The Controversy of Andy Warhol

“During the 1960s, I think, people forgot what emotions were supposed to be. And I don't think they've ever remembered,” commented well-known pop artist Andy Warhol. His silkscreen replications of public figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jackie Kennedy reflect this unemotional outlook. During the 1960s Andy Warhol served as the main influence on pop art and suffered criticism from members of the high-art society who believed that Warhol’s images lacked substance and emotion from his subjects. Despite the flat “mass produced” appearance of Warhol’s pieces, author Cecile Whiting of the Oxford Art Journal argues that his purpose in art was to hide the private figure so often depicted by the media and portray only the public image, which supports his outlook on life- what you see is what you get.

Time itself supports Andy Warhol’s reasoning for denying the private life of his artistic subjects. The time just preceding his emergence as a popular artist was the period of United States history commonly referred to as the Red Scare. The general public lost trust in the media because of false accusations concerning communists within the government and public offices. The private sectors of the lives of public figures were continuously becoming exposed through the media. Warhol desired to depict only the commonly known figure. Unlike the media and other artists, he did not attempt to expose anything about his subjects. A well known work by Andy Warhol is his Marilyn Monroe, which was created after her tragic and greatly publicized death. While the media and artists like James Gill and Derek Marlowe swarmed at the opportunity to expose the secrets that led to her death, Warhol produced a silkscreen of Monroe in the same image as she was forever portrayed in movies and the public eye, a blonde bombshell. Emotion is completely lacking from the piece that contains twenty photographs of Monroe’s face. Each image is practically the same, only with a different color scheme or grain. Seen in his silkscreen of Elizabeth Taylor in the period surrounding her death is the exact same controversy. When the media was in a frenzy over the secret life of celebrity Elizabeth Taylor, artist Andy Warhol created an image of her that could have been seen on any given day as an advertisement for a movie or product. There was nothing secretive about Andy Warhol or any of his subjects.

The silkscreen method chosen by Andy Warhol for the majority of his pieces is often criticized by high-artists because of its assembly line appearance. Warhol even named his art studio the “Factory” because of the mass produced appearance of his art. The artist behind the portrait could be anyone because with the technical silkscreen method Andy eliminates all brush strokes and hand gestures that make an artist an individual. He is quoted saying, “I think it would be so great if more people took up silk screens so that no one would know whether my picture was mine or somebody else's.” That’s what Andy Warhol liked about the method. He was able to hide his identity and, thus, his public image as a pop artist became his only image. Since his perpetual goal was to mask any individuality in his works, Warhol is criticized by individualists and expressionists. Author Cecile Whiting notes that Warhol not only followed this refusal of acknowledgment of a private life in his art, but he firmly practiced it in his everyday life. When interviewed by the media he would give straightforward answers, often one worded. He never gave his personal opinion and even stated once that he wished the interviewers would tell him how to respond beforehand because he was empty of any original response. Whether or not Warhol actually felt empty of a private life in the depths of his being will, of course, remain unknown to the public, but evidence supports the fact that Andy Warhol really felt that his only life was the one seen by everyone else; he had no secrets and he chose to ignore the private scandals of his artistic subjects.

Andy Warhol is an interesting figure in the art world because it seems to me that he defies most of the elements for which professional art stands. A lack of individuality, emotion, and deeper meaning are the topics of great controversy surrounding the work of Andy Warhol. While his works often times could be perceived as celebrity or consumer good advertisements, Warhol’s silkscreens transformed the boundaries of popular art.