He was not an evil man, but one lifted to obscene heights by a drug-addicted hippie generation who was pathologically obsessed with "statements". Art is not about statements relating to one's petty childhood angst or "confrontation with Americana". Art is timelessness, and Andy Warhol's work had a shelf life surpassed by actual Campbell's soup.
Who hasn't been on a surreal vacation and upon driving home dreaded their return to a stuffy office, every familiar landmark and mini-mart alongside the road slumping their shoulders another inch? It's truly how one feels after exploring the timeless works of the Masters then being reminded that the mouth-breathing masses would rather look at a soup can, reliving the same satire over and over. There is nothing more agonizing than the mundane. There is no intelligent enemy less bearable to be in the presence of than a friendly simpleton you haven't the heart to dismiss. Nauseating.
Whilst Warhol was said to be a competent traditional illustrator early in his career, the hippie climate must have turned him into yet another "profound statement" cash-cow, thriving on cheap irony and highlighting quirks of industrial living that everyone else already saw. And the fact that everyone else already saw it made him a "folk art" hit for the same reason rock music was exploding: The newly literate Plebeian (over)population views art as a social event and passtime more so than a spiritual experience or ode to heroism. Sarcastic tomato soup cans and lyrics about "hanging out with chicks" would ultimately exterminate any aristocratic fine art culture dwindling in the American mainstream. Self-exploration would start, and end, at age 15, and any pun or revelation pandering to such would become "iconic".
These disgusting paintings speak for themselves. Whilst it's easy to imagine post-singularity spacefarers millennia from now marveling at Rembrandt's brilliant use of light, shadow, and depth and regarding his works as borderline-Holy relics of Terran life, it's extremely difficult to imagine a pair of Cheech & Chong-esque losers marveling at this dumb soup can (and the so-obvious-why-bother statement it makes about modern life) in a more enlightened age. "Hip" is mental illness which correlates to low intelligence and lack of honor.
Finding this has at least somehow renewed my faith in humanity. This man's seismic influence is the greatest travesty to befall the human race in the history of civilization.
ReplyDeleteYou're not alone buddy. Can't stand ppl saying this dull, obnoxious and talentless fag (nothing against the gay) is important in art history.
DeleteHear hear!! My good fellows!! What saddens me is that we SOMEHOW are a VAST, VAST minority. I mean- I get it, there's no accounting for taste, and hence SOME moron is bound to be either genuinely attracted to garbage or swindled into believing it has some intrinsic- albeit hidden- value. The odd joke here is one of scale: it's as though the ENTIRE world has lost 1000% of it's capacity for reason and observation. The TRUE irony being that undoubtedly SCORES of people pre- Warhol panted mundane things either as a lark, for practice, or just for lack or imagination or resource. How unfortunate for them that they were not branded as "genius"
ReplyDeleteHear hear!! My good fellows!! What saddens me is that we SOMEHOW are a VAST, VAST minority. I mean- I get it, there's no accounting for taste, and hence SOME moron is bound to be either genuinely attracted to garbage or swindled into believing it has some intrinsic- albeit hidden- value. The odd joke here is one of scale: it's as though the ENTIRE world has lost 1000% of it's capacity for reason and observation. The TRUE irony being that undoubtedly SCORES of people pre- Warhol panted mundane things either as a lark, for practice, or just for lack or imagination or resource. How unfortunate for them that they were not branded as "genius"
ReplyDeleteHe was an awful painter, and also Roy Liechtenstein, the guy who tought stealing a draw from a comic was art
ReplyDelete