I was surprised by the exhibition Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists. Fifty Years. I was never aware of the overwhelming influence Warhol had on the art world let alone his ability to capture seemingly mundane aspects of daily life. It was exactly this realization that the exhibition was trying to portray and feel that the layout and artists chosen directly portrays the reach of Warhol’s influence. Along that note, it is interesting to me that much of Warhol’s inspiration derived from public media sources like the news, tabloids, and commercial imagery.
Similarly, many of his admires and artists featured along side his work, are influenced by many of the same things and are in part indebted to Warhol for pioneering an artistic representation of popular media.
Leaving the exhibition, it dawned on me how influential corporate advertisement is to our world. The past, especially the 60’s, seems to have a nostalgic separation from corporate influences when compared to today. However, through Warhol’s work I realized how wrong that was and just how influential and a part of our lives commercial advertisement is.
I agree and disagree with many of the critiques. I agree with many of the claims that much of the imagery used is fairly mundane, or as Roberta Smith from the New York Times puts it, market-hardy perennials. However, Warhol’s and others artistic representation of these commonly used marketing symbols portrays a deeper connection or dependency we have towards images in the popular media.
Chuck Close’s work has always been a favorite of mine. A common thread throughout the world is a bunch of little things coming together to create something bigger and I feel Chuck’s work is a perfect representation of that.
