720

Medicine

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Before Stefan

in American

Art

and After

C. Schatzki1

Andy Warhol is one of America’s best-known and, at the same time, most controversial artists. Four years after his death, the disagreement continues between his admirers,

tration from an advertisement for cosmetic surgery. As was true of most of Warhol’s work, the message is clear. The

who consider

been miraculously transformed by surgery to a young, girlish woman. Warhol has borrowed, blown up, and slightly altered the existing image and has used our culture’s clich#{233}s about beauty. Warhol makes no attempt to reveal his own personal ideas about the subject matter, but the work merely serves as a mirror for the artifacts of our culture. Warhol’s art was intended to provoke. Almost everything he did was calculated to win attention, and his insatiable appetite for fame remains a source of controversy. He was determined to make the art world accept him on his terms. Warhol’s pop images reveal something about our culture

Warhol

an important

and innovative

artist who

was honored by many international museums, and his detractors, who think his work is unoriginal and commercial. Andy Warhol was the leader of the pop art movement that began in the 1 960s and is represented today in every major museum of modern art. Warhol made a career of reproducing famous images and products in order to advance his own reputation.

He used the fame of his subjects

to promote

his works of art,

which have become recognized and valued throughout the world of modern art. Andrew Warhola was born about 1930 in Pennsylvania (Warhol purposely obscured the details of his birth). As a teenager he attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and soon thereafter moved to New York, where he became a successful and well-known commercial illustrator. His first solo exhibition was in 1 952. The pop art era began in 1960, when Warhol began to produce multiple copies of widely known subjects. Dick Tracy, Popeye, and Superman

were early comic

strip subjects.

by those Campbell’s

that ensured his early fame, cans, Coca-Cola bottles, and

images Soup

These

were

similar

objects

These

shown

either

as single

with

subtle

variations.

Presley, Elizabeth

soon were followed particularly dollar bills.

mature

without

woman

revealing

on the left with a severely

a great

deal about

aquiline

the artist.

nose has

In addition,

Warhol rejected the uniqueness of art by producing multiple copies of virtually identical works of art. His studio was even called the “Factory.” Four years after his death, Andy Warhol remains a personal and artistic enigma. As may be true for most popular art, it will be many years before a decision can be made on whether Andy Warhol’s art represents unique, innovative creations of his time or merely clever, successful commercialism.

objects or as multiple His portraits of Elvis Taylor, and his first Marilyns date from this

period. These portraits, like much of his work, were largely Warhol’s interpretation of existing, available images of his subjects. His many gallery shows and first museum show confirmed his star in the artistic firmament. In 1965, he abruptly retired from painting and produced underground movies for the next several years. However, 7

years later, in 1972, his painting many work.

career

was reborn.

Using

different techniques, Warhol created a large body of His portraits of many of the best-known women and

men of the day remain an important part of his legend and include such figures as Mao Zedong, Jimmy Carter, Mick Jagger, Liza Minelli, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth, and Marilyn Monroe. During these

years

Warhol remained

at the center of a social culture that revolved

of immense

international

popularity,

around modern art in New York City. Fame continued until his sudden death after a cholecystectomy in February 1987. Warhol produced three versions of Before and After. This image has been widely reproduced, becoming one of the many familiar Warhol images. Before and After uses an illus-



Department

AJR 157:720,

of Radiology, October

Mount

Auburn

1991 0361 -803x/91

Hospital, /1 574-0720

330 Mount © American

Auburn

Andy Warhol (1930?-1987). Before and After 3, 1962. Synthetic polymer on canvas, 74 x 100 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of charles Simon.

St., Cambridge,

Roentgen

Ray Society

MA 02238.

Medicine in American art. Before and after.

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