Andy Warhol: The King of Pop Art

By Victoria Lu 

The post World War II period saw a return of modernism in the mainstream art world. Europe was reviving from the ruins of war; America, on the other hand, retained its vigor and brought Europe under the spell of Abstract Expressionism with the help of its economic and political power. Abstract and color-field art later swept the world with its extreme representation of modernist dogmas, spelling the final glory of modernism. 

At that time, the Big Apple took the place of Paris to become the world’s art capital. Late-modernism dominated high art during the period between 1950 to the beginning of 1970s. The unconventional Pop Art, although widely exhibited, seldom won applause from mainstream art critics and was hardly recognized by the academia. 

The rise of Pop Art in the United States was closely connected with New Dada Art movement, therefore a number of New Dada artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Edward Kienholz were also considered Pop artists. Through the magic wand of Pop Art, New Dada artists pushed the boundaries of art appreciation and found new sources of inspiration for artistic creation. The Pop artists of the 1960s elevated “l(fā)ow” art of the mass to a much-revered status with the help of mass communication, and the leader of this Pop Art movement was the now well-known master, Andy Warhol. 

Strictly speaking, Pop Art movement originated from the UK but rose to the peak of its glory in the United States. In the 1940s the art world in the UK was still largely dominated by Romanticism. A group of young artists, art critics and architects joined together to introduce debates about the emerging consumerism and mass culture in modern society and formed the Independent Group. In 1956 the group participated in the exhibition This Is Tomorrow held at the Whitechapel Gallery. At the entrance to the gallery were placed a large collage painting “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?” from Richard Hamilton. In the painting a male bodybuilder was holding a super-sized lollipop with letters POP written on it. The image was a forceful introduction of what it stood for - Popular Art that later became a part of high art. The qualities Hamilton was advocating with this term: popular; transient; expendable; low cost; mass produced; young; witty; sexy; gimmicky; glamorous…were all sharp contrasts to the ostentatious and evolutionary formalism pervasive at that time. Pop Art in England in a way was just like what Hamilton had described: it was great while it lasted, but soon lost its grandeur to the United States where Pop Art continued to thrive and influence contemporary art. 

Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg were among the most prescient of post-modernist artists. Warhol enjoyed an unchallenged status as the King of Pop Art with his fame and multi-faceted talents that he used to make his own life a Pop Art work. Warhol was known for his works appropriating images of Campbell's Soup, Coca Cola, detergents, or celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. He almost lost his life to the 1968 gunshot accident, and died of a heart attack in 1987. Warhol spent his entire life in the media limelight. He liked to wear a silver wig and always avoided voicing his opinion by using a lot of uh, gee or great in his speech. He made regular appearances in private celebrity parties or exclusive clubs, and was among the few guests invited to Madonna’s wedding. Yet on a different note, he also appeared in a few TV commercials. Warhol’s fascination with publicity and stardom was unprecedented in the art world. 

Warhol said “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes”. However to maintain one’s fame and keep one’s place in the spotlight, one needs to possess other qualities as well: an aloofness that places oneself above any inspection; a sensitivity of the trend of time so that one could constantly adjust his stance and always manage to stay above it. Warhol has built his kingdom upon the basis of his “cold” aloofness, and his posture is being imitated by many young contemporary artists.  

However, Warhol never tried to conceal his eagerness to play up to the powerful. He hired Ronald Reagan’s daughter-in-law to be the assistant editor of his magazine Interview and called Reagan “America’s Augustus Caesar” and Nancy the combination of Evita and Virgin Mary. He named his studio “the Factory”, where he used photo-stencils in screen-printing to mass-produce lucrative celebrity portraits, while at the same time making monotonous films that had absolutely no market value. His movies depicted themes of death, violence and the loss and chaos of life. Yet those who knew Warhol remembered him fondly of his mild nature and generosity, some even described him as innocent, kind and shy. But for most people Warhol was someone difficult to fathom. Warhol repetitively employed popular icons from the mass culture and blended photographic techniques with painting. His attack on the divide between high art and popular culture was the most powerful in the past century. During the course of his life, Warhol’s unconventional artistic pursuit and lifestyle was both loved and hated in the art world. In the modernist age Warhol was a traitor; yet in the time when post-modernism has triumphed, he becomes a hero. 

Overall, the spirit of Pop Art was distinctively American: the exceptional standards of life, superficiality of mass consumption (e.g. the popularity of Coca Cola and McDonald’s), worship of Hollywood celebrities, pursuit of fame and fortune, and a business approach to art dealership. Although Pop Art itself was not a dominating form of artistic creation, its synchronization with popular culture has altered the public attitude towards arts, which acknowledged what used to be considered vulgar and ordinary as art. That was the undeniable magic of Pop Art. Today an art dealer promotes art works and artists like a businessman selling a product. Even in art museums the director not only has to understand art, he or she also needs to be equipped with a sharp business sense to seek funding from corporations and the government. Warhol was a pioneer in the popularization of art, riding the wave of post-modernism. 

For the past forty years Pop Art has swept the whole world with its ruthless destruction of modernist aesthetics. It has extended the appreciation of art into the public realm and successfully challenged the view of art of ordinary, individual citizens. This period of history will always be remembered by later generations, and so will Andy Warhol’s name. 

（Victoria Lu is the Director of Moon Rover Museum of Contemporary Art in Beijing.）