Why was Warhol's 'Pop Art' so radical and so successful in the 1960's?

Why is Warhol's work post modern?

- And what about British Pop Art?

- And have we recovered from Warhol?

1. SETTING THE SCENE THE ART HIERARCHY OF 1940's/50's U.S.A.
Abstract Expressionism. Pollock Dekooning, Rothko, Guston, Motherwell etc.
Art born of introspection, deep thinking, and a search for national identity.

2. THE IMPETUS FOR POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE IN 1950's AMERICA
Rauschenberg, Cunningham, Cage. The Beat generation.

3. WARHOL AND POSTMODERNISM
Pop Art threatens the established order in the USA [and Europe]
Images of Coke bottles and soup cans outrage the art establishment, but prove a knock out success with the art market. Why?
Why were photographic images and silkscreen printing so significant?
How does post modernism come into all this?

4. WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN BRITAIN?
Richard Hamilton, Tim Mara.

5. THE AFTERMATH:
Suzi Gablik's 'Has Modernism Failed?' presents a critique of modern art and its emasculation by commercial forces. Previously they had been opposite poles and now art and commerce joined hands.
Gablik suggests the way forward: an art of social responsibility.
Beuys, Kiefer, Kruger.


© Steve Thorpe

References:

Bibliography

'A deeply superficial person by his own insistence, Warhol professedly concerned himself only with surface, and Donna De Salvo follows his advice in writing of his skills as a painter, shrewdly singling out the "after-image" aspect to his work. A third essay traces Warhol’s similarities with Goya, while perhaps the best of the pieces, a short, unfussy study by Kirk Varnedoe, details the history of the infamous 32 Campbell’s soup cans, created in 1962. Like the cans’ reduced contents, Warhol’s work was often highly condensed, then replicated until it assumed the proportions he required of it. In the same way, to see in either a gallery or a catalogue so many of his works is to experience a unifying sense of horror and beauty. In addition, it brings to mind not only his own influences, such as Klee, Rauschenberg, Cocteau (particularly in his early portraits of Truman Capote and James Dean), Duchamp and Grosz, but also to those who’ve subsequently drawn so heavily on his Pop imagery, particularly British artists like Jamie Reid and Damien Hirst.' (Amazon review of Bastian 2002)

Bastian, Heiner (Ed.), (2002), 'Andy Warhol Retrospective: a Retrospective, Tate Gallery Publishing
Bockris, Victor, (1988), 'The Life and Death of Andy Warhol', Fourth Estate
Gablik, Suzi, (1985), 'Has Modernism Failed?', Thames and Hudson
Jencks, Charles, (1995), 'What is "Post Modernism"'?, Academy Editions
Tomkins, Calvin, (1976), 'The Bride and the Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avant-garde', Penguin
Warhol, Andy, (1988), 'The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

Links

The Andy Warhol Museum
The Warhol Foundation
'The Andy Warhol Home Page'
warhola.com
Warhol Biography at Artchive
Warhol Museum and Gallery Links at Artcyclopedia
WWW Pop Art: Warhol Biog.
Warhol and the Avant Garde by David Carson
Early Warhol Films
Warholstars
Andy Warhol Superstars
Andy Warhol - Artist and Filmmaker
Warhols.com (cheap and tacky - Andy would have loved it)
Cosmopolis on Warhol
'American Masters'
Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol Connection
Interview with John Cale about Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground, January 2002
The Last Supper Paintings

The SCUM manifesto

Roots of Modernism


© Steve Thorpe / Paul Ramsay