Analyzing the Post-Modern
Image: Marilyn Monroe; Source: Pinterest
In the piece Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, Post-Modern values are exemplified through the use of color and repetition, which brings about ideas of industrialization.
Warhol's use of color in this piece creates differences in the otherwise identical four pictures of Marilyn Monroe. This creates the idea of uniqueness, but this is not the idea that Warhol desired to display. The opposite, the repetitive nature of the pictures is where Warhol's intentions lie. Each image, differentiated only by color, are meant to represent Warhol's disdain for manufacturing and mass marketing. He hoped to display Monroe as an object through which to represent society's consumerism. Each item manufactured on a large scale, worshipped by society as a unique good, which in this instance devalues the individual worth of Monroe, but on a larger scale devalues the worth of unique or artisan products.
These ideas are still relevant today, when applied to our large industries. The mass manufacturing of much of today's goods completely devalues the hard work of the individual, creating a society built off of consuming rather than producing.
Hello Mike, I enjoyed reading your blog post this week, I found it really insightful. I find it really interesting how Andy Warhol used a person to show his dislike for mass manufacturing and industrialization, and I think there is a message there as well. Maybe that he believed that industrialization would have the same effect on people that it did on manufacturing, quashing individuality. The fact that people began to work assembly line jobs likely had some effect on art and creativity, and Warhol might be attempting to show that Celebrities and artists were not as unique due to the Industrial Revolution.
ReplyDeleteHello Mike, I really like how you chose this picture because it does a great job at depicting the whole aspect of Postmodernism. The idea that there is a more creative way looking into a certain picture than what is already on paper. This artwork is awesome because it has 4 different versions of the singular picture. Me personally, this is one of my favorite forms of art where its the same picture but different colors and contrast.
ReplyDeleteHey Mike, I really like how you explained the piece's connection to manufacturing and industrialization. Mass marketing and consumerism is definitely something that plagues society, both today and during the postmodernism movement. I also found it really interesting that Warhol chose to depict Marilyn Monroe. She's such an iconic person that devaluing her through large scale marketing makes a huge statement. The idea that the image represents also reminds of what happens when a government prints too much money. As more money is printed, the money itself loses its value, causing inflation.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike, absolutely great post. You were very concise and direct with debunking the idea of this piece being about uniqueness in any way, and you explain how it's not very clearly. I think that the idea that mass production with just minor tweaks and differences shouldn't be passed off as brand new unique things as it commonly is. It makes me think of the generations of the iPhones, how a new one seems to come out every couple months with a few minor differences but advertised as a whole new thing when, at the end of the day, we all basically have the same smartphone.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike, I liked how you mentioned the different colors in the art you picked all ment something and how importnant each one was. I also think that the ideas are still relevant today because it was hard work that the artist did to make something like that it and it doesn't get a lot of credit.
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