Module 12

Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the '50s and '60s and Andy Warhol: Images of an Image

I selected Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the ‘50s amd’60s because the 1950s is one of my favorite decades, and I like to learn about it anytime I can. I watched Andy Warhol: Images of an Image because I have heard of Warhol before and I wanted to learn more about him and his art.

 In Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the ‘50s amd’60s I learned:

a.)   Kline claims he painted the color white just as he painted the color black

b.)   Franknthaler was influenced by Jackson Pollock

c.)   You cannot separate what de Kooning has painted from how he has painted it.

d.)   Jasper Johns moved from the impersonal to the personal in his subject matter. In his approach, from rational to emotional. And in his tone, from witty to somber.

e.)   Before Warhol, artists had painted each other before, but no one did it twenty-eight times in a row like Warhol.

f.)    Roy Lichtenstein concentrated on themes that had always stirred human and artistic passions, above all, love and war. To do so, he looked to the world of the comic strip.

In Andy Warhol: Images of an Image I learned:

a.)   Death was his main theme

b.)   Used Marilyn Monroe right after she committed suicide to bring the artist “back to life” for her fans

c.)   Used silk-screening so that he didn’t have to work so hard on the art

d.)   His loft was the hangout for local artists

e.)   He photographed  his friends when they were hanging out at his place and used them as art

f.)    Used Elizabeth Taylor when he thought she was close to death

 On page 503 in Living With Art, De Kooning admitted that he began each painting from a magazine photograph of a beautiful woman. It is also said that in the paintings, De Kooning’s  conscious and unconscious feelings toward women is reflected. Roy Lichtenstein based his early paintings on hand-drawn advertising and comic-book imagery. He was intrigued by the conventions that these forms had developed for depicting the world.

I really liked the Andy Warhol: Images of an Image video. I have silk-screened logos on t-shirts before, and I liked learning about how Warhol created silk-screen works of art. I did not like the other video as much as I thought I would. It was not very interesting.