The influence of Pop Art on today’s Society.

The influence of Pop Art on today’s Society.

Andy Warhol’s contribution to the development of art and society and popular iconic culture started with his subject matter being derived from ordinary household items. These had a personal significance to him- the Campbell  Soup can series and the Coke Bottle, for example, represented all things luxurious and equal and in a fast growing modern society of deccadence. The American boom of consumerism and excitement of the glitzy new post 2^nd war world of the 1950’s coincided with downtown Philadelphia. Born of Czechoslovakian parents of modest means and having suffered a neurological disorder which affected his appearance (he had pock- marked skin and hair loss and great sensitivity to light) and this in turn affected his self- confidence, meant that Andy spent his early youth in the kitchen at home producing artwork. This started his early escapist photomontages and artwork developed from magazines and newspaper cuttings which were supplied by his Mother. Andy idolised anything new and modern which shaped his view of the world and turned his imaginative fantasy (based upon a media constructed reality) into an actual consumerist iconic reality which has shaped modern Western culture ever since.

The early beginnings of modern art started off with Courbet’s development of the idea of the artist as being central and in control of the whole creative process (being an artist as an individual allowed to express themselves within their artwork) instead of being dictated to by a patron. (See left Gustave Courbet’s ‘The Meeting’ showing Courbet the artist on the right assessing the deferential Patron on the left.)(See bibliography: Ego: the strange and wonderful world of self-portraits [DVD recording] / directed by Sebastian Barfield).

If we look at the art work of the Dadaists and the early Russian revolutionist ideas of the death of an author (By Barthes) and art being used as a political vehicle to express a Marxist ideal of the artwork being the total overall product of a collective of artists, as if being no more important as a product hot off the production line in a factory and being hugely influenced by the industrial revolution. Obvious connections can be made here with Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’ collective group of artists and Andy’s Pop art movement. With these ideas he created an atmosphere of self- indulgence, opulence and hedonism in an escapist underground movement of the 1960’s. Although in Andy Warhol’s case the ego of the artist was definitely still there, unlike his Marxist forbearers.

In a way Andy’s art-house idea harkened back to the traditional accepted aesthetics of the Renaissance artist, with him as ‘master’ and having overall command and control of the artwork or art ‘happening’ atmosphere.

See picture of Valesquize’s studio right.

Andy was the ideas generator, with his fellow artists remaining anonymous and in the background, with Andy getting all the credit when the artworks went on exhibition and sold for lots of money. He re-introduced the idea of artist as superstar in fact some claim he invented this ideal. He famously said ‘Everyone must have their fifteen minutes of fame’, making it happen by capturing people on camera in his silver foiled art factory studio.

Whether caught on cine/ video or Polaroid film it seems Andy had given people permission to express themselves creatively, live out fantasies, play roles as actors in their own life- movie and explore new territories of the mind with drugs or psychedelic media in a party-fuelled atmosphere where ‘anything could happen’. He encouraged people to live to excess and on the edge, rebelling against the stuffy ‘nice’ society of the more conventional art establishment where Andy’s new rules were seen as giving people permission to be narcissistic, greedy and wasteful and producing talentless art. Andy viewed everything through film, playing a role in front of the cameras  as well as behind them, turning them into larger than life silk screen prints in garish colours, repeating them in an industrial style factory approach to art as image (previously silk screening had been used in the production of wallpaper). The processes which he used and the visual images which he chose have all influenced today’s culture of reality tv as normal. In this culture ordinary people have been ‘chosen’ by the tv production Gods to be elevated to stardom, thus being able to lift themselves out of ordinary life of the mundane working man into the stratosphere of the super or mega rich hedonistic film or pop star category. I would ascertain this is a false reality which further suppresses the public and discourages the idea it is possible for anyone to do well through hard work and personal achievement, by being brave enough to risk financial hardship in the short term for a much bigger reward in the long term, by simply following their dreams and developing their natural talents.

Of course the technology available to Andy Warhol had a large part to play in his art. Thanks to the development of photography, and in turn its acceptance by the art establishment as a bona fide artform, Andy was able to produce his silk screens and films.

In our society today with the development of new computer technology available at our fingertips it is possible for everybody to feel like a star and publish their own visual records of nights out shared with friends, bands, festivals and any times they caught on camera which they can upload straight onto the internet at the click of a button. They can create their own online version of Andy Warhol’s Factory underground cool and trendy movement on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

So has this spoilt the special status of the ego-driven artist? Has it de-valued art and in turn led to a de-skilling of the artworld? Or is it right and just in a Marxist ideal of ‘overall art’ and the death of an author ideal? (The ideal of the Death of an Author essay by Barthes).

I think the Marxist artists of the post- Russian revolution would be ecstatically pleased to find society has levelled out the playing field.(egs and dates here with ref. To book quotes). Personally  I think it is a great shame that the traditional skills of good drawing and observation are not being perpetuated in every art establishment today.

There are massive divisions between the rich and the poor in today’s society, however, which are being masked by the dumbing-down of mass popular culture and I would argue reality t.v. shows such as Big Brother are merely the first stage in getting the public to accept being observed and controlled by governments using cctv surveillance as a political tool and means to implement rule by force.

In contrast the internet has evened out this power balance and given power back to the people. Online forums have led to mass demonstrations and political revolutions which have overturned governments and changed the law and order in some countries.

Bibliograhpy:
Modern masters: Andy warhol [DVD recording] / directed by Sarah Aspinall. 

Ego: the strange and wonderful world of self-portraits [DVD recording] / directed by Sebastian Barfield

The Death of an Author by Barthes- published on the internet

This is civilisation : save our souls [DVD recording] 

The Art of participation 1950 to now/ by Rudolf Friedling, Chapter 1.

Barthes for beginners/ Philip Thody and Ann Course; edited by Richard Appignanesi.

AR5a (identifying the research proposal)

Assignment 5a.  

By Zoe Clarke,  MA Entrepreneurship in Creative Practice.

Research Question:                 Is painting dead?

I am involved in the practice of painting. It inspires me, it drives me and more and more I am left to feel I am living in a forgotten era where an artist actively engages with the physical world around them and all the materiality this involves.

“The apprehension of environmental insecurity, and the searching analysis of its causes are very closely related to the existential motive in the writings of Karl Jaspers...His Man in the Modern Age is mainly a powerful indictment of the progress of contemporary technological civilisation, which he regards as a social disease; ever growing reliance upon objective criteria of thought having been paid for by ever-deepening ignorance of the real nature of human existence.” 

Jean Paul Satre on Karl Jaspers, Existentialism and Humanism, p11.

 Just as when photography was first introduced to the art world it was shunned and created flutters amongst the traditionalists within the art establishment, so too now it seems dated to want to revert to the actual real materiality of painting, instead of creating shoddily produced dull videos of nothing with any real meaning in them, or perhaps some performance nonsense which can be easily justified, but is actually designed to alienate the audience.

So in today’s world of technological advances is painting dead now? Is there still a platform for art using traditional mediums within the contemporary art world? I was very impressed by the Saatchi exhibition earlier this year (April 2011) where refreshingly the whole show was dedicated to exhibiting actual material art objects. There were no mundane videos or pathetic performances, where the artists and curators were placing themselves above the audience, sneering down at the public from the exalted heights of their invented art imperialism of a modern age of technology and internet nonsense. So I found the answer to be YES- thankfully there IS still a platform for material art to be exhibited and included as part of the contemporary art world.

There used to be a saying: just because it’s published and in writing it doesn’t make it fact or the truth. But less and less do I hear that saying. How much of what we see on the web can we trust? What will the future generations be inheriting as factual knowledge? It deeply disturbs me people are becoming more and more disengaged with their direct environments around them as they look down at a flat screen texting, face-booking or  tweeting their ‘friends’. What happened to having an actual conversation with someone sat right next to you? As technology grows at such a fast rate time seems to be diminishing in the real world, the world of not having to spend 3 hours every evening on facebook or the internet to have any engagement with the world around you. The future is more and more becoming flatter and flatter- going from staring inanely from one flat screen pressing images and pushing products at us (i.e. the television) to another flat screen where we are encouraged to spend more and more time ‘interacting’ with the world on the web.

“ Karl Jaspers ...forsees a decline of the West. The surrender of man’s thinking to rationalism and of his artifice to technics have consequences which console man with the feeling that he is progressing, but make him neglect or deny fundamental forces of his inner life which are then turned into forces of destruction. “The sclerosis of objectivity is the annihilation of existence.”” Jean Paul Satre, Existentialism and Humanism, p11.

“Ludwig Tieck, the German Romantic, spoke of the ‘loss of reality’ in the preface to his edition of Heinrich Von Kleist’s works.....The industrialised, commercialised capitalist world has become an outside world of impenetrable material connexions and relationships. The man living in the midst of that world is alienated from it and from himself. Modern art and literature are often reproached with destroying reality. Such tendencies exist; but really it is not the writers or the painters who have abolished reality.” The Loss and Discovery of Reality, Ernst Fischer,The necessity of Art- a Marxist approach.

This is where my practical theme of man verses environment really stems from. In my artwork I am concerned with the artist’s relationship to the real world and the affect of industrialised processes on nature. By analysing textures created by manmade products left to deteriorate in the environment and juxtaposing natural textures of trees, rocks, fauna and flora of the real world around me.

 I am investigating ways of transferring and involving photographic images into mixed media artworks. In order to do this I will have to learn new processes of artistic production: silk screening, etching and lithography, photographic transfers onto different materials, cyanotypes, glass enamelling and metalwork. Each of these processes will be involved in one or more artworks which I aim to produce as mixed media artworks involving painting onto a variety of materials- permanent and semi- permanent. Onto metals, plastics, paper, fabrics, plaster, found objects and glass.

 I refer to the work of Robert Rauchenburg’s combine paintings (Pop Art, Tilman Osterwold) and his organisation “The experiments in Art and Technology” where he was concerned with trying to unite creative artists with technical and industrial engineers.   I am also interested in how Pop Art involved photographic images from the press and current events to produce artworks.

I also shall be researching how the Dada artists such as Max Ernst incorporated actual photographs into final artworks and “how he gave pictorial logic to the irrationality of disparate juxtapositions.  “ Oxford Companion to Art.

I shall also be researching current artists who work with mixed media and who are concerned with a discourse on the artist’s relationship with technology. This will involve interviews and reading around the subject area. I will talk to Elliott Seagul about the photographic processes he uses to transfer photography onto metal plates and I have interviewed Debbie Mason and will do a master class about mezzotint etching to produce a copper plate and prints using traditional print processes.

Bibliography:

Existentialism and Humanism, Jean- Paul Satre, Methuen, 1960, p11.

The Necessity of Art- A Marxist Approach,  Ernst Fischer, Pelican 1963 p.197

The Oxford Companion to Art, Oxford,

Pop Art, Tilman Osterwold, Taschen, p150, p 151, 152, 153, 154 and 155.

AR3 (What is research methodology?)

What is Research Methodology?

Definition: methodology is the study system of methods and principles used in a particular discipline. New Collins Concise Dictionary 1986

“The use of methodology in research leads to appropriate choices among methods and can lead researchers to develop and apply new methods.”

(Friedman 2002)

The aim of methodology is to help us understand not the products of enquiry but the process itself.

It is important to observe the difference between methodology and methods. Methods are the processes through which research is carried out (e.g. printing/ photography/ observational drawing/ combine painting) and methodology is the actual system which is used in the research process from concept (the what) to need (the why)to product (the how) to conclusions to area for development- the whole picture.

Research methodology can be broken down into three main phases:

What?

The research question/ thesis, this covers contextualising the research and situating the chosen field of study.

Why?

The reasons for doing the research:

Process development

Skills knowledge

Challenging existing published knowledge on the subject

How?

The methods used to conduct the research, through which might lead onto fine tuning the research question, or developing the field of enquiry.

In order to understand artistic methods of research more I went back to basics and compared it to a classic scientific method of research.

Scientific method of research:

• Research question/ thesis
• Apparatus needed
• Method/experiment
• Results
• Conclusions

Artistic Method of Research:

• Research question/thesis
• Equipment needed:

e.g. silk screen with transferred image on the screen, water based silk screening ink, squeegee, un-stretched canvas.

• Skills needed-process driven e.g. silk screening techniques
• Practice/method-application of acquired skills and knowledge to produce an artwork.

e.g. silk screening photographic images onto canvas then involving them into mixed media techniques to produce abstract compositions exploring texture.

• Results-using visual and conceptual methods of recording: written, video documentation, audio, blogged, annotated drawings in a visual diary.
• Conclusions-what has been discovered? Methods of recording: annotated prints, written conclusions in a visual diary/ sketchbook, blogs, audio, video.
• Development questions-used to fine tune the research

Both artistic and scientific research methodology share the need to situate the research question into their chosen field of study knowledge base by reading upon what has already been published on or around the subject area.

What is apparent is the varying different ways in which artists operate. Due to its creative nature and wide range of disciplines under the very broad heading 'the arts' it has been a lot harder to produce a set of rules to govern all artistic research. There is no singular formula which can be applied to all art research. So the quest for research methodology is perhaps the first thing on an artist's list when undertaking any research.

The key point I think to remember with research methodology is that because art is so adaptable so must be the methodology- one system does not fit all.

Perhaps an artist wants to investigate transferring photographic images onto a broad range of surfaces to be applied to public buildings and wants to know which materials to use. But also which materials will last the longest and look good for the most amount of time. This is the what question.

The why question comes next. Is there a need for this research to take place? Has it been done before? How will the research project be funded? Who needs this research? What or who has prompted it? There are several different ways in which an artist could conduct this- community group forums, internet blogg sites, questionnaires, market research, or perhaps a public funding body has given the brief they are putting in a bid for.

The how question is the method through which the artist will test out the different materials and processes available to them. Because art is such a practical research area a 'triangulation' approach might be the best one to use- where many different methods are used to test out a theory. The results from these experiments will inform the next phase of research- the so what?

The last stage of any good research will be the so what? Where conclusions are drawn and perhaps new developments are made and maybe even new processes or materials are invented. Perhaps a new advance has to made in technology in order to test out the theory?

So research methodology is the whole process from start to finish.

“Of course the emphasis in artistic research is to use your visual skills as an artist to make sense of your research experience wherever possible.”

(Visualizing Research )

 The need to define a research methodology in the arts has become necessary to not only justify ourselves in political terms (thanks to government cuts in funding to the arts in general),but more importantly to further the artistic debate and research in structured ways which can be applied flexibly to suit different areas of practice.

 Strangely the development of formulised ways of conducting artistic research is relatively new (according to Carole Gray and Julian Malins in Visualizing Research) whereas science has had a very structured set format since the renaissance. How strange then that Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the earliest artists to set down and record his findings both furthering art and science. Perhaps the two are not so very different after all?

AR2 (Learning Styles)

Learning Styles Synopsis.

I am multi- modal, having scored 6,5,5,5 for activist, reflector, theorist and pragmatist respectively.

So I’ve reached the following conclusions:

My ego is activist, while my rational head is theorist. I love to while away the hours reflecting when I am relaxed and have the time. When I’m fired up and want to get on with a project of my own creation I am definitely a pragmatist. I suppose you could say I’m hard to pin down, hate being pigeon holed, a real pain in the arse at meetings, although I am trying to develop my listening skills and not just sounding out my own ideas all the time. I also need to think more before I open my mouth and learning how to be more democratic and tactful would probably gain me more friends. There is a delicate balance between honesty and down- right rudeness and being a sycophant which I am still learning. But hey - nobody’s perfect.