I have seen a number of exhibits and many many Warhol films!

(I am also here to LEARN ; )

I stood in front of the HUGE Warhol silkscreen of NIXON painted in a sickly bleeding red sickly green paint with the words "VOTE MAGOVERN" across it many years ago when I was in NY.

THAT IS ART.

I was also lucky to see many of Andy's early drawings which I think are really beautiful and like no one elses ; D

ORIGINAL.

I think Andy and Marcel Duchamp are the most important artists of the 20th century...and also have a lot in common with each other ; )

They both took items and images that were so overly visible that they had become almost INVISIBLE....and turned them into ART.

They changed the way we SEE!!

How Amazing is THAT??

Duchamp took regular utilitarian objects...a urinal, a bottle rack, etc. and put them in museums...and called them "READYMADES". He signed functional objects and they had never been considered ART before.

The mundane becomes beautiful.

He took the Mona Lisa and painted a moustache on her face and claimed it as his own work of art by signing HIS name to it.

Andy did something similar with the Cambell's soup cans but different.

He made each can slightly different...and made the mundane and the commercial sameness of identical "products" UNIQUE!

Andy used the over used media images of Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando and so many other celebrities...and made giant silk-screened multiples of them...all looking similar but no two are REALLY ALIKE when you SEE THEM up CLOSE.

It forced people to SEE things that they had taken for granted in a whole new light. TO LOOK WITH A NEW KIND OF SIGHT.

Andy took what was commercial and average and turned it into art...

billboards, comic strips, ads, soup cans, brillo boxes....

I do not think he was copying Duchamp...I think he turned CONSUMERISM and POPular culture into ART! I think he was making a commentary on what we are seduced by....and brainwashed by...THE MEDIA!

There are many many books on Warhol...and I would start with the fun ones rather than the overly academic ones...because Warhol is a treat!

I would begin with POPISM and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol if you have not already read them and go from there.

It's funny, alot of people have said to me "Andy Warhol is not really an Artist...he just copies stuff"

I think he was brilliant and like Duchamp flipped art on it's aSs!

It is not just about the ART but THE IDEA behind it.

It was totally original at the time.

Both Warhol & Duchamp were trained artist's and quite skilled. Duchamp was a trained painter and Andy was a highly skilled commercial artist.

Have the NOT seen his earlier work?

the cats, the shoes, the angels.

ThankGodToChristforAndyWarhol!

Thanks for opening up this tribe.

Please join the Andy Warhol Tribe I moderate as well...

It is called: THE FACTORY

invite.tribe.net/id/8950f3...6f037abaee

Would love to have you join ; )

best

confetta