Andy Warhol And Pop Art Essay Research — страница 2

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related automobile accidents. To most, it seemed as if the media were relating this as a warning. To Warhol, this was a “goal to be met.” Also, Warhol was obsessed with the way vulgarity looses its effect after view multiple times. This is the reason that he multiplied car accident pictures many times. Many of his famous works, such as Car Crashes, Race Riots, Electric Chair, Suicides and Tuna Fish Disasters were gruesome in nature (Bourdon, 1989, 109) Another subject that seemed to permeate his work, especially his movies was sex. This was not the sex that was seen in the pornography of the time, but a more erotic and advant garde style. Sometimes, only bared flesh was seen, and other times, it was full blown intercourse. Homoerotisism was another strong theme in these

movies. It wasn’t just man with man or woman with woman, that would be too simple. Many of the scenes featured men as women, drag queens and asexuals. This only added to the peculiarity and erotisism. His four most famous movies revolved around sexual themes: Sleep, Blow Job, My Hustler and Flesh (Bondo, 1998).Medium Warhol’s art career began with commercial art, in where he created illustrations using a blot-line technique. The blot technique is as follows: a completed drawing is taped and hinged to a piece of Strathmore paper. The original would be inked and then blotted onto the Strathmore paper. One may wonder, why blotted drawings instead of using the originals? Andy stated, “I like the style…..Well, it was just that I didn’t like the way I drew. I guess, we had to

do an ink blot or something like that at college, and, then, I realized you can do an ink blot and do that kind of look, and, then, it would look printed somehow.” (Bondo, 1998). This printed look is what made Warhol famous, adding to his admass culture themes. For a brief period, Warhol also used rubber stamps and stencils to achieve the machine made, printed look. It was in the early 60’s that Warhol began to use the silk-screen method. In retrospect, the rubber stamp method he was using to repeat images over and over (a Warhol trademark) suddenly seemed to homemade– he wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effect. The silk-screening method was done by taking a photograph and transferring it in glue to silk, and then rolling ink across the silk so

that the ink permeated only certain spots in the silk. This way, Warhol could achieve the same image, slightly different each time. The pictures were slightly faded and blurry, which resembled the way the media dulls down a story each and every time it is told. Tiny but important details are lost (Bondo, 1998) Film and magazines were two other mediums used by Warhol. His films were considered underground and low budget, with strong sexual overtones. They were produced for only a brief period in his career, and were many times initiated by friends and lovers. His magazine, however, would live on even after Warhol’s death. Interview was the name of the magazine that he co-produced with John Wilcock, then editor of an underground newspaper called Other Scenes. The magazine

featured text and loosely edited interviews from cassette tapes. Andy often said that he started the magazine to get free tickets to all the premieres. The magazine quickly turned into a monthly review of popular culture, including moviestars, fashion, art, music, television, gossip and celebrity nightlife– especially the notorious Studio 54 (Kakulani, New York Times Magazine, 1996). Another medium that Warhol used in the 70’s was known as Oxidation paintings. These were large canvases created by coating them with copper paint. Warhol and his male friends would urinate on them while the paint was still damp. The uric acid and copper sulfate combined to produce a green patine. The result was work that varied widely, from Pollock-like drip paintings to misty landscapes

(Bourdon, 1989, 238). Organization & Style Organization plays an important role in defining Warhol’s work. His use of color, treatment of masses and values and use of patterns are distinctly “Warhol”, separating it from that of the other Pop artists. Color was key to much of Warhol’s work. In fact, it was so important, that many times Warhol would produce a work without color first. Then, he would observe the work and think for days what the color should be used. Many times, color was applied by airbrush later to achieve an overlay effect. For the most part, his color schemes were bright. He also used a dot-matrix technique that spread color out by means of a tiny dot pattern. This was achieved through the silk-screening process, and added to the mass produced look