Thoughts on Warhol Collection

When first entering the Warhol museum the first piece that welcomed me and introduced me was the self portrait prints of Warhol himself. I had to go to the left to see this piece, because it was not presented outright. The bi-paneled pieces displayed images of Warhol using an overlapping technique with double images in each frame. It was quite fitting, seeing as how the entire museum is dedicated to one man and his art, that the first piece should be of Warhol himself. This first piece communicated that Warhol was an important figure in the art world and deserved to be recognized as so. I thought the choices were eclectic, displaying installations, paintings, silk-screens, and films, more of his recognizable pieces. I had studied the Campbell's boxes in multiple classes and was not surprised to see them presented in the museum. Museums are meant for the public and many do not have a great understanding of what they are looking at, so using familiar and recognizable pieces in the museum gives the public some familiarity to the exhibits.

Andy Warhol Museum

Having never visited this museum before, or seeing Warhol's authentic work, I was taken aback by his pieces. I've studied Warhol in my Art History Class last year and just recently in Comtemporary Art, so I had some background knowledge on him and have seen many of his works. Seeing them in person was much more powerful and not generic, which I thought they sometimes appeared when displayed over and over again on paper, in pictures, on clothes, and accesories.

5 Pieces that caught my attention:

1) Silver Clouds- This piece was an installation of metallic silver helium filled balloons. The balloons are rectangular in shape with ends curving in because of the pressure of the hellium. Free moving, the balloons float in the room and move about with the air currents that enter the room. The piece is lively and active and has little concern for the space being used. The balloons are able to move about with little interference besides contact between themselves.

2) Self Portrait- Warhol made a series of self portraits in 1986 using the same picture of himself. He differentiated the prints by changing colors and adding designs giving the self portrait an unnatural feel. His face is centrally located with his hair theatrically sticking up on the left side. Not smiling, Warhol is intently staring at the viewer wide eyed. These prints were made near the end of his life and give an unmasked view of Warhol without his crowd of followers or dark sunglasses making him appear mystical.

3) Box Installation- This installation was comprised of packaging boxes for Campbells Tomato Juice and Heinz Ketchup. The boxes are wooden and have silkscreen covering them. They are replications of the original boxes that were used for shipping and packaging. This piece caught my attention because Warhol was not creating someting original, but rather making a duplication of something that already existed. His choice of subject conveys his idea of consumerism and mass production by machines, only in this case Warhol was the machine.

4) Flowers- Scattered throughout the museum were Warhol's Flowers. Each piece consisted of four hibiscus flowers of varying size. The flowers appeared to be stem less and placed onto a field of grass. The jagged defined lines of the grass gave it a very cartoonish exaggerated look. The flowers are basically a solid color without detail or any attention towards distinct individual petals. These flowers can now be seen displayed on peoples accessories such as bags and shirts and were quite familiar when I viewed them in the museum having seen their duplicates before.

5) Elvis- Displayed eleven times on a huge wall are a series of Elvis duplicated elvis images screenprinted onto a canvas. Using shades of grey, black, and white Elvis is displayed with a western aura of legs spread, double holstered belt, and gun in his right hand ready to shoot. He is not staring at the viewer but rather past at the person in which he is in confrontation with. Similar to the Marilyn silkscreens, Elvis is a fallen legend whose fame made him a pop icon and a product of society.

Interpretation of 3 Passages from Barthes

"this unease in classification being precisely the point from which it is possible to diagnose a certain mutation"(Barthes 155):
-Part of the introduction of the essay, this passage is an opening to why Text became prominent. With the breaking down of an old discipline a mutation arouse leading way for a new way of deciphering work from text.

"the Text is experienced only in an activity of production"(Barthes 157):
-Text is not the actual work but rather part of what makes up the work and is depicted as the work is processed. It is the writing that went into producing the work but not the work as a whole. Seen in the work it loses its identity and becomes part of the whole.

"the metaphor of the Text separates from that of the work: the latter refers to the image of an organism which grows by vital expansion, by development'"(Barthes 161):
-By taking pieces of the work you break apart the Text. Solely by itself the meaning of the Text is altered and the point the author was trying to get across can be lost. By making the Text longer the message of the author is brought about again, but without the whole network a meaning is left up to discussion.

Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977.
161-61.

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Summary of Roland Barthes' Essay From Work to Text

Roland Barthes essay called From Work to Text gives an in depth view and compare and contrast between work and text. He starts off by giving an introduction to explain that there is this new component that was once not so obvious. "This unease in classification being precisely the point from which it is possible to diagnose a certain mutation," makes an opening statement to the object Text(Barthes 155). Text had arisen from "the sliding or overturning of former categories"(Barthes 156). Part of the whole, Text only takes shape through the production of work. Work is the real and demonstrated whereas Text is reality and the displayed. Just looking at the Text of something leaves the viewer to decipher their own meaning and interpretation instead of having it all laid out for them by the writer. Nowadays the pleasure that is arisen from Text is part of consumption and the acknowledgment that we can not write like the great authors of our past.


Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977. 161-61.

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Barthes and Eco

By taking a part from a whole the meaning can become lost or distorted. Only having a piece gives only a small portion of what is. Taking Text from a piece of Work "reads without the inscription of the Father"(Barthes 161). In other words, by taking a phrase from a whole piece of work the intention of the writer becomes vague and is left up to interpretation. This can be related to real life situations such as the false environments in which Umberto Eco describes in his essay "Travels in Hyperreality." Eco describes the scene of the San Diego Zoo in which wild animals all live in an allotted plot of land, but each with their own ecosystem pertaining to their survival. Without the scene of the replicated environment surrounding the animals, viewers would not be seeing the area in which was attended by the park staff. By having the natural habitat the viewer sees the attachment between the animals and their habitat giving it a realistic feel. The same applies to the extension of Text, because "if the Text extends itself, it is as a result of a combinatory systematic"(Barthes 161).


Works Cited:

Barthes, Roland. "From Work to Text." Image Music Text. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1977. 161-61.


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In Class Writing #5/ IP #1

Eco states “the American imagination demands the real thing and, to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake” (Eco 8). This thought is most vividly seen in representations made by many American artists such as those who recreate human figures in wax museums, or reconstruct the habitat of a wild animal captive in a zoo. Contemporary artists however are beginning to step away from representations, and using the authentic as the piece of art. English artist David Shrigley boldly takes a step in this direction of reality in his piece “I’m Dead.” Displayed in a case is a taxidermy kitten standing on its hindlegs holding a sign that reads “I’m Dead.” Shrigley was able to give the viewer the authentic, which is what they wanted. However, many reactions were varied from complete awe to shock and aversion. It makes a point that maybe the authentic is not what we actually want to see, and that it would be easier to look at a stuffed kitten rather than a taxidermy one. Seeing the unreal does not bring about conflict and our imagination leads us to accept the reproduction, “because the reproductions of the reproduction are perfect”(Eco 10). The visual is able to convince the viewer that “the fact that it seems real is real, and the thing is real even if, like Alice in Wonderland, it never existed”(Eco 16).


Works Cited:

Shrigley, David. I'm Dead. 2007. Carnegie International Gallery: Life on Mars, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.