Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola was born on 6 August 1928 in Oakland.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into a Byzantine Catholic family. His parents were
Slovakian immigrants and much of this heritage was instilled throughout his
childhood. At the age of eight, Warhola contracted Chorea, a disease affecting
the nervous system. Due to this, he was bed-ridden and his mother taught him to
draw at this time. At fourteen, his father passed away because of having a
jaundiced liver; he didn’t attend the funeral because of being so distraught.
In 1949, Warhola got a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and
moved to New York, dropping the ‘a’ at the end of his surname to become known
as Warhol. He worked for Glamour magazine and became one of the most successful
commercial artists of the 1950’s. He debuted the concept of Pop Art, which is
the mass production of commercial goods. Pop Art recognises the persuasive
nature of materialism and consumerism using flat imagery and usually bright
colours. The Pop Art movement began as a revolt against traditional views on what
art should be and was inspired by consumerism, pop music and Hollywood movies.
During this period, in 1964, Warhol opened his own art studio which was named
“The Factory “. In 1968, Warhol was shot
by an aspiring writer and feminist and was seriously injured. While recovering,
he spent weeks in New York hospital and went onto publish books in the 1970’s
like The Philosophy of Andy
Warhol. This event could’ve perhaps made Warhol feel that he had to isolate
himself from the outside world because if not, he would be in danger. It
could’ve made him feel like an outcast and so he perhaps used camouflage to
remove his identity and appear as more of a part of general society, rather
than having morals which oppose the majority view.
In the piece “Camouflage”, Warhol uses acrylic paint and a silkscreen
print. In his other work, he also uses a blotted line technique and rubber
stamps. Silkscreen printing is also called screen printing, this is where a
screen is used with a template on and ink is pushed through the screen and onto
the selected surface. The image that is revealed in crisp and neat, it can also
be replicated many times to produce several prints. He depicts everyday
consumer goods like Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola. In “Camouflage” there are 4
silkscreen prints of camouflage lined up horizontally. From left to right,
traditional camo colours are used, followed by red, pink and white, then blue,
grey and yellow, then dark red, dark blue, blue and off-white.
The form of “Camouflage” is 2D and each print is 1830mm x 1830mm. There
is a strong contrast between darker and lighter colours in this piece. The far-left
print has colours such as olive, canary, antique pewter and obsidian. The
left-middle print is red, coral and terracotta, the right-middle is cyan, aqua,
yellow ochre and cerulean. Finally, the far right is ivory, crimson, royal blue
and violet. The work has a smooth texture as it is a silkscreen print with
acrylic paint, this gives it a sleek finish.
Multiple prints allow multiple colours to be used, along with acrylic
paint. As the prints are arranged
horizontally, they are viewed left to right as this is what we naturally do.
This also occurs because the eyes are drawn to the first print as is it
something that we recognise as it is in traditional camouflage colours. As you
look along, the colours get further from reality. Repeating patterns appeared
to interest Warhol, as it is seen in many of his pieces of work. By varying the colours of the camouflage, the military
symbolism is removed and emphasises the idea of hiding your identity or perhaps
sheltering yourself from the outside world. Warhol was known for hiding his
identity, for example his homosexuality when he was younger. He also wore
makeup and wigs to cover any of his personal insecurities. He was also known
for being quite closed, this was shown in his interviews where he would give
one word replies or short responses. Furthermore, he could’ve reprinted
camouflage to remove his own identity as a push to try and become what you
would expect of an American citizen. He may have done this to conform with the
majority view of the country based on morals. However, Warhol may have produced
this piece in a protest to conformity and to promote individuality. As the
colours of each print become more differentiated from the expected camouflage
ones, it suggests that people shouldn’t be afraid to be individualistic and
challenge society’s standards.
I have been influenced by this idea of camouflage and hiding. I have
been collaging photographs of my Dad’s service in the army in the shape of
camouflage, to form objects like trousers and broken bottles. I have been using
black and white to create tonal representation like Warhol does. However, I am
going to look at creating more tone by using stronger contrasts between dark
and light colour. I am looking at the idea of hiding by having different
backgrounds and using the camo-shaped photographs to cover parts of this. I
have used painted backgrounds in colour and white, I have also worked onto flat
card and corrugated card. The corrugated card gives more texture than Warhol’s
prints but the amount of dimension this gives interests me. Warhol’s work has
inspired me to think about the deeper meaning of hiding behind camouflage and
this is what I intend to explore.
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