Andy Warhol is sometimes called the Prince of pop art. I would refer to him as a maestro King of Pop art. His works have made a significant appearance in media. This can be attributed to the aesthetic emotions evoked from his artwork. The emotions are a result of the magnificent fresh colors he employs in his work. That is a fine composition that contains vivid extrinsic and extrinsic features that is thought-provoking. Well, one of his best artworks is “Marilyn Diptych”. This is an illustration of a notable personality during his time. Most of Andy’s paintings have a historical allusion that represents what affects our day-to-day lives. This is a foremost aspect that makes his pop art meaningful to the media industry of the 20th and 21st centuries. His art postulates the ambiguities experienced in his life as a middle-social class worker.
In this painting “Marilyn Diptych” he exposes the beauty and the enigmatic statue of Marilyn as a beautiful adored Goddess. However, the mystery behind her suicide is unsolved but Andy has cremated her in perfect art that shows her face and head. Maybe this was a depiction of her mental illness that she sometimes developed! When Marilyn died in August 1962, Andy could not wait to depict her in 50 repetitive images that emphasize her enigmatic beauty and stature. In fact, the color composition pays for the whole artwork! This silkscreen painting on canvas may make one notice the historic and social context in terms of lifestyle and democracy. This type of art carries the characteristics of Postmodernism art. There is a mixed form of parody and irony in the painting which evokes aesthetic emotions.
“Marilyn Diptych” is a multicolored silk work that mimics the all-encompassing culture and a personality that was most revered. This piece of art makes one be involved because of its size and the mind-numbing repetitive images. The density in hue decrease when your eyes move from left to right. The right part of the painting seems fragile and ill. From a first look, the color is sickening yet beckoning with its depth variation. His choice of 50 repetitive images was to conform to the idea of balance. From a general worm’s point of view, the audience can see the bottom line of the silk-screening is dull painted. On the left part of the painting, the images are generously painted in a vivid hue. This represents the enigmatic and jubilant lifestyle Marilyn lived. The middle image gives ambiguity and erroneous artistic features when he tries to make her blurred. Essentially, this explains the mental disturbances she encountered in her life before committing suicide. The far-right images are fragile and faintly hued in calming darkness that suggests loss of enthusiasm in life, hence, a reflection of her demise. The repetitive nature of the images in the portrait and imposed face shows the stages in life that a person ensues. The color composition brings forth the extrinsic and intrinsic features characteristic of his pop art artistic style. Therefore, Andy’s artistic brush in depicting Diptych gives the self-identity in the beauty that eventually fades when it is repeated. The qualities in the celebrity are shown in the happy face and degraded at some point in the painting by color density. Therefore, my eyes could decipher that the juxtaposition evident in the piece gives the difference between life and mortality of Marilyn (Gardner 1054).
Most of his art qualifies as a social commentary up-to-date. Most of his art was commercialized and earned a social place. The beginning of his artistic genius was when a friend socially suggested that he should resort to painting what he really loved. Amazingly, this created pop art that has been the focus of media and made has him a celebrity. While in his company called “The Factory”, he socially interacted with society by producing perfect art that met society’s demand in genres like; films, drawings, sculptures, and erotic photographs. His social collaboration with other artists makes his depiction of the American culture significant and perfectly reflected. His technique was a profound inspiration to industries in making replicas of items that are useful but still maintain the quality, e.g., the dollar. Although one can say that his artwork was career-oriented but evidently from the above argument, the art he displayed served his best interest and not merely commercial.
Other notable examples of Andy Warhol’s works are the “Campbell’s soup cans” that he designed. He made an economic and social significance to America. Another piece of Warhol’s paintings that used imagery was the sensitive drawings of the shoes that were commercialized (Bourdon 51). This was his debut in the commercial scene. The second most famous sculpture was the silkscreened imagery replicas of Soap. The series was made of wood. Lastly, the most imagery and repetitive works made by Andy were the Silver Cloud balloons that were used in exhibitions (Warhol 21).
Works Cited
Bourdon, David. Warhol. New York City: Harry N. Abrams, 1989 Print.
Gardner, Helen, et al. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. New York, NY: Thompson Wadsworth, 2004. Print.
Warhol, Andy and Pat, Hacket. POPism: The Warhol ’60s. New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Print.