I’m a big fan of Andy Warhol. He always demonstrated his unique perspective on life by showing us images that were unexpected. He excelled at making the ordinary appear extraordinary (Campbell’s soup cans) and the extraordinary appear mundane (Marilyn Monroe). So when I saw that there would be a session on Warhol’s role in the digital world, I was excited.
In this session I was reminded how Warhol loved to use a surrogate to create his art. For example, some of his earlier work was created through ink blots. Warhol would create a drawing in ink and then press a clean piece of paper onto the wet ink. That piece of paper with the blotchy transfer was the final work of art. The ink drawing itself was not the art. Same with his famous silk screens. He created the surrogate – the silkscreen – and it produced the final work of art.
Warhol used human surrogates to create other works of art. Apprentices would do most all of the physical work as the carried out his directions. He would collaborate and create art together with other artists. He even invited friends to take a hand in the creation of some of his works.
Of course as you might realize none of this has much to do with digital art. And I’ll never know what the connection was between Warhol and the digital world because the session was so far off topic, I became frustrated and left before it was over. This was the only session I bailed on and I’m happy to say that most of the sessions I attended were remarkable.
Here are my session notes.
- Sweltering. Boring. Way off topic.
- Young Andy Warhol. His father was non present. His mom was an artist and she would make flower pots out of Campbell’s soup cans.
- Saturday art classes
- He learned at Carnegie Melon how to create imagery that sells
- Always an innovator
- Ink blots became this constant technique of using a surrogate to create the art. Warhol manipulates something else (silkscreen, paper with wet ink, interns, friends, photos) and that something is what creates the physical output of his art.
- Always looking for ways to get art to the masses
- Film. Sleep. Empire. Sneaky.
End of notes.
The Warhol session was a disappointment. But I’m so glad I didn’t have the kind of embarrassing trouble that my friend Tara experienced. I’ll tell you all about it in my next post. So stay with me.
