king of pop ART

it has been a long time since i have blogged. really busy with school and work lately. its super tough to focus on one yet alone juggle two concurrently anyways here is another write up i would like to share: andy warhol. i really dig his designs and his other artistic capabilities anyways enough crap about me here is a short tribute to the legend:

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” - Andy Warhol

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Andy Warhol is best known for discovering Pop Art, by mass producing images of mass produced objects. He made his first Pop paintings, based on comics and ads. I was first captivated by his work from the Campbell’s soup can series, which later I found out that the 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans was so popular, it was exhibited in an art gallery since 1962. Apart from being an artist, he experimented in other areas such as film, publishing, writing, television, and music.

In the 1960s, Warhol created several “mass-produced” images from photographs of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Elvis Presley and Jackie Onassis. He experimented with the silkscreen technique as he wanted something stronger with more of an assembly line effect. His fascination with morbid concepts resulted with astonishingly beautiful and brilliantly coloured art works. I particularly like these series of work mainly for its depiction of bright colours and comic like effect. Other images from comic books and tabloid also reflected the world around him.

Soon after he began his series of “death and disaster” paintings – images of electric chairs, suicides, and car crashes were used. This series of work differ from this usual works. To me, these images are rather scary and disturbing. It was made during a difficult time in Warhol’s life as he condemned capital punishment and wanted to showcase the prisoner as a victim.

Apart from creating art, he had spent a large amount of time collecting ‘Time Capsules’. Started in 1974, He had created 612 Time Capsules which were an enormous record of his own life. Interestingly, he selected items from the daily flood of correspondence, magazines, newspapers, gifts, photographs, business records, and placed them into used cardboard boxes. It was an efficient method for dealing with all of his “stuff.”

Being multi-talented facet, his artworks drew influenced from pop culture and advertising. His exploration in film, publishing, writing, television, and music has made him a great achiever. Looking at his artworks, I am always greatly inspired by the Campbell's Soup cans, advertisements, comic book heroes and creative portraits of celebrities and politicians, how he was able to transformed these everyday objects and images into some of the most recognizable icons of the past century.
Indeed, Andy Warhol experienced much more than 15 minutes of fame. His is an icon and his legacy will continue to live on forever.