ART BE POPPIN - ANDY WARHOL

ANDY WARHOL

Warhol was trained as a commercial artist, and is best known for founding (or claiming to found) the Pop Art Movement in American art. He developed the technique of projecting photographic images to a silk screen, a process that enabled him to produce repetitive patterns within the same piece relatively quickly. Typical works are of famous people, everyday objects (soup cans, dollar bills) and macabre scenes of car wrecks and electric chairs.

Warhol's work was made between the 1920's - 1980's when he passed away on February 27, 1987 in New York City. Warhol was influenced by many different things, He was influenced by his Byzantine Catholicism, especially the iconography of the church - he ended up making sort of "modern" religious icons with famous people's faces and common household products.

Above are images of Jesus from The Last Supper cycle (1986). Warhol made almost 100 variations on the theme, which the Guggenheim felt "indicates an almost obsessive investment in the subject matter." These pop art images of Jesus are very similar to the ones seen on Karla Spetic's S/S 13 garments, however she only used head shots of Jesus. I think experimenting with different images of Jesus from the scenes of the last supper like Warhol has and using Spetic's colour palette would work well for an all over print statement tee. 

He was originally a commercial illustrator (making drawings for advertisements), so he was heavily influenced by commercials and the advertising industry. 

Colour wasn’t the only thing Warhol had going for him though. This is a Warhol peice from the 1980s, dealing with themes of war, death and religion. In these pieces Warhol depended on size and starkness to catch the eye. This quote "REPENT AND SIN NO MORE!" could be used on a tee, there is a lot of statement tees with quotes on in high street stores at the moment. 

Andy Warhol's work is very exaggerated. He used block colour and a bright palette to create pop art, unrealistic images. He created his peices quickly and simply as he said this was the quickest way to make money.  I find Andy Warhol's work very iconic and pleasing, I feel his style art will work well for a S/S 2015 statement tee as the bright colours suit the season as seen on Karla Spetics S/S 2013 collection.