Autumn 2007
Art Comment Quarterly
Warhol's guide to the Art of Celebrity
Editor's Note: Probably the best thing about being associated with ArtVitae.com is the fascinating and talented people I get to meet. This last June I attended the "ArtVitae/Unplugged" exhibition at the Olive Stack Gallery in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. 'Favourite son' John B. Keane, author of "The Field" which was made into a popular Hollywood movie, draws worldwide attention to Listowel during its annual Literary Festival. The ArtVitae exhibition, was timed to coincide with Listowel's 2007 Literary Festival. The following original article first to be published here in ArtComment by Irish writer Catherine Kelley is a result of one such fortuitous meeting:
"'I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're so beautiful. Everything's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic'. This quote could be attributed to any number of today's celebrities. It is in fact Andy Warhol, whose cultural chickens have finally come home to roost in the twentyfirst century. When Warhol first came to prominence in the 1960s his approach and character were deemed so outlandish it was assumed he was joking when he described himself as a deeply superficial person. Maybe he was, however, with the passage of time the world seems to have taken him very seriously indeed. He is regularly described as the most influential artist of the twentieth century, and his eerily empty ethos seems to have infected popular culture insidiously.
While the current explosion of the 'cult of celebrity' is a relatively new phenomenon, the concept of celebrity is not. Fame has always been a desirable human attribute, a way to extend one's legacy beyond the grave. It was the birthright of people with wealth and power such as the Pharaohs, or those with exceptional talents like Isaac Newton. Alternatively, it could be secured in the form of notoriety for those who were vilified for some reason or other. What marks the current addiction to celebrity as unique is its ubiquity. Echoing Warhol's prediction of everyone being world famous for fifteen minutes, it has become increasingly democratic; today you neither have to be wealthy nor talented to become very famous.
His prediction was guided by his own impact on the nature of fame. Throughout his life, Andy Warhol had an enduring obsession with stardom and celebrity. He was enchanted by famous people and courted them endlessly. He painted them and elevated their images to an artistic platform in popular culture. He also created his own celebrities, the Warhol Superstars, at his studio 'The Factory' through various collaborations in art, film and music. Many of these young men and women had few discernable accomplishments or skills when he met them, but didn't matter to Warhol; substance was never of interest to him artistically. He facilitated these gauche, untrained people, gave them access to resources and each other. In the process gave them a platform to develop their notoriety. Some of them like Edie Sedgwick and Candy Darling have passed into the annals of time, though few maintained a high profile after their collaboration with Warhol. The output of work during this period in 'The Factory' set a new precedent where a young upstart can achieve infamy and wealth without much talent.
The films created in 'The Factory' have had interesting ramifications on the development of both film and television. Although the concept of reality TV is as old as television itself, its current format owes a lot to Warhol's filmwork. In the 1960s he set his mind to creating films and was extremely prolific; between 1963 and 1968, he created more than 60 films. These were loosely assembled, plotless and largely unscripted; sometimes no more than improvised encounters between Factory regulars. In the same way as he wanted his artwork to reflect the mundane and elevate the banal, he wanted his films to closely resemble real life. His directorial input was minimal; he said of his style 'I leave the camera running until it runs out of film because that way I can catch somebody being themselves'. On occasions, he reputedly read throughout the action, doing little more than turning on and off the camera. In turn, the films were often little more than recordings of the day-to-day antics of the Factory inhabitants. If you think watching Big Brother is like watching paint dry, you may have trouble sitting through Warhol's first film, 'Sleep', six hours of his lover sleeping. It's easy to see how the Factory's film work is more a precursor to the TV show 'Big Brother' and reality TV than anything in George Orwell's book '1984'.
The clearest legacy of Warhol's work today is visible in print media, in particular graphical gossip magazines and websites. In a stroke of genius, Warhol twinned his love of celebrity with his experience as an accomplished advertising illustrator, and co-founded the magazine 'Interview' in 1969. It defined a new style of glossy publication dedicated to all aspects of the celebrity culture he found so appealing. It has changed little in format from its inception; today ever; it is composed of celebrity interviews. It includes cutting edge graphics and endless photographs by famous photographers. It's high graphical content was true to Warhol's ethos of form over substance, he said 'I never read. I just look at the pictures.' The magazine has spawned a multitude of similarly glossy publications, from Heat to Hello. There are also thousands of gossip websites; all with standard highly graphical interfaces and lots of photos. The news is generally very banal and mostly secondary to the imagery. It's a chicken and egg question whether public demand drives the industry or whether public appetites are whetted with the constant assault of imagery and mindless gossip. One thing that is certain, is the increase in size of the celebrity community, as new celebrities are regularly churned out to satisfy the public need for gossip. How this media of celebrity is generated, circulated and sold can be linked directly to Warhol's original concept.
For the art world, the most interesting change precipitated by Andy Warhol's art was how it was marketed and sold. The process guaranteed that Warhol became the most celebrated of all American Pop artists. He viewed making money as an art form at a time when this approach was a radical departure from the traditional position of art and commerce as separate. But by branding himself and selling his art aggressively, he put the concept of the 'penniless artist' to bed. After his death in 1987, an auction of his possessions grossed more than US$20 million, representing a portion of his total estate. He amassed this fortune through a canny understanding of the importance of image and brand, matched by technical brilliance as a graphic artist.
At the beginning of his career, Warhol took a friend's advice and began painting what he loved and coincidently he chose subjects which were instantly recognisable and had mass appeal: Campbell's soup cans, dollar bills and celebrity images. Much as being close to celebrities ensured his own fame, associating his art with iconic brands and images ensured his own artwork became iconic. Furthermore, his own personal image was carefully cultivated and changed little through the decades; the image of a bland bespectacled Warhol with a shock of white hair became as recognisable as his subjects. It was this trademark look, and the Warhol celebrity brand, that became integral to shifting huge volumes of his artwork. He had a keen understanding of the strength of an image, and focussed on mass production and sales rather than substance and quality. Without a trace of regret or irony Warhol accepted and lauded his own work for being as empty as the tin cans he painted. He established himself as an icon and a brand which is still available for sale today.
It's hard to imagine how today's celebrities would exist without Warhol's direct influence on popular culture. Unwittingly, many map their careers to a trajectory first defined by Warhol in the 1960s, and the rewards are lucrative careers and fame. For example, Paris Hilton, an American heiress, has neither discernable talent nor sufficient lineage to justify her worldwide fame. However, she has used fame to generate a brand, affording her a successful career, with regular income from TV and magazine interviews, film cameos, and other enterprises. Like an acolyte of Warhol, she began her career by hanging around with other celebrities and soon came to the attention of TV moguls who created a reality TV show for her. Around the same time, another piece of reality media surfaced; a pornographic home video of Paris with an ex-boyfriend. The ensuing media hoopla meant that she was never out of the public view. She parlayed this exposure into building an image and brand as American as Mickey Mouse, and one which is equally vapid. The brand is simple, bland, and mostly unchallenging, not unlike the one Warhol developed for himself. She hawks her image relentlessly, and is omnipresent in gossip magazines and celebrity websites. Her image sells their wares, and they promote her brand and celebrity. Such is the allure of this particular career choice, that Paris Hilton has many fans hoping to follow her footsteps. What format she, or the many like her, follow if it weren't for Warhol's groundbreaking contribution? Paris Hilton, kneel at the feet of your cultural grandfather."
- Catherine Kelly catherine.kelly@gmail.com October 2007
WHY ARE THE GRINGOS IN COLOMBIA?
ArtVitae.com member artist Steve Mumford has been in Iraq again, and has generated a new series of drawings and watercolours. Check out his latest Baghdad Journal.
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