Exciting Presentation
Since I was rushed and the Andy Warhol portion of my presentation was cut short, I thought I'd post it here in case anybody is interested. Actually this was already posted here, it was just private because I still don't have Word and posting it to lj was faster than trying to using Works and converting everything to print at the library (after adding the glorious Refworks bibliography! All Hail Refworks!). These are my notes/outline so they still leave something to be desired.
Robert Rauschenberg
Born 1925- Milton Ernest Rauschberg, decided that he needed a new first name, chose Robert. Still alive today.
Had dyslexia from early childhood. Dyslexics see the world as an undifferentiated whole. Figures and backgrounds fuse together. This was of seeing is connected to Rauschenberg's freely improvised, non-sequential compositions.
Went to Kansas City Art Institute, then University of Texas to study pharmacy. Never took art as a career seriously. Art was a natural process to him, something h thought everybody did. Got kicked out of U. of Texas for refusing to dissect a frog and as it was WWII was promptly drafted into the Navy. It was during this time he learned that his artistic ability was unusual. He did well in basic training but refused to kill anybody.
During the war he worked at the Navy Hospital Corp in San Diego as a neuropsychiatric technician. Had a hard time seeing all the young men who were victims of the war. He learned a great deal as well. He said he, "learned how little difference there is between sanity and insantiy and realized that a combination is essential."
After the war he studied in Paris but was disappointed. The city was still recovering from teh war. Criticism was once a week in French, and Rauschenberg didnt' speak any French. The students were "hung trying to decide whether they wanted their work to look like Matisse or Picasso." Rauschenberg just wanted to learn to paint.
He felt like he lacked discipline so he went to Black Mountain College to study under Joseph Albers. There was more discipline there and it was a more objective environment than the New York school of Abstract Expressionism. Albers didn't like him. Albers valued order and Rauschenberg's work expressed what he saw as the lack of order of the world. Albers would refuse to critique his work. It hurt his feelings but he felt that he learned a great deal from Albers and did the exact opposite of his teaching. Feels like Albers was his greatest teacher and he was Alber's poorest student.
His disagreement with Alber's ordered color theory led to his monochromatic paintings. They were mixed media collages painted all one color. They got into viewer's space and upset people. Rauschenberg gained a reputation as an "enfant terrible" which is mentioned in every source so I looked it up. It indicates someone who is outrageously outspoken or bold, one whose work is embarrassing or unconventional, revolutionary or shocking.
In the 50's he led the vangaurd of younger artists who were moving away from Abstract Expressionism because of its lofty heroic or tragic emotions and angst ridden "anxiety of influence." A. of I. is sort of a fear that you aren't breaking new ground, but are merely working on the basis of your predecessor's earlier work. Rauschenberg was too upbeat to buy into the angst and his work was about the process, not the final object. He considers himself a journalist as well as an artist. "I think of my activity more in relation to reporting than I do as something for an isolated elite." He didnt' really care if anybody actually liked his work.
He is most famous for his "combines." Teh combines are multimedia collages. Monogram is the first of these, it consists of oil, paper, fabric, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber shoe heel, tennis ball mounted on canvas, with oil on an angora goat and a rubber tire.
In the early 60's his collages became more 2D like Rebus, and the themes of repetition and images from popular culture began to emerge in his work. His work became a commentary on contemporary society using images that helped create that society.
What sort of commentary emerges when pop art comments on popular culture and then popular culture comments back on pop art as in teh feedback loop described in teh article?
Andy Warhol
Born 1928- Early childhood matter of some debate because he said different things in interviews about where he was born and where he lived as a child, but Pennsylvania, Pittsburg.
had childhood attacks of St. Vitus's Dance, disorder of the nervous system that causes involuntary movements. He spent a lot of time bedridden as a child and would draw and listen to the radio. He also developed a fear of Hospitals and doctors that would affect him for teh rest of his life. He also became something of a hypochondriac.
He was excruciatingly shy and a devoutly religious Byzantine Catholic.
early career was in magazine advertisements for shoes. He was a very hard worker, met deadlines and maintained quality. he won awards and became famous as ad illustrator/advertising guy.
He decided that he wanted to become a "serious" artist, but his early attempts didn't go very well. He greatly admired teh work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, bought their work, really wanted to be friends with them. He was rebuffed partly because of his status as a commercial artist (they did commercial art too but they didn't flaunt it the way he did) also they thought he was too "swishy" too flamboyantly gay.
A lot of his work was in greeting cards, portrait sketches, and book illustrations for friends.
He had two styles, one was looser, warmer and more like that of the abstract expressionists. People preffered his other colder, hard edged work. Friend Emilio de Antonio said, "it's our society, it's who we are, it's absolutely beautiful and naked."
He and Roy Lichtenstein were doing the same things at the same time completely independantly. When he first saw L.'s work he was amazed at it's similarity to his own.
In the earliest work, (Popeye, dick Tracy) you can see teh artist's hand in drips, brushmarks and smudges. But by 1962 with his Soup Cans and Before and After paintings his work had become stark and impersonal.
He had a very hard time getting a show. Teh Ferus Gallery in L.A. showed his Soup Cans and the reaction was not favorable, a shop keeper down teh street put up a sign that said, "get the real thing here for 29 cents"
Emile de Antonio pressured Eleanor Ward to give him a show at her Stable Gallery. She pulled a $2 bill out of her wallet and told Warhol if he'd paint that, she'd give him a show.
Teh response to his dollar bill paintings was imediate and powerful. Warhol became instantly famous within the Manhattan art world. He began to work with images of celebrities. Elvis, Elizabeth Taylor, people whose images were already iconic.
What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.
- The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to B and Back Again), 1975, ISBN 0-15-671720-4
Brillo Boxes indicate a connection between minimalism and Pop Art. They echo (or are echoed by the minimalist cube forms that followed).
Always remained very detached, but still open to a whole range of influences. In 1964 he opened a studio called The Factory which was basically a hangout for all the young artists and hip people. He would hang out in teh center and let the people there do whatever they wanted. He was described as royalty, everything revolved around him and everyone was constantly vying for his attention.
At another opening in L.A. he met some big movie stars, subjects of past work. He decided that movies were more fun than art and began to make films. Was at the beginning of the independant film movement.
Then, on June 3, 1968 Valerie Solanas, a (crazy) member of the Factory crowd came in with a gun and shot him twice puncturing both lungs, his spleen, liver and esophagus. She also shot another man named Mario Amaya who was also there. She turned herself in to the police shortly after. She sad she shot him because he had "too much control over my life." Warhol spent a long time convalescing and was affected by those injuries for the rest of his life.
After that they tightened Factory security and wouldn't let just anybody in anymore. Warhol didn't want to do that because the people there were his inspiration.
He continued to work up until his death in 1987. He was obsessed with mechanism and expressed a desire to be a machine. The constant repetition of images causes tehm to loose some of their intensity. We begin to see the images as one picture and 'become conscious of hos bluntly images fo teh media assault us." His paintings do not just provide a transition from popular culture to high art, they call into question the uses to which we put our images. He was famous for his detachment. He claimed that he and his art were all surface, with nothing underneath. "Possibly the deadpan of Warhol's art reflected indifference to all of the philosophizing of the abstract expressionists in teh previous decade.
"The Pop idea was that anybody could do anything, so naturally we were all trying to do it."
Robert Rauschenberg
Born 1925- Milton Ernest Rauschberg, decided that he needed a new first name, chose Robert. Still alive today.
Had dyslexia from early childhood. Dyslexics see the world as an undifferentiated whole. Figures and backgrounds fuse together. This was of seeing is connected to Rauschenberg's freely improvised, non-sequential compositions.
Went to Kansas City Art Institute, then University of Texas to study pharmacy. Never took art as a career seriously. Art was a natural process to him, something h thought everybody did. Got kicked out of U. of Texas for refusing to dissect a frog and as it was WWII was promptly drafted into the Navy. It was during this time he learned that his artistic ability was unusual. He did well in basic training but refused to kill anybody.
During the war he worked at the Navy Hospital Corp in San Diego as a neuropsychiatric technician. Had a hard time seeing all the young men who were victims of the war. He learned a great deal as well. He said he, "learned how little difference there is between sanity and insantiy and realized that a combination is essential."
After the war he studied in Paris but was disappointed. The city was still recovering from teh war. Criticism was once a week in French, and Rauschenberg didnt' speak any French. The students were "hung trying to decide whether they wanted their work to look like Matisse or Picasso." Rauschenberg just wanted to learn to paint.
He felt like he lacked discipline so he went to Black Mountain College to study under Joseph Albers. There was more discipline there and it was a more objective environment than the New York school of Abstract Expressionism. Albers didn't like him. Albers valued order and Rauschenberg's work expressed what he saw as the lack of order of the world. Albers would refuse to critique his work. It hurt his feelings but he felt that he learned a great deal from Albers and did the exact opposite of his teaching. Feels like Albers was his greatest teacher and he was Alber's poorest student.
His disagreement with Alber's ordered color theory led to his monochromatic paintings. They were mixed media collages painted all one color. They got into viewer's space and upset people. Rauschenberg gained a reputation as an "enfant terrible" which is mentioned in every source so I looked it up. It indicates someone who is outrageously outspoken or bold, one whose work is embarrassing or unconventional, revolutionary or shocking.
In the 50's he led the vangaurd of younger artists who were moving away from Abstract Expressionism because of its lofty heroic or tragic emotions and angst ridden "anxiety of influence." A. of I. is sort of a fear that you aren't breaking new ground, but are merely working on the basis of your predecessor's earlier work. Rauschenberg was too upbeat to buy into the angst and his work was about the process, not the final object. He considers himself a journalist as well as an artist. "I think of my activity more in relation to reporting than I do as something for an isolated elite." He didnt' really care if anybody actually liked his work.
He is most famous for his "combines." Teh combines are multimedia collages. Monogram is the first of these, it consists of oil, paper, fabric, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber shoe heel, tennis ball mounted on canvas, with oil on an angora goat and a rubber tire.
In the early 60's his collages became more 2D like Rebus, and the themes of repetition and images from popular culture began to emerge in his work. His work became a commentary on contemporary society using images that helped create that society.
What sort of commentary emerges when pop art comments on popular culture and then popular culture comments back on pop art as in teh feedback loop described in teh article?
Andy Warhol
Born 1928- Early childhood matter of some debate because he said different things in interviews about where he was born and where he lived as a child, but Pennsylvania, Pittsburg.
had childhood attacks of St. Vitus's Dance, disorder of the nervous system that causes involuntary movements. He spent a lot of time bedridden as a child and would draw and listen to the radio. He also developed a fear of Hospitals and doctors that would affect him for teh rest of his life. He also became something of a hypochondriac.
He was excruciatingly shy and a devoutly religious Byzantine Catholic.
early career was in magazine advertisements for shoes. He was a very hard worker, met deadlines and maintained quality. he won awards and became famous as ad illustrator/advertising guy.
He decided that he wanted to become a "serious" artist, but his early attempts didn't go very well. He greatly admired teh work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, bought their work, really wanted to be friends with them. He was rebuffed partly because of his status as a commercial artist (they did commercial art too but they didn't flaunt it the way he did) also they thought he was too "swishy" too flamboyantly gay.
A lot of his work was in greeting cards, portrait sketches, and book illustrations for friends.
He had two styles, one was looser, warmer and more like that of the abstract expressionists. People preffered his other colder, hard edged work. Friend Emilio de Antonio said, "it's our society, it's who we are, it's absolutely beautiful and naked."
He and Roy Lichtenstein were doing the same things at the same time completely independantly. When he first saw L.'s work he was amazed at it's similarity to his own.
In the earliest work, (Popeye, dick Tracy) you can see teh artist's hand in drips, brushmarks and smudges. But by 1962 with his Soup Cans and Before and After paintings his work had become stark and impersonal.
He had a very hard time getting a show. Teh Ferus Gallery in L.A. showed his Soup Cans and the reaction was not favorable, a shop keeper down teh street put up a sign that said, "get the real thing here for 29 cents"
Emile de Antonio pressured Eleanor Ward to give him a show at her Stable Gallery. She pulled a $2 bill out of her wallet and told Warhol if he'd paint that, she'd give him a show.
Teh response to his dollar bill paintings was imediate and powerful. Warhol became instantly famous within the Manhattan art world. He began to work with images of celebrities. Elvis, Elizabeth Taylor, people whose images were already iconic.
What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.
- The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to B and Back Again), 1975, ISBN 0-15-671720-4
Brillo Boxes indicate a connection between minimalism and Pop Art. They echo (or are echoed by the minimalist cube forms that followed).
Always remained very detached, but still open to a whole range of influences. In 1964 he opened a studio called The Factory which was basically a hangout for all the young artists and hip people. He would hang out in teh center and let the people there do whatever they wanted. He was described as royalty, everything revolved around him and everyone was constantly vying for his attention.
At another opening in L.A. he met some big movie stars, subjects of past work. He decided that movies were more fun than art and began to make films. Was at the beginning of the independant film movement.
Then, on June 3, 1968 Valerie Solanas, a (crazy) member of the Factory crowd came in with a gun and shot him twice puncturing both lungs, his spleen, liver and esophagus. She also shot another man named Mario Amaya who was also there. She turned herself in to the police shortly after. She sad she shot him because he had "too much control over my life." Warhol spent a long time convalescing and was affected by those injuries for the rest of his life.
After that they tightened Factory security and wouldn't let just anybody in anymore. Warhol didn't want to do that because the people there were his inspiration.
He continued to work up until his death in 1987. He was obsessed with mechanism and expressed a desire to be a machine. The constant repetition of images causes tehm to loose some of their intensity. We begin to see the images as one picture and 'become conscious of hos bluntly images fo teh media assault us." His paintings do not just provide a transition from popular culture to high art, they call into question the uses to which we put our images. He was famous for his detachment. He claimed that he and his art were all surface, with nothing underneath. "Possibly the deadpan of Warhol's art reflected indifference to all of the philosophizing of the abstract expressionists in teh previous decade.
"The Pop idea was that anybody could do anything, so naturally we were all trying to do it."