The Art Machine: Andy Warhol's Pop Art

        Andy Warhol's art appears, on the surface, as simple commercial pop art, but when one takes a closer look at the mind behind the art, the viewer is transported into the unconscious. Through screen prints, Warhol was able to act as the machine his work made commentary on, a sort of social industry. His pieces Campbell's Soup Cans and Red Liz (a portrait of Elizabeth Taylor) show iconic images that are deeply embedded in popular culture, seeping their way into fine art.

Campbell's Soup Cans by Andy Warhol (American); 1962; synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two canvases.
Location: New York City, United States; The Museum of Modern Art.

        Warhol takes things commonly seen and without thinking simply reproduces them; he is reproducing the mass produced, every-day object or a person that is often seen in films, on TV, or in photographs. Devoid of personality and emotion, the viewer is left with simply the image.  In a series of canvases, Warhol presents Campbell's Soup cans in a way that takes something every day and ordinary and transforms it into a statement regarding the use of machinery in our lives as consumers.  The easily recognized icon of the soup can in the image series condenses Warhol's message until it is unavoidable.

Red Liz by Andy Warhol (American); 1962; synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas.
Location: San Francisco, United States; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

        Similarly, Warhol's portraits of Elizabeth Taylor (he did the portrait thirteen times: Silver, Blue, Orange, Yellow, Chartreuse, etc.), titled Red Liz, takes the actress and presents her as a logo, remarking on the idea of people as commercial property—ways to make money.  It is not photo-realistic, but, rather, it presents Taylor in bold, saturated, and semi-garish yet amazingly refined color combinations (turquoise, red, pink, and black). The act of doing this furthers his agenda that even an ugly painting is still valuable not because of the quality of the art, but because the art depicts some one held in high regard. Warhol essentially compares Elizabeth Taylor to commercial property, like the Campbell's Soup can; she was just turned out by the Hollywood machine.

        Both Campbell's Soup Cans and Red Liz demonstrate how two very different subject matters, a can of soup and an actress, realize America's machine.  Through the use of graphic styles and bold colors, Warhol is able to elevate the every day into fine art through his compositions' colors, patterns and subconscious messages.  Perhaps most importantly is that Warhol's personality and appearance distinguished the man from the image.