Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

As one of the top illustrators on Madison Avenue in the early 1950s,Warhol developed a fine sense of how to give an image graphic clout. Hebegan employing this skill in 1960 in a series of large paintings of comic stripfigures and cheap advertisements. But when he saw how much better Lichtenstein’ssimilar comic strip paintings were done, he switched to picturesof multiple representations of Campbell’s soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, anddollar bills (Figure 23). By the end of 1962 he was using silkscreen to speed upthe process and achieve something of the impersonal, “cool,” and mechanicallyreproduced look of commercial products. He then expanded his imageryto include a variety of other mass-media images, including movie stars,celebrities, and newspaper photographs and stories. People found somethinghypnotic about his endlessrepetitions of theseimages, and they wereeven imitated in fashiondesign.Warhol does notseem to have intendedany negative connotationsregarding massproducedgoods or acquisitiveconsumerism.He appeared to simplyaccept everything. Hisexplanation was deceptivelysimple: “Pop art isliking things.” He calledhis famous New Yorkstudio The Factory todemystify the idea of thespecial environment ofthe artist’s studio and toshift the emphasis in artfrom the producer to theconsumer. His repetitive,film-like treatment of asingle image gave hissometimes emotionalimages (for example,electric chairs and carFigure 23. Andy Warhol. Green Coca-Cola Bottles. 1962.Oil on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art,New York141