Revisiting Andy Warhol at Hirschorn

Every time I go to Washington DC. I always take time off to check out if there're any new exhibitions of the works of some artists I knew little or nothing about and if none, then revisit some of the permanent exhibits of Hirschorn Museum.

This time there was a retrospective exhibition of one of Andy Warhol's paintings called "Shadows"  which he did in 1978 and was first exhibited in 1979. 

It was a huge painting which has patterns of different bright background colors in pink, green, blue, orange, yellow, white, rust etc overlaid by basically the same black shadows. According to the information displayed, the 450 feet painting consists of 102 silk screened and hand-painted canvases featuring " distorted photographs of shadows generated in the artist’s studio" and is supposed to "suggest and mock the bravura brushwork of the Abstract Expressionists." The repetitive nature of the paintings done with only slight variation of color is supposed to make fun of the much vaunted "uniqueness" of artistic creation. Perhaps, Warhol is trying to show that in contemporary consumer capitalist society, everything is subject to the "manufacturing process", the standardized reproduction of all kinds of product destined for the all omnipotent "market" and that in such an environment, even "art" cannot be exempted from the operation of such forces. He once made a painting by repeating 200 identical red, white and yellow Campbell soup can labels. That was in 1962. He claimed to have had Campbell soup for lunch everyday most of his life. He has also painted "pop art" portraits of such politician as Mao TseTung,  Che Guevarra, screen sex symbols like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot and pop idol like Michael Jackson.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) came from Pittsburg, studied commercial art at Carnegie Mellon University, moved to New York in 1949 where he worked as a successful magazine and advertising illustrator. He started what is called the "Pop Art" movement in the 1950s  purportedly to oppose the language and images of mass media which he considered had become an inseparable part of American popular culture against the "high brow" or elitist Abstract Expressionism which was then all the rage in America and Europe.

Apart from working on painting "Pop Art" pictures, he was also actively involved in other musical and film productions in collaboration with other artists, in writing about the philosophy of "pop art". He is also the author of many famous quotes. Some of his quotes follow:

I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs.

I like boring things.

I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.

I never think that people die. They just go to department stores.

I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say 'figment.'

I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of "work," because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep.

Land really is the best art.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person.

Once you 'got' Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.

People need to be made more aware of the need to work at learning how to live because life is so quick and sometimes it goes away too quickly.

Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets.

Since people are going to be living longer and getting older, they'll just have to learn how to be babies longer.

The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.

The most exciting thing is not doing it. If you fall in love with someone and never do it, it's much more exciting.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest.

When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. (from The Philosophy of Andy Warhol)

People should fall in love with their eyes closed.

When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them. ( from Andy Warhol: In His Own Words)

Art is what you can get away with.

The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.

Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, So what. That's one of my favorite things to say. So what.
 (from The Philosophy of Andy Warhol)

I never fall apart, because I never fall together.

I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.

I wonder if it's possible to have a love affair that lasts forever.

Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.

Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life.

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

It’s not what you are that counts, it’s what they think you are.

Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.

I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want.

Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

Everyone must have a fantasy.

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

Beauty is a sign of intelligence.

People sometimes say that the way things happen in the movies is unreal, but actually, it's the way things happen to you in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like you're watching television -- you don't feel anything.

I like to be the right thing in the wrong place and the wrong thing in the right place. Being the right thing in the wrong place and the wrong thing in the right place is worth it because something interesting always happens.

A picture means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures. It's a visual diary.

In the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.

And your own life while it's happening to you never has any atmosphere until it's a memory.

Every song has a memory; every song has the ability to make or break your heart, shut down the heart, and open the eyes. But I’m afraid if you look at a thing long enough; it loses all of its meaning.

I always think about what it means to wear eyeglasses. When you get used to glasses you don't know how far you could really see. I think about all the people before eyeglasses were invented. It must have been weird because everyone was seeing in different ways according to how bad their eyes were. Now, eyeglasses standardize everyone's vision to 20-20. That's an example of everyone becoming more alike. Everyone could be seeing at different levels if it weren't for glasses.

I'm not afraid to die; I just don't want to be there when it happens

I am a deeply superficial person.

What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.

I believe in low lights and trick mirrors.

Fantasy love is much better than Reality Love.

I'm the type who'd be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn't going to. I'm the type who'd like to sit home and watch every party that I'm invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.

The mystery was gone but the amazement was just starting.

But I always say, one's company, two's a crowd, and three's a party

I don't know where the artificial stops and the real starts.

Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?

People need to be made more aware of the need to work at learning how to live because life is so quick and sometimes it goes away too quickly.

Everyone winds up kissing the wrong person goodnight.

People should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don’t look and it’s magic

During the 1960s, I think, people forgot what emotions were supposed to be. And I don't think they've ever remembered.

Most people in America think Art is a man's name.

Actually, I jade very quickly. Once is usually enough. Either once only, or every day. If you do something once it’s exciting, and if you do it every day it’s exciting. But if you do it, say, twice or just almost every day, it’s not good any more.

I think it would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor's finger.

There are beautiful sounds in rock. Very lazy, dreamlike noises. You can forget about the lyrics in most songs. Just dig the noise, and you've got your sound...We're musical primitives.

If everyone isn't beautiful, then no one is.

The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.