Andy Warhol: Images
of an Image
Key Points:
Ten Lizes is the repeated face of Liz Taylor in black 10
times with a silvery white background by Andy Warhol.
With mass consumerism reaching its height, the American
model was taking the world by storm.
Warhol collected images of famous people and actresses since
he was a child.
In august 1962 the death of Marylyn Monroe inspired Warhol
to used her face in repetitive silkscreen images
Elizabeth Taylor was all the rage so Warhol started working
with images of her face, producing a 3.6-meter high silkscreen image of her
face repeated.
He reproduced pages of the daily news covering her breakup.
He created the Double Liz, the Blue Liz, always repeating a
cropped image of her in rhythm. Liz Taylor was the most famous and top movie
star at the time, also the best paid.
Warhol cropped the faces of the actresses he reproduced with
silkscreen.
Silk screening- Enlarges cropped original image, contrast
can be lightened or turned down. Originally silk, now a synthetic material. The
chemically light sensitive material is exposed to light, rinsed in water, and
the white parts harden. Image obtained on screen is a negative image. Ink is
forced through the unhardened parts to create a positive image. The screen can
be used over and over again.
Warhol played with the unpredictability of the technique of silkscreen
painting.
The Ten Lizes picture forces the viewer to move, the light changes
the shade of silver/gray. The canvas creates small wiry patterns. He used his
Marylyn motif on the print of Liz Taylor with the plays of different color in
the background.
He desired money; silkscreen enabled him to mass produce
paintings and satisfy his clients’ demands. He could now use his images as a
consumer product. ‘Anyone can reproduce the motif just as well as I can.’
Repetition is a parable of mass production and the assembly
line. It conveys a world where quantity and the assembly line have invaded
everything. He reprints and differences represent the defects in mass produced
objects. He destroys the image by reproducing it and rendering it even more
superficial.
The repetition is to create a decorative motif and a sort of
dizziness. The process detracts the eye and eliminates the unique initial image
and turns into just an image or an image of an image. It is as simple as a simple
product like Coca Cola or Campbell’s soup
The ten images of Liz Taylor in Ten Lizes were described by
the film as the ‘ten commandments’ to look, consume, dream, etc.
He created many Mona Lisa variations
Kennedy’s death inspires Warhol’s Jackie Kennedy series.
His loft became known as the ‘factory,’ he used it as his
studio and to hold parties.
When he got a movie camera he would shoot his friends reenacting
scenes and turn them into superstars
He was obsessed with movie stars and celebrities.
Rendezvous of the rich and famous in his new magazine
Used Polaroid photos and tuned them to pictures with the
silk screen process
Added thick strokes of paint to images sometimes
Rich clients would pay a small fortune for a Warhol image of
them because of how famous the portraits became and how it would give them
their 15 minutes of fame.
Society and most highly rated painter.
His photos were the act of portraiture in the modern world,
they had to be a likeness of the subject while revealing the character and the
soul of the center.
Hollywood stars replaced portraiture.
Only the basic traits of a face survive in silkscreen paintings.
There was no expression, no color, no skin, no feeling, no radiance, just an
imprint; a recognizable image.
Marylyn and Liz have become icons just like the Mona Lisa
Everything about Andy Warhol was on the surface in his
opinion, nothing underneath. Simple images, no metaphor, no message.
Warhol became the ‘depersonalized’ artist. His work was
about pop art, consumerism, and mass production.
Unlike others before him, he often made himself the subject
for much of his work.
He was also a photojournalist as his work addressed
politics, history, and the domination of the U.S dollar.
His work at some times was morbid and obsessed by or marked
with death. He only started working on Liz when everyone thought she was going
to die. Marylyn when she had already died, and Jackie when her husband did.
Silkscreen can be interpreted as the image stripped of its
flesh and only the bare bones or the skeleton remaining.
In the Ten Lizes, flaws and marks reveal nothing more than
the technical genesis of the silkscreen work. Despite it’s metamorphosis the
face remains an identifiable icon. The face is Liz Taylor AND Andy Warhol.
I chose this movie because I’ve always loved Andy Warhol’s
work but I had no idea about what thought process went behind it or the meaning
of the repetition. It was interesting and slightly disappointing to learn about
some of his motifs, including his desire for money. I did like some of the
logic used in the beauty of his repetition and the simplicity of his process
though. This film related to the text because we discussed the pop art movement
and Andy Warhol in the text and this gave us much more perspective on the
identity of him as well as his subjects and art. We also revisited
silk-screening here, a process that we explored early on in this text.
Hockney on
Photography
Key Points:
David Hockney is one of Britain’s greatest painters but he
is also talented in the art of photography.
The camera is older than photography, as the chemical
process was invented in the 19th century but painters used the
“camera obscura” to create an image with a small box. The chemical process just
made it possible to produce and preserve that image on paper.
Hockney uses photographic images and creates art that
pertains more to painting. He uses photography as a tool in a ‘different’ way.
He has taken series of images with a camera and rearranges them on a surface.
He didn’t care if it was art or not, he made a lot of
discoveries.
He experimented with photography for 4 or 5 years with a Polaroid
to create collage like images. He also super imposes these images over each
other.
Some of his first experiments were done with a Polaroid
using a grid to create a large image made up of a series of small square
polaroid shots.
He doesn’t take a bunch of pictures at once; he examines
each print before taking the next picture, composing the final product in his
mind.
The collages he made were more sporadic, the grid was not as
present and every picture did not have equal value like they do in the grids.
The photograph is a photograph is not of people he knows
posing, it’s a moment in time captured by dozens of pictures. He made a larger
picture using this concept because this perspective of perspective appeared to
be very interesting and revealing.
“Every image is a masterpiece” it provided a new view of
what the camera could do with each shot.
His works had a cubist technique as you could see all sides
of each section of each part of each piece. Cubism is unfortunately names as
it’s not about cubes.
They were the first pictures that would confuse a viewer, as
they didn’t know what they were. The viewer was forced to piece changing shapes
together.
He was inspired by the movies and the moving picture.
Shadows made him more curious and aspiring to create reality.
He likes to play with different ways of representing space.
He says the camera is not capable of showing grandeur, but certainly for
perspective.
He uses movement in ways others haven’t, this is apparent in
his 30 page spread for Vogue magazine.
He creates perspective in motion; one walking by a chair and
looking at it, all angles are shown, not one as if they are standing or looking
down at it. He recreates one of Van Gogh’s chair in The Bedroom as If you were
in Van Gogh’s painting walking around the chair.
He played with this concept of the chair for a while,
reproducing it multiple times now. This copying of his led to a fascination with
the copy machine and the fax machine, as it is both a camera and a printer.
He runs into a lot of happy accidents just by playing like
with the picture of the flowers versus the painting of the flowers. The real
flowers look fake while the unreal flowers look real.
He plays with spaces and edges as they define space. The
Grand Canyon became a fascination for him, as it’s the biggest filling of space
people can look into. The thrill in looking at it is due to the defined edge,
looking at that space in the ground is more exciting than looking up into the
undefined space in the air. He also painted the Grand Canyon with no focal
point to give it more visual reality. He gives the perspective of no
perspective, the perspective of looking everywhere to appreciate the Grand
Canyon’s grandeur.
The 35 ml camera made it impossible to see the picture
emerging before he took the next so he had to work by memory when creating a
visual in his head. Technology has reduced the cost of creating photographs and
also made the variety of sizing greater.
On the way to the Grand Canyon he aspires to capture the up
close point of view. His photographic collages inspired by this feature ‘things
done up close.’
Hockney illustrates the passage of time by photographing a
landscape over a period of 2 months.
He likes the idea of husbandry and caring for the land, a
series of image he takes pays homage to this concept.
Hockney keeps changing his mind about photography, going
‘hot and cold’ about it.
He compares one of his painting styles with the art of
Chinese scrolls, which he became interested in for some time.
He gives a much different perspective of Los Angeles with
his paintings than most people who live there see from their point of view.
He created a painting of a scene in desert high way and a
collage of putting small bits and pieces together that forms this huge
panoramic scene. He took 7 days photographing this and actually needed a
ladder.
He became interested in theater art as it is about illusion
and the movement and perspective as well as dreams and things ‘out of control.’
He is constantly interested in new things and his talents
are so varied and diverse, he never knows what will capture his interest next,
he has currently abandoned photography.
He believes that ‘visual silence’ is part of the artistic
experience.
I chose this movie because I did a project with assembling
multiple photographs together to make one picture and Hockney is the genius
behind this concept. This film relates to the text because we studied cubism
and this is a really innovative and creative way of using cubism. He is truly
talented and I was inspired about how he just did what felt interesting and
good and these thoughts or ideas turned into masterpieces. In a lose context he
reminds me of Leonardo De Vinci in the modern world.
Uncertainty:
Modernity and Art
Key Points:
Greek art shows our idealized version of ourselves and the
‘spark of divinity’ within.
Modern art shows idealized versions of what we could be if
we were better than ourselves. It’s a contemporary version of the Greek
idealism.
Agreed interpretations of life started becoming broken down
and the freedom of consumerism helped modern art take hold. The artistic
society right now can be defined by change. Change in values, change in styles,
change in motives. Market forces have made some of this modern art and it’s
‘uniqueness’ very popular.
Obscurity has been made glamorous.
Tate’s sculpture made of 120 bricks laid in a rectangle is
often misunderstood yet it still gets 5 million visitors a year.
Modern art shows reality completely transformed. It never
stops changing, just as life never stops changing.
The modern world was based on speed, proficiency, and mass
production. Life had become so shallow and fragmented and uncertain that its
mysteriousness sparked the deliberate breaking of traditions in art.
Unpredictable, individualized, and radical was the new look
that would define the age until Nazism put an end to questioning with the
notion that total power and control was the only line of thought. Hitler even
put a show of modern art and called it “degenerate art” and declared that this
injustice in art was a ‘sickness.’ He believed this deformity in art was
impurity. Uncertainty was forbidden in the Nazi regime.
The most consistent feeling in modern art is that the
feeling of reality is different and doubtful, nothing is permanent, and nothing
is pure. This is the opposite of Nazi art which portrays the very opposite with
only pure, exact, and totally ‘normal’ images, or what they decided was normal
anyway. Because of this modern art and cubism has become an icon for moral
goodness and a different way to approach ‘truth.’ There is no pressure to
believe what the picture tells you but rather the encouragement to ask
questions and fight anything recognizable.
Abstract artists present an experiment that the viewer
participates in. It’s about seeing beyond the image and the appearance and
questioning what it means to you.
Modern materialists use the ‘looks’ of the real world such
as flat lines, squares, and flat colors.
Modern art takes its place in interior design with ‘modern
people living in modern homes having modern experiences and living modern
lives.’
Abstract Expressionists are troubled by the complexities of
art; they couldn’t accept the values of consumerism. Their reality made more
sense than real reality so they channeled this expression through uncertain
atmospheres and undefined space and time.
The video explores styles and concepts of Willem de Kooning
with his ‘battered’ and spontaneous look and Mark Rothko with his blurred lines
giving a vibration of color and an uncertain meaning but very high energy.
The belief in higher values are somewhat diminished by the
desire for money in the 1960s consumerism.
Pop art is another movement that questions one own values or
disillusionments. The shift of focus changes to literally anything. Warhol’s
portraits of Elvis with a gun illustrate how much art has changed and makes us
analyze how much we’ve changed along with it. Pop art was about being the total
opposite, or totally different from anything before it. Taboos are tested in
pop art, and civilization is relaxed.
Art used to be about seeing ideals in humans that were
unrealistic, now it’s about wondering if there is any better self at all, it’s
also about impulse, whim, and casualness, and less about purity and the
‘ideal.’
China almost immediately embraces Western Avant Gardism,
especially after the ‘restless questioning’ not being aloud was removed with
the end of certain military reign.
The Chinese also experience a loss of cultural identity with
this cultural sweep of Westernization.
Just like Greek values, the image of the body in consumerism
is just as unrealistic. The Greek statues are really only illusions, just as
people are defined by what consumerism labels them as today.
Watteau illustrates the parable in the relationship between
art and life and its harsh realities and strangeness in his painting that is
somewhat of a message to future artists, a warning. The whole painting is about
disillusion.
Artists make images to connect to the past and so the viewer
may do the same. People will look back on our civilization and view modern art
as uncertainty, questioning, light heartedness, and welcoming change. The
creative chaos is insight into our own questioning, and into our future.
I chose this film because I really don’t have a high respect
for much of modern art. I really dislike seeing a dot of color on a canvas in a
museum and hearing it regarded as a ‘masterpiece.’ I was hoping the film would
give me additional perspective and insight, which it did. I do understand more
of what modern arts’ intention is but I think some people take advantage of
society’s acceptance of ‘different’ and ‘change.’ This related to the text
because we discussed modern art, how it came about, Picasso, and the Nazi
regime and the pressures a political force can place on an artistic society.
Isamu Noguchi: The Sculpture of Spaces
The great sculptor Isamu Noguchi describes his object in
life as a sculpture and every other reason comes out of it. Sculpture for him
is something different than painting but it is a form of self-expression.
Stone gardens inspire him and prove to him evidence of
sculpture in Japanese art.
He created his UNESCO garden in Paris as homage to the
Japanese garden.
He felt isolated as a child and his sculpture gardens show
evidence of him wanting to humanize space and sculpture. He says these gardens
are youthful and very much a part of peoples lives.
To make a living as a poor ‘typical’ American he carved
heads to make money. He got a fellowship to work in Paris with a great sculptor
made this possible for him.
He was commissioned to redesign Miami’s Bayfront Park, which
was perfect for his artistic vision and his creativity and versatility. He has
already made a name for himself by this time with various sculptures or plaques
on faces of buildings in Manhattan, gardens in California, and much more. He
hopes this will be a place where all the people can come and will want to come. This was a big political
issue, especially with the issue of money and Noguchi almost being forced to
change his design. He insisted they tear down an old library to allow his
vision to blossom.
He experiments with different mediums such as water to
create a new approach to sculpture.
His playful side is shown in the Black Water Mantra. It also
exemplifies his commitment to make something useful for people to use. It
provides joy to children along with its aesthetic appeal.
With his Water Stone sculpture he proves that ‘nature is
only perfect in its imperfections.’ It’s not about trying to make it perfect;
it’s the imperfection that makes it important.
His sculptures in Jerusalem are culturally sensitive and
perfect for their surroundings and society; it shows how versatile he is while
still remaining himself. He makes his sculptures about the human experience.
The gardens that surround the artist’s home are what he
calls ‘a celebration of life.’
He was never satisfied with what he had done. He always saw
himself as ‘just beginning.’ His last work was a master plan for a 400-acre
Moer Numa Park in Sapporo Japan. He was 80 when he began this but had no
reservations about completing it. He worked with 3D models where he imagines
himself in the park. He died before
its completion but stands still as a monument of his tenacity and vision. People
will look back and see that he was ahead of his time almost with his visions of
land art and installation art.
He valued solitude and quiet at his home in Mure, which was
ironic with his creations being designed for public places and busy areas.
After his death his friends describe how they feel that he
isn’t gone but only ‘traveling’ and will return home to this place he loves so
much in the future.
I chose this film because the cover image showed a sculpture
that I recognized from Manhattan but knew nothing about. I was hoping for more
information on this sculpture and it’s artist and the whole movie was about
him. I was impressed with the variety in this artist’s works and even more so
with his vision. This film reminded me of the section of text where we read
about land art and installation art. It was a very different kind of visual art
and I do think that Noguchi was somewhat ahead of this time with this style
that is now much more popular and certainly a favorite of mine.
