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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-
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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.