In the mid-1960s and already on the peak of his popularity Andy Warhol carried the products of mass-production and, usually, highly popular among the consumers products into the realm of sculpture. The stack of boxes can remind a factory, in fact, the boxes were made by carpenters he employed and painted ‘with assistance from Gerard Malanga and Billy Linich and silkscreens the with logos’ [Warhol.org]. The gallery with the sculptures looked more like a warehouse with different products as the boxes were very similar to the real ones. The work of art was so ordinary and mundane it caused a lot of controversy and a lot of people raised the question and good or high art, it was not the first time, similarly, the concept of ready-made was introduced by Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp took ordinary objects and dragged them into the art space positioning it as an artwork, Warhol took the products of mass consumption made on huge factories into his own Factory (the studio were most of his works were made and the place which attracted many celebrities, artists and was a ground for Warhol’s experimentations) and also posed them as a work of art. Duchamp made people question what is the work of art in time the definition of art was shattering, while Warhol being a Pop art representative questioned the ideas of icons and pop images in the world of consumption, he reminded each person of their kitchen or pantry, the shelves of famous products in the supermarket, the feelings the viewer experiences being among the products of everyday use. For some people it is the reminder that they are surrounded by art, for others it is a provocative statement that popular art is also the product of mass consumption.
As well as Marcel Duchamp it also reminds as that it is so hard to tell the difference between art and non-art, it is almost impossible. This also leads to the question of importance of artistic intention and the ideas behind the work, how people experience art and artistic space, how successfully the ideas are transferred to the viewers. As well as Duchamp, he questions the aesthetics, the iconicity, the process of creation (there is practically no difference between the boxes created by Warhol and the ones sitting in the supermarket). At the time Pop art emerged anything could be art but the image of the artist and the idea of artistic space was still strong, being popular and acknowledged artist Andy Warhol still helped to destroy some of the preconceptions still existing in the 60’s and nowadays there is no more limits, everything and everywhere could be art.
Duchamp was more interested in the ideas behind art, not the art itself. He also selected mass-produced and commercially available objects, often aggravating, like urinal. He claimed to choose the object ‘based on a reaction of visual indifference, with at the same time a total absence of good or bad taste’ [MoMA.org]. Warhol made one step forward, it was not traditional ready-made, he carefully made each box, the process of creation and collaboration was still important to him, but for the viewer it is not just ready-made but the image imprinted in the consciousness by everyday life. The boxes put together make a pyramid, ironically, an sculptural idol of American housewives.
Works cited
‘Brillo: But is it Art?’ Warhol.org. 11 April 2016. Web.
http://www.warhol.org/education/resourceslessons/Brillo--But-is-it-Art-/#ixzz45Rx33ujg’
‘Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade’ MoMA.org. 11 April 2016. Web.
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada/marcel-duchamp-and-the-readymade
