Before entering this class, believe it or not, I had never heard of Andy Warhol! I haven’t had much experience in the art field or taken many classes on this subject so going to the Brooklyn Museum to look at Warhol’s work was an exciting experience.
I hadn’t studied art in detail and didn’t have much interest in it before taking this class. Now that I’m being more exposed to art, I believe that an artist may have many responsibilities to society. An artist expresses his/her view in a unique way that can be done openly or secretly. Many times there are secret messages behind an artist’s work that are meant to send out opinions on how society behaves and may critique how humans behave. Furthermore, I believe one doesn’t have to be a hypocrite in order to be an active member of their community along with a social critic. If an artist expresses a specific view on his/her community, he/she can help improve the conditions through community service or charity. However if that artist does what he/she is fighting against, that reflects true hypocrisy and ignorance.
When I entered into the Warhol exhibit, I was surprised to see so many paintings of him! I thought to myself, “Wow this guy must be really obsessed with himself.” The painting that intrigued me in that room was The Strangler and it looked like he was killing himself. There were also paintings of his head in different angles and motions. I thought these were very unique self portraits and shed light on what his life was like. I figured he had social issues he had to deal with and had a complicated lifestyle. I guess I was right.
Walking through the doorway, I saw Oxidations which was made out of urine! I didn’t really think the art was that pleasing and all I saw were blobs. I mean if I looked close enough I guess I saw some sort of animal, but it wasnt THAT great. Up until now, I was pretty bored with his work. After a little while, we go into the room with all the pictures of the celebrities. This fascinated me because it delved deeper into Warhol’s life and his experiences. After thinking about it, I felt he was being a hypocrite because he had such a celebrity lifestyle and he shouldn’t be allowed to criticize it. If he really wanted, he didn’t absolutely HAVE to interact with all those people and live that sort of life. He could have worked towards improving lives of those less fortunate than him and all his “friends”.
I also found it interesting that Warhol had religious aspects in this work. His portrait with Jesus (peace be upon him) repeated over and over was very cool to see because it was like “BAM”, in your face. It also made me wonder how religious he was or if he even was religious at all? Nevertheless, in the same room there were portraits of his head once again, but just more creepy. I felt like he was trying to escape the pressures in his life or get out of something he was stuck in. This might even be the society he was associated with but I still feel that everyone has a final choice in whatever they do and he wasn’t permanently “stuck”.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing Warhol’s exhibit because I felt like it reflected whatever was going on in his life and mind. Though, I felt like a lot of the work shown in the exhibit was the work he was hired for by businesses. Therefore a big aspect of his life must have been working for these companies that needed new artistic themes, etc. In the end, I felt like there was a lot more to Andy’s work than just himself over and over again. It represented a bigger picture about his life and aspects that affected the society and its pressures surrounding him.
