Penny Lane- 9/22/09

The Andy Warhol “Personalities” exhibit at The Cornell Fine Arts Museum offered a significant glimpse into the advent of the post-modernist perspective. Warhol’s interpretation of kitsch culture has now come to define the High-Art spectrum of Pop. Because many of his works played upon common images found in everyday life (Brillo boxes and Campbell’s soup cans), the originality and talent of Warhol was often called into question by critics of his era. While many of his pieces were merely copies of products or photographs, the statement of Warhol’s art was undeniably unique. He saw a pattern in popular social cues that had gone unnoticed for decades. He threw culture back in America’s face with a jarring approach that ultimately produced recognition of Pop culture outside of the art world. Warhol was also fascinated with the idea of the avant-garde persona and pseudo celebrity. His entourage ruled the New York social scene from the Silver Sixties through the era of Studio 54. The term “superstar” was coined by the artist to describe people that possessed qualities outside the framework of normalcy. He also described the concept of 15 minutes of fame, which has so strongly come to define our reality show obsession today. Warhol’s wide assortment of friends often served as his subjects through his years as an artist. During his lifetime, Andy often switched the focus and mediums of his work. He initially became famous for his prints, but was also an extensive film-maker and photographer. I use the term film-maker rather than director intentionally because Warhol rarely gave any instruction within an individual study. Instead he would often tell the subject to let the action and dialogue occur naturally. Warhol often suffered from nervous anxiety and was in fact quite the introvert. For this reason, he was very skilled at observing people and found natural action to be most interesting form of human expression. Additionally, the Polaroid photographs displayed in the museum parallel the notion of candid immediacy he was dedicated to capturing. Benjamin often discusses the notion of authenticity vs. imitation in his argument on the reproduction of culture. Two sides could successfully dispute and prove Warhol’s art to fall under either category. However, it is Andy Warhol’s unique approach to cultural commentary that has kept his work so prevalent and influential throughout the epoch of post-modernism.