Lane 1 Melissa Lane Dr.

Guenzel Research Paper ENC1102-0123 March 29, 2014

How Andy Warhol Influenced American Pop Culture

Pop art, when first introduced in England in the nineteen fifties, was something of a break-away from the past and into something more modern and less classic. Instead of having defining brush strokes like from the Baroque style there was just color blocking. Instead of there being elegantly drawn scenes with bright springy colors like the Rococo style, there was comic book designs with cartoon like people. By definition, pop art is short for popular art and thats exactly what it was. Pop art was one of the most popular and influential styles of art there ever was. When it started in the fifties it wasnt just one person who was involved in it, it was a group of people called the Independent Group and they decided that they wanted to change the way art was done. It was brought over to America in the nineteen sixties and that is when it really started to kick off. When it comes to pop culture and pop art, even though there are many aspects to the culture and many different artists to the art, there is one person who had one of the most influential impacts over everybody. That one person is Andy Warhol. He is one of the most famous and well-known artists to ever live and one of the most successful as well. It all began when he started becoming more and more interested in the famous celebrity life style. He started

Lane 2 out in the sixties when Marilyn Monroe was in her prime. She was in movie after movie and the paparazzi at that time were all over her. She was everywhere, on every newspaper, ever magazine, and people were becoming obsessed with that lifestyle. Andy Warhol was no exception. When it comes to his art and his place in the pop art world, in modern times, everybody has seen his work or a piece of art influenced by him at some point in their life whether they know it or not. One of his most famous pieces of art is called the Gold Marilyn Monroe done in 1962 and its a picture of Marilyn Monroes face with bright and unusual colors in the middle of a gold background. The face has an uncharacteristically pale pink face with a bright sea foam green color for eye shadow and bright yellow hair (Appendix A). This was, and still is, an iconic piece of art because these color choices. Many artists took his choices into consideration while doing their own work which is why a lot of the art work during that time is so colorful. Another painting that he did that is just as important and recognizable as this one, but that will be mentioned later on is the Campbells Soup Can painting. This one looks just like the actual soup can that is made by the company with the main red and while color scheme (Appendix B). There are different versions of the soup can that he did that have the colors that resemble the likes of the Golden Marilyn Monroe painting just mentioned (Appendix C). The Golden Marilyn Monroe, however, is probably the one out of all his works that, not started, but helped the style of pop art become how influential it is today even though the soup can painting could be tied with his most famous. Even though Andy Warhol was one of the most influential pop artists, it is important to acknowledge another American pop artist, someone who is considered a pioneer of a new style of painting (Livingstone), Roy Lichtenstein. His style is different to that of Warhols but is still

Lane 3 very effective nonetheless. Instead of the bright colors with famous people, he used one of the most popular pop art methods of painting. He made his work look like it was derived from comic books and newspaper advertisements in the early 1960s (Livingstone) which was one of the main characteristics of pop art which in turn affected the pop culture and brought comic books and the cartoon strips to popularity. A great example of his work is the piece called Viki done in1964. The skin color of the girl speaking is made out of evenly spaced maroon dots and then has bold sections of bright colors, like yellow for the hair and red for the lips that make it seem like it belongs in a comic book (Appendix D). This is one of the reasons that newspaper comics are still here today. Technique and Ideas When Roy Lichtensteins pop art took the look of cartoons and comic book, Andy Warhols other technique took on the role of famous American brands. Adriana Marinica, the author of the pixel77 article about pop art, stated that Logos and product labeling often figures in the imagery chosen by the pop artists and thats exactly what Warhol did. Most people of todays society, the people who are involved and are a part of pop culture, can all almost fully agree that no one did that better than Andy Warhol himself. These people of the culture, the art enthusiasts and collectors, know that they can never look at a soup can or a soap box without thinking about him. Another piece of Warhols work that is one of his most famous, which rivals in being more popular than the Gold Marilyn Monroe, is his Campbell Soup that was done in 1968. This one piece alone helped change pop culture in America because of the affect it had on the people who paid attention to what was going on in the art world.

Lane 4 The Campbell Soup piece of art really made an impact on how society and our culture is so into having the brand name and so into being a part of something that makes them seem higher up on the food chain so to speak. By creating a work of art based on the times one of the most popular brands, it makes the consumer and people of the culture realize that their lives are, not dictated or ruled, but are very influenced by labels and brands. The issue some people saw however was that Campbells soup was not that sophisticated of a thing to buy. It was very cheap at that time (about ten cents a can) and the reason why Andy Warhol decided to use that specific brand was because he used to drink [the] soup. [He] had the same lunch every day for 20 years (digitaldeliftp.com). It was such a common thing for people all over the country to own, whether they were rich or they were poor, a lot of people knew that that is what they bought. This was a big deal because a lot of the time in the past, the art was of something that not everybody could have or experience. What Andy Warhol did was the exact opposite of that. He made art with inspiration from common everyday labels and turned them into works of art. It wasnt just his impact on other artists that helped his influence in the pop culture world; it was the brands he used. As said earlier, he used brands that were well known, but not as important to the higher class. His idea of using the Campbells soup and Brillo Boxes as subjects for his pieces was not only a smart move artistically wise, but also a clever way to improve advertisements. He used the images of the brands that according to Anthony Grudin, an author for the Oxford Art Journal, helped reframe the strengths and weaknesses of an ambitious marketing strategy that remains powerful and pervasive to this day. Using well-known brands wasnt the only way that he aided in the advertising world, but he also was doing mass productions of the celebrities and brand pieces because he thought that celebrities themselves were mass produced (Marinica).

Lane 5 Lady Gagas Inspiration When people think of todays pop culture, a lot of people think about pop music artists or maybe other things like the entertainment industry like celebritys lives and movies, ect. But thats a good thing to think of because as stated earlier, pop art and pop culture is popular art and culture. Going off of pop being short for popular, one of the most famous pop artists of today is no other than the musically talented Lady Gaga. She became famous back in 2007 with her song Just Dance and the way she looked. She is completely different when it comes to her outfit choices and what she does with her hair that a lot of people thought there was something wrong with her. She would wear crazy things like a meat dress, made out of, you guessed it, meat, and do crazy, out of the norm things. When thinking about her and how she was influenced, journalist Laurent Goumarre did some research about her and found out that Lady Gaga was heavily influenced by Mr. Andy Warhol. Before she even got famous she was writing songs for other artists, one very popular artist like Britney Spears for example, and wasnt going to be able to do what she really wanted to do: perform. The label she was writing songs for told her that she needed to get a nose job because they thought that she wasnt pretty enough to be a singer but she didnt listen (Goumarre). She remembered looking at a piece of art done by Andy Warhol that had two side by side paintings of the same women, but in one she had a big nose and in the one next to it she had a nose job and now has a smaller nose. On top of the two paintings it said the word raped and was saying that the pop culture at that time, and is still going on today, made the woman feel pressured to get her nose fixed because it wasnt pretty enough for the standards of that day. It was exactly what Lady Gaga, or Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta at the time, was going through and it impacted her so much that she decided against the nose job (Goumarre). His art

Lane 6 was not the only thing that impacted her life, but Andy Warhols name did as well. As said before, her real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. She realized that changing her name would be a great way to help her with becoming the pop artist she wanted to be and she realized this when she learned that Andy Warhol changed his name himself. Even though his name wasnt changed that much, his real name being Andrew Warhola and then changing it to Andy Warhol, it was something that affected her and her life forever (Goumarre). With Andy Warhol, his work, and just the way he was, his personality, completely influenced the way Lady Gaga went about her life from the moment she read his book and diaries. He made her feel like she was good enough to be a musician and that she didnt need to get a nose job like a lot of people were doing just to get famous. His influence on her ultimately made her who she is today which isnt just a musician, but also a very influential person herself. Andy Warhol was more than just some artist who made it big. He was someone who influenced others in a way that no one has before. He inspired people who turned out to be just as prominent like Lady Gaga, and he also changed the way pop art was done which lead to many other artists trying, some even succeeding, in becoming famous for their work. He is also the artist that everyone knows his work, but might not know it is him. His paintings of Marilyn Monroe and of the Campbells soup cans as some of the most known works of art and there is a lot of art out there that took that approach and look very similar. The fact that there is a good amount of people who do not know that Warhol was the one who created them, it just further proves that he has influenced pop culture in ways no one of his time has ever done before and by doing so, he helped shape the culture of today.

Lane 7 Works Cited Goumarre, Laurent, and Charles, tr Penwarden. "Lady Gaga: After Andy Warhol." Art-Press 378 (2011): 60-63. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 24 Feb. 2014. Grudin, Anthony E. "A Sign Of Good Taste: Andy Warhol And The Rise Of Brand Image Advertising." Oxford Art Journal 33.2 (2010): 211-232. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Livingstone, Marco. "Pop Goes The Pest." Tate Etc 27 (2013): 31-39. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Marinica, Adriana. The Influence of Art History on Modern Design Pop Art. Pixel77. 31 Aug 2010. Web. 20 Feb 2014 "Spotlight on Golden Age Advertising | Campbell's Soup." Spotlight on Golden Age Advertising. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.

Lane 8 Appendix A

Lane 9 Appendix B

Lane 10 Appendix C

Lane 11 Appendix D