Post 2: Andy Warhol & Ana Mendieta

Untitled (Silueta Series)

Campbell's Soup Cans 1962

Andy Warhol’s repetitive use of inanimate objects was what stood out in his artworks. Examples of these were the Campbell’s soup can, Coca Cola bottles, and Brillo Boxes. He would paint these objects over and over with slight variations each time which made it interesting. He later when on to reproduce an image of Marilyn Monroe (Gold Marilyn Monroe) after she had died, a style much like his paintings of the consumer products. This was a prevalent theme in his artwork and very significant because he took a normal household item (with the exception of Marilyn Monroe) and transformed it into something more iconic than it already is. “Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire”-Sontag. Ana Mendieta’s use of the earth and nature itself to create an image is a prevalent theme in her work. In particular, she would sculpt a body-like image using the earth as a canvas. Using her own body as a work of art is also something that shows up in her work often, usually depicting it in an objectifying manner.

Self Portrait 1986

The Last Supper 1986

Andy Warhol’s mother taught him how to draw when he was bedridden with an illness in his younger years. It became an enjoyable pastime for him and when he was in elementary school, he attended free art classes at Carnegie Institute. His father, who passed away, saved up money for Andy to attend college which he did attend and study art. Andy’s life moved in the direction it did because of his family who had supported him from very young. His religious upbringing also contributed to some of his art pieces. This shows up in his later artworks, most notably “The Last Supper”. He also has self-portraits in which he constantly reinvents himself in real life. “Traditions and conditions are constantly rewritten and invented to suit circumstances”. (Ch. 1, Ways of Seeing by John Berger). Andy changes the way we look at certain things and really commercializes it which makes himself synonymous to his own work. Just as there are changes in his artworks, Andy himself tries to change himself as well by changing his appearance and interacting with famous social figures throughout his life. He became very famous with appearances on TV and making his own films. Much like his grid-like, repetitive artworks of well-known brands, he was like a part of the pattern of celebrities that he had recreated. He made portrait paintings of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor and commercialized it. “Everything became exchangeable because everything became a commodity”. (Ch. 5, Ways of Seeing by John Berger).

Tree of Life

Rape Scene 1973

Ana Mendieta was born in Cuba during Castro’s regime which prompted her family to send Ana and her sister to America. She moved in with a foster family and later reunited with her actual family. She graduated college with an art degree. Her work consists of spiritual themes as well as sex, race, and political differences which are sometimes eerie. She freely used materials such as blood, and other organic materials through her work which further added to her spiritual, ritual-like themes she wished to express. Ana Mendieta became very synonymous with her work and I would go as far as to say she became “one” with her work quite literally. She left her mark on the earth, in nature and contributed in the feminist art movement in which she objectified her body by being nude which she also does in her works in nature. She also wanted to express the awareness of violence against women which she displays in some of her artwork such as the Rape Scene performance she put on for students and professors at her apartment. Ironically, she had died by falling off the 34^th floor of her apartment in New York after an argument with her husband which created lots of controversy and is still shrouded in mystery. “Again and again in everyday life there are unexpected events, even catastrophes that suddenly make the predictable world seem chaotic and alarming”. (Ch. 2, The Art of Self Invention by Joanne Finkelstein). I believe her pieces in nature were spiritual in a way that she connects to the earth as everyone should do and dissolve the barriers such as sex and race.

Works Cited

“Chapter 2/Page 114.” The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture,

by Joanne Finkelstein, I.B. Tauris, 2007.

“Chapter 1/p. 10.” Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger, by

            John Berger, Penguin, 1972.

“Chapter 5/p. 87.” Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger, by

            John Berger, Penguin, 1972.

Sontag, Susan. “On Photography.” Susan Sontag, 2010,

            www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/books/onPhotographyExerpt.shtml.