Andy Warhol

The attitude of Warhol only confused society more. Instead of hiding his association with commercial art as other artists did, drawing and dividing the line between it and real art, he erased the line. "The Pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a split second."(Warhol) Pop artist figures competed in that art market where images and auras, no just objects, are offered for consumption. Warhol has never objected to this state of affairs, which he did so much to reveal Ð'- and indeed, to push to new extremes of sophistication. Warhol introduced society to a new kind of art that is now being recognized as real art, he pushed to boundaries and so called standards to the traditional ways.

Warhol's first major display of pushing the boundaries was in 1948 at an art show given by the Pittsburgh Associated Artists his painting that he submitted was titled The Broad Gave Me My Face but I Can Pick My Own Nose, one judge thought it was excellent and another thought it was vulgar and coarse. It hung in the Ð''reject' section but drew a huge crowd of admiring students. From that he felt that he was ready to take on the art scene in New York. Warhol's approach to the modern way of art was mass production of everyday items. He was very successful as a commercial artist but was not considered a Ð''real' artist. Andy wanted his art to look impersonal and mechanical. He discovered the use of silkscreen and how it produced slight mistakes and unevenness in his repetitive style of art. He produced his most famous pieces of art after he found silkscreening, he was on an inspirational high. He produced the Campbell's Soup Can series in 1962 and the more famous prints of Marilyn Monroe in 1964.

To expand Andy's finances, Fred Hughes encouraged him to concentrate on his paintings. Andy's Swiss dealer, Bruno Bischofberger, thought Andy should paint a series on a world leader for an exhibit at his gallery. He suggested Albert Einstein. Andy thought that Chairman Mao, the dictator of China, would be a better choice. "I've been reading so much about ChinaÐ'...the only picture they ever have is of Mao Zedong. It's great. It looks like a silkscreen."(Warhol, p.117 price of pop) Bruno insisted that on one, especially Americans, would but them, since Mao was a widely hated communist. As usual Andy stuck to his instincts and set out to silkscreen a set of prints, line drawings, and paintings of the Chinese leader. Mao symbolized power over the lives of billions of people. Although, if Andy had lived in communist China during the Cultural Revelation, he most