Lesson 6 - PBS - Warhol

While walking to lunch yesterday, my 14 year old, soon-to-be stepdaughter inquired as to which artist I was learning about this week.  When I revealed who it was, she proclaimed that she hadn't heard of him before, but I assured her that she has seen some of his work, if not some art that was influenced by him.  I then described the grid, silk-screen paintings of Marilyn Monroe and she immediately knew to whom I was referring to.

 It's obvious that Andy Warhol's influence has spread throughout many generations.

It was fascinating to discover where some of Warhol's inspiration came from.  It was mentioned, in this week's video, that every Saturday and Sunday, Warhol (then known as Andrew Warhola) and his mother would walk several miles to church services.  In that church near his Slovak ghetto home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were examples of artwork that were only revealed during communion.  These images were arranged in a grid-like pattern and showed 2-dimensional versions of several Saints.  It is a likely conclusion that this image of 'a collage of saints' stayed with him for many years after his church experiences.

Another unlikely source of inspiration was that of working in the advertising business.  When he first came to New York City, he landed a job with Glamour magazine sketching drawings of women's shoes.

His unique artistic style with blotted lines had somewhat of a 'printed' look and captured the attention of others in the commercial world.  After selling himself to various companies (sometimes with his portfolio presented in a brown paper bag), he eventually created works for record companies, art dealers and a number of magazines.  It was unusual to discover that his first printing with Glamour magazine contained a typo when he was credited by name for the drawings.  Warhola never bothered to correct the fact that the last 'a' was omitted from his name, and continued as Andy Warhol from that point on.  But as much as he succeeded in the world of advertising, it wasn't enough.  The artist longed form fame, as was evident when he stated, "I was well known as a commercial artist... but if you wanted to be a serious artist, you weren't supposed to have anything to do with commercial art".  He later proved that he could become famous doing exactly that.  From coke bottles, to Brillo pads to Campbell's Soup cans, Warhol revealed a completely new form of creating in his Pop-Art.

Andy Warhol was also inspired by his mother, a constant supporter in his  life.  Julia Warhola was talented in drawing, as well as singing, and always pushed her youngest son to pursue his creative talents.  During his childhood, he was very ill and spent a lot of time at home, rather than school.  His mother used that time to encourage further creations, often rewarding his fine work with chocolate bars.  Julia was so supportive of her son's creativity that she enrolled him in free art classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art, where he spent endless hours learning about artists of the past.  She eventually came to stay with her son in New York, intentionally for a short amount of time.  However, his mother continued to live as his roommate for more than 20 years.

During his childhood, Warhol was painfully shy, and possibly even autistic.  These characteristics led to some painful struggles in his personal life which he fought to overcome.  He reflected on those times when he said. " ... sometimes, people let the same problems make them miserable for years, and they just say 'so,what?'  That's one of my favorite things to say - 'so,what?'  I don't know how I made it, through all the years before I learned to do that trick."  Perhaps his survival had something to do with the close relationship he had with his mother.

The darkest influence on the creations by Andy Warhol, would certainly be the topic of death.  For instance, his Marilyn paintings were began immediately after the announcement of her suicide.  His fans were also greatly moved by the images he captured of Jacqueline Kennedy as he created compilations of her expressions just before and just after JFK's assassination.

And then there were the paintings known as 'The Death and Disaster Pictures'.  Warhol created powerful images of car crashes and other tragedies.

Whatever Andy Warhol's inspirations were, his creations left a huge impact and influenced countless artists.  He art has affected so many people, some of them, like my future step-daughter, not even realizing who the artist is - but definitely recognizing that silk screened, blotted line style. I was even inspired, myself, when in my scrap-booking days, I created this 'Warhol-esque' page of a favorite picture of my son (circa 2003).