Andy Warhol held a mirror so that society could see their consumer-selves. His background as a commercial artist, and his fascination with advertising, lead him to create refined artwork. In Campbell’s Canned Soup, he took a banal, mass-produced item and put it centre-stage. The process he used to create the work reflected a production line. Finally, in using an assembly line artistic process, and in using other people’s ideas?
Andy Warhol held a mirror so that society could see their consumer-selves. His background as a commercial artist, and his fascination with advertising, lead him to create refined artwork. In Campbell’s Canned Soup, he took a banal, mass-produced item and put it centre-stage. The process he used to create the work reflected a production line. Finally, in using an assembly line artistic process, and in using other people’s ideas, Warhol asks society to question the value of his art. Through these ideas Warhol forces society to reflect on the theme of consumerism.
Andy Warhol’s background in context of 1950s America is important to understand, as it gives one an idea of why he was so fascinated with consumer culture. He grew up in Oakland, Pittsburgh and had two older brothers. He left school in 1945, and started his career as a commercial artist . He did artwork in this setting, looking at consumer products, until late 1959 (Shanes, 2011). Due to the middle classes’ strengthened financial position in the 1950s, American Society, through mass production, had become conformist, consumerist and banal. As a commercial artist, Andy Warhol was involved in this consumerist drive directly, through producing marketing materials. His attention turned to showing us this when he moved into fine art, from 1960 onward (Shanes, 2011). With the Pop Art movement taking shape, it allowed him to explore these ideas.
The Bao Dance comes from the Tagalog region. It is a festival dance performed at the harvesting of the cocoanuts. It is danced with ease and grace characteristic of the Philippine folk dance. The dancers hold a half cocoanut shell in each hand and strike them together to provide a rhythmic accompaniment to the dance. Different versions of this dance appear in different regions of the Philippines. This popular version of the Bao Dance was presented to the Federation by Lucile Czarnowski who learned the dance from several native sources. Hope I helped~! ^-^