Warhol and Koons

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the works of artists Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. The paper contends that art critics continue to debate Warhol's legacy, life, works, and the value of the artists whom he spawned, such as Jeff Koons. The paper claims that, viewed in their totality, both artists' lives and creations give profound evidence of the ability to subvert the totalizing media gaze of advertising and sentimentality with self-conscious reproduction of images, media, and subjects.

From the Paper:

"Andy Warhol has grown so ubiquitous as a presence in modern art that it is easy to forget that once a can of tomato soup was merely a can of tomato soup in the eyes of a world that consumed such advertising with a spirit absent of irony. However, before Andy Warhol came to his fullest flourishing as an artist in the Pop Art milieu, if one saw a can of tomato soup on a commercial aisle, one would likely, simply see a product label, not recall Warhol's famous, repetitive image of the soup in one's mind. By elevating a depicted can to the level of art, by presenting a brand label, perfectly repeated as art, a consumer savvy to Warhol was able to witness a message beyond that of product identification, or to buy a particular kind of Campbell's soup-repetition becomes commentary on the very media of advertising itself, that was attempting to induce a consumer to become more attracted to one brand of soup than another brand of similarly tasting soup, regardless of quality or flavor."

More papers on Warhol and Koons:

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• Essay # 15580 : "Modern Art"

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