Andy Warhol: Cultural Artist

Throughout the history of art, defining people have been setting the standard for what is culturally acceptable as "fine art."  The art timeline is full of critics denouncing works of art for not fitting the mold.  One art movement, however, changed the stiff standard of legitimate paintings: Pop Art.  Pop Art is a form of art that expresses the popular ideas of the time (thus POP Art) through the use of vibrant colors and simple subjects.  Pop Art is motivated by the feelings behind the art, and not as a custimization to what art critics at the time wanted or even expected.  Among the leading Pop Artists of the original movement was Andy Warhol.  One would be hard pressed to find someone with an art background who doesn't know of Warhol's works.

Many of Warhol's works are recognizable to the Average Joe, but perhaps none so much as his painting entitled Campbell's Soup Cans.  Campbell's Soup Cans is a painting of one of each of the thirty-two Campbell's soup flavors available in 1962, the year in which the work was painted.  When asked about the inspiration behind the work, Warhol stated that an art gallery owner, Muriel Latow, suggested that he paint, "something you see every day and something that everybody would recognize."  Warhol reportedly loved the idea and chose to paint soup cans because that is what he ate for lunch everyday.  Warhol's use of an everyday item that meant something to him personally represents his bold indifference to whether or not his works became critically acclaimed.  Warhol painted simply for the joy of painting subjects he loved, and not to satisfy the likes of stuck up art critics.

Not only a pioneer of painting pop art, Warhol was a pioneer in the business of pop art. In 1962, Warhol founded a business, named the factory, which he intended to use to mass-produce his paintings. In order to truly make his art “pop art,” he would have to get his paintings in the main stream. Warhol employed an army of other artists, in order to make silkscreen prints of his paintings. In addition to making prints of his paintings, Warhol also used his factory to make approximately 300 underground films, most of which were very odd compared to normal films of the day. Also produced in the factory, was a line of shoes deigned by many of the artists employed by Warhol.