Pop art artist Andy Warhol said: "In the future, everyone will
have fifteen minutes of fame." He predicted that the
media can manipulate society that allows any insignificant people all of a
sudden becoming the focus but can also disappear
of a sudden.
People quickly associate Andy Warhol with canned soup, celebrities, political figures,
cartoon characters
and all those direct printings on canvas. The exhibition let me understand
the pop art artist from different angles. The 15 Minutes Eternal bring us to
four stages he went through: 50’s, 60’s,70’s and 80’s.
Life in New York
Andy was raised in Pittsburgh and he left
for New York in his pursuit of artist career. Entering into the main entrance
of 2/F, paintings of sandals and folding screens come into eyes. At that time,
his artworks were not easily identified as his early advertising illustrations employ the use of the
blotted line, bold colours.
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| Marilyn Monroe |
The Factory Years
During the 60’s Andy began to make paintings of iconic American objects such as dollar bills, mushroom clouds, Campbell's Soup Cans, Coca-Cola bottles, celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe.These pop culture are his major source of inspiration.
During the 60’s Andy began to make paintings of iconic American objects such as dollar bills, mushroom clouds, Campbell's Soup Cans, Coca-Cola bottles, celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe.These pop culture are his major source of inspiration.
"The Factory" period was named from the studio he found in which he gathered with him artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities.
The Campbell's Soup and Marilyn
had been his most iconic works and screen print was used.
The exhibition venue was painted silver, just like Andy’s studio at that
time.
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| Carolina Herrera |
Exposure and Fame
After the death of Marilyn Monroe Andy has been more famous in New York. With
his popularity, celebrities flock to Andy and his major income had been
portrait commission from these famous people. Another iconic portrait made was that of our Chinese Communist leader Mao
Zedong.
At that time portraits were in mass production and he used Polaroid photo to
capture the image before printing on silkscreen. He expressed in his published
book an idea: “Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the
best art." He was not merely an artist, but also
a businessman. He was successful in turning the network to profit and since
then he had more critics.
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| MaoZedong |
In the 80’s, Andy reach his ultimate success
in pop art field but at the same time people started calling him superficial
and “ Business Artist”. He collaborated with several young artists like Jean
Michel Basquiat. The 80’s also marked as
Andy’s questioning
on death. He last masterpiece is his self portrait. The blood-red background is broken up by violent, black
brush-strokes which enclose the image. His gaze and slightly open mouth echoed with a skull
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| Self Portrait |
