The Warhol precedent in today's Contemporary Art

Via Wired

According to Arthur Danto’s 1997 After the end of art, since the 1970’s art has been “emerging to the sunny Elysian Fields of universal permissiveness never to leave”[1]. Although the idea is highly controversial, the historical perspective of the evolution of art since the mid 1970’s, is that it has evolved according to the art industry which has been highly affected by cash sloshing of investors and corporations, whether art related or not, who increasingly demanded profits and benefits for their individual interests. Nevertheless, as time passed by, systemic incidents have affected the linear evolution of art and society’s understandings of it. In nature, mass can neither be created nor destroyed, it may be rearranged in space or changed in form. With the capitalism overflow in the arts since the mid 70’s, that is exactly was has been happening. Contemporary art was becoming increasingly commoditized, however in order to understand the process through which it went, it should be looked at from the perspective of the artist that has had an immensely profound influence not just on contemporary art and its market, but also on worldwide society. This was the case of Andy Warhol. Jeffrey Deitch recently stated: “He (Andy Warhol) has become one of the most influential people in all of contemporary culture. You see the influence in painting, sculpture, performance, photography, film, even journalism. Life as performance, life as art, reality TV- it’s all Warhol world”[2]. Thus confirming the ideological validity of Jameson’s essay “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”, whose main thrust for underlining the cultural product of Postmodernism was in fact Andy Warhol[3]. And of course opening the persistent debate of whether our society is still in essence purely postmodernist, mirrored by Glen Adamson’s[4] statement: “Postmodernism is a sort of early warning system for the lives we lead now… But this is what happens: the radical fringe become the dominant look.”[5]

Andy Warhol was an authentic visionary of his time, just as Marcel Duchamp was during the first half of the 20th century; remarked by Rachel Wolff in this way: “Warhol’s most obvious legacy is his astute appropriation of mass-produced products. Of course, he wasn’t the first artist to use everyday imagery and ephemera in his work. He was predated by Marcel Duchamp with his ready-mades...”[6]. The US postmodernists of the 80’s New York scene knew exactly who Andy Warhol was and what he was doing. Many tried to replicate through his results through media fame, but it was not just about being on a screen, billboard or on the mouth of every cultural gossip of the time; it was about why you managed to get all the way there.

[1] Stallabras, J., (2004), Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford Uni. Press, Oxford, p. 111.

[2] Wolff, R., (2012), Warhol Warhol Everywhere, ARTnews, September 2012, p. 76-81

[3] Hopkins, D., (2000), After Modern Art 1945-2000, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 199.

[4] Curator of “Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990” held at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2011.

[5] Levin, K., (2012), How PoMo Can You Go?, ARTnews, October 2012, p.80-85.

[6] Wolff, R., (2012), op. cit., p. 79.