single

static object.) • How does this image make you feel? (Everyone will be different) Why? (Just probe for their

thoughts.) • Why do you think Warhol created this image? (He wanted the observer to look more closely at

the can which is a common item, and likely in your pantry closet.) • Does it appear the artist put any of his feelings into the painting? How can you tell if he did or

did not? (Ask the kids to think about the colors and the lines they might use if they were making happy or sad paintings. Then compare their answers to the simple, straight forward objects Warhol reproduced in his art.

• Do these painting make you feel a certain way?

Talking about the Elements of Art in this Silkscreen Color: What colors are present in the image? (The can is predominately red and white, with gold and black.) When you look at this image, do you see a range of tones? (Not really. The colors are solid and flat.) Shape: What shapes do you see? (Oval of the top itself. The straight sidelines of the can, and the horizontal lines of the top, bottom and through the center. The circle of the gold seal, and of course the letters.) Texture: What kinds of textures do you see in the image? (Primarily the image is solid with little texture.) Line: Do the lines in the image create tension? (Not much. The lines are for the most part parallel across or up and down.) Do the lines draw your attention to any one area of the image? (Yes, overall, the lines draw you into the center of the can and the gold seal from an international exposition.) Are the lines clean and hard or soft? (Clean, crisp and accentuated by the contrast in the colors.)

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Light: What kind of light exists here? (An overall flat light.) Where is the light coming from? (There is no directional aspect to the light.) Composition: Is the image balanced? (Yes, the can is symmetrically proportioned, and the label is also symmetrical and balanced.) Further Discussion: Comparison of Artist’s Series Work Show: Small Reproduction in binder of Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato/Pink) Ask: Do you believe that the same artist made this artwork? If you do why? Ask: What is different about this work of art? (Focus on color and changes in the label, ask them why he might chose colors like this or go with a) Ask: What makes it the same? (Show how the angle the artist used in creating this work is almost identical to the other) Ask: Do you think one is more realistic than the other? Why? Marilyn Diptych (1962) (Silkscreen) The piece is one of the artist's most famous works. It contains fifty images of a well-known actress who had died suddenly. Warhol wanted people to remember her so he used her photo to create this art. And made twenty-five different versions of each photo and put them together. Ask: Can you pick out the differences in some of these photos? Ask: Can you see how the artist uses repetition? What is repetition? The pictures on the left side are brightly colored, while the twenty-five on the right are in black and white. Ask: Why do you think he did this? (It has been suggested that the relation between the left side of the canvas and the right side of the canvas is evocative of the relation between the celebrity's life and death.)

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This work of art is called a Diptych. Definition: Diptych: is any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge. This art opens like a book, but it is not symmetrical. What is symmetry? Discussing the Art Further Show: Small Reproductions in binder Warhol is said to have liked subjects that were commercial. Commercial means they are things that are easy to find and buy. He also liked repetition

Andy Warhol – 192 One Dollar Bills (1962)

Andy Warhol, 100 Campbell Soup Cans (1962)

Andy Warhol, Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962)

Ask: What stands out about these art works? Ask: Would you consider them similar in any way? Ask: Do you see differences? Resources Warhol Foundation Web site. www.warholfoundation.org. Martin Lawrence Web site. www.martinlawrence.com The Warhol Web site. www.warhol.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Diptych http://totallyhistory.com/marilyn-diptych/

warhol, andy - art in the classroom december...

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