Warhol took existing images, had his staff solarize them and applied
to silkscreen. He used them endlessly, varying the number of the an
image in a given piece and the color. The images themselves were
mostly iconic images of a very few celebrities. One or two of these
establishes the concept. The rest, I think, is way too
much-masturbatory repetition and money in the bank, milking a largely
undereducated clientele. I understand the importance of the concept
in art history. The idea of multiples had been around for a long
time, but marrying it to high prices was brilliant. The art market
was thrilled.
The question isn't whether this or that series is "brilliant," but
whether it's a one-liner. Does one learn anything from living with
them, and for how long? If the duration is short we're talking fad or
interior decoration. And eventual footnote status. Right now, of
course, you can buy a Warhol for more than most old masters, if
you're so inclined.
I wasn't talking about Warhol's commercial art work (drafting).
Google Warhol Drawing and select images.
I'm aware that you're not alone. I also don't think much of Norman Rockwell.
Best,
Mark
At 01:20 PM 4/17/2010, you wrote:
>Unless I am hearing wrong here, I re-hear an aka 1963 dismissal of
>Warhol's silkscreens (??). I find, and I am far from alone, that
>many of those series (conceptually and in realization) are flat out
>brilliant. Talk about period geist and social/capitalist critique
>and the shear chilly pleasure of looking (say, the Jacqueline
>Kennedy grieving portrait series) , Warhol has it in spades. Then
>again Sontag (during the same time frame) dismissed Diane Arbus -
>in retrospect - rather stupidly - missing the significance of one
>the great photographers of the 20th century.
>
>Thank goodness Warhol gave up drafting. I would say.
>
>Stephen V
>http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University
of California Press).
http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
"Not since the 1982 publication of Paul Auster's Random House Book of
Twentieth Century French Poetry has a bilingual anthology so
effectively broadened the sense of poetic terrain outside the United
States and also created a superb collection of foreign poems in
English. There is nothing else like it." John Palattella in The
Nation
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