Andy Warhol's " Albert Einstein"

     Andy Warhol is one of the most famous modern artists in the world with his archetypical role in pop art and the usage of iconic imagery.  Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Czech immigrant parents, Warhol rose from modest roots to commercial fame.  In 1949, he moved to New York city to establish himself as an artist and fell into the Avant Garde art scene. Furthering the creative concept of the Ready Made by Marcel Duchamp, Warhol focused on American consumerism and pop culture. He had a successful career as a commercial artist and as a pop artist.  Exploring affluential postwar America, Warhol focuses on the consumer-oriented technological driven society as akin to the Dutch still-life of everyday scenes (Eisenman,2022). He provides a social commentary for his time.

     The argument of whether Andy Warhol is without substance and just a commercial artist in a consumer based postwar America or if in a twist of brilliance and creative thought bent the rules of the art world and crossed the threshold into fine arts. He and his contemporaries affected how people viewed what is and is not art.  His artwork would influence critics such as Arthur Dantos, who developed his “Artworld” theory that examined how these new artforms are fine art by the effort of creative thought. Dantos argues that “To see something as art requires something the eye cannot decry-an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld” (1964, p.580).

    Using Dantos’s “Artworld” theory while analyzing Andy Warhol’s “Albert Einstein” (1980) silk screen print shows that this isn’t mere commercial art but fine art that provides social commentary. This image was part of the 10 portraits of Jews of the Twentieth century collection. The silk screen print of Einstein is of his portrait and is a tricolor print. There is blue, beige, and white that overlap in areas to create an active composition that mirrors the complexity of Einstein’s mind. The image is not just an imitation but captures Einstein as an icon of science. Einstein’s theory of relativity challenged views and changed how humans view the universe. As Danto’s “Artworld” theory challenged what art is and isn’t.

 

 

References

Danto, A. (1964). The ArtWorld. The Journal of Philosophy, 61(19), 571-584. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2022937

Eisenman, H. J. (2022). Andy Warhol. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia

Polyxeni Potter. (2010). The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 16(6), 1052–1053. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1606.ac1606