In order to make a valuable argument, shouldn’t you know a little about what you’re arguing about? Let’s say you were in a heated debate about sports. In order to make your argument stronger, shouldn’t you know some inside information? Let’s say a Yankee fan and a Met fan were arguing about baseball. In order for the Yankee fan to make a more valid argument, they should know a little bit about baseball.How can you criticize something without knowing anything about what you are criticizing? The answer is you can’t. In order for you to be able to criticize something, you must know a little about what you’re criticizing. That’s why it shouldn’t be viewed as hypocrisy when an artist is an active member of society. An artist plays a very important role of being a social critic. In order for the artist to be a social critic, doesn’t he need to know a little about the people he’s going to be criticizing? As an active member of society the artist can know what elements of society need to be criticized and what elements don’t.
Andy Warhol was an active member in society, as well as a social critic. You may wonder, wouldn’t that make him a hypocrite; how could he criticize the very environment that he was a part of? Well as said before he got to know his community better this way, and was able to criticize society in a more effective way by understanding the society that he was a part of.
If you were to go into the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum without knowing anything about Andy Warhol, by the time you were exiting the first part of the exhibit, you could come to the conclusion that Andy Warhol did in fact live the life of a celebrity. The last room of the first part of the exhibit consists of photographs. These photographs are of so many different celebrities. These celebrities were a part of his social circle. If Andy Warhol were to have a facebook, that room would represent what his facebook would be like. The photographs throughout the room would be the ones he would have posted online and the people in the photographs would be his “friends” on facebook. This shows you that Andy Warhol himself was a celebrity as well.
From being so closely connected to celebrity life, Warhol was able to know its pros and cons, and was able to accurately portray its flaws through his artwork. Much of Andy Warhol’s work was focused on simple, everyday things, for example his black and white advertisements; especially his remarkably famous Campbell’s chicken noodle soup can, as well as many other simple everyday things. Here he takes a moment to appreciate the simple things in life. So although he was involved in the extravagance of celebrity life, his paintings reflected the opposite, which was the simplistic view of life, and appreciation of the little things.
Andy Warhol also brings up religion in his artwork. The very last room in the exhibit consists of many religious images, for example the painting of the Last Supper. We also see religious messages appearing in some of his other works of art, for example in many of his pieces where it says “sin no more”. This constant reminder of religion is Warhol’s commentary on society and society’s values.
Andy Warhol’s success in being a social critic was due to the fact that he understood society so well. He was an active member of the society that he criticized. He was able to capture the beauty of simple things in life, while still being able to live such an extravagant lifestyle.
