Andy Warhol Analysis

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At Pepperdine University, The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art showcases a collection of Andy Warhol’s timeless and famous paintings. According to the Weisman Museum, Andy Warhol was a committed member of the Catholic Church. However, his ties to the Catholic faith were, “something the artist always hid from his friends and the public” . Through careful observation of Warhol’s artwork, the use of abstraction suggests his Catholicism may have not been so carefully hidden after all. Warhol’s abstract art can be best compared with the existential belief and worldview of St. Thomas Aquinas, a celebrated Theologian and glorified soul of Catholicism in the late thirteenth century. As a Doctor of Theology, Aquinas was of great influence to the understanding …show more content…

The abstraction in Grapes includes the use of layered colors in geometrical shapes, and Warhol’s invented diamond dust , finely crushed particles of glass, which makes the painting look as if it is still wet. The still life images of grapes stand separately when the image is being perceived, in contrast to the abstract colors around them. Warhol uses still and actual images of grapes to represent what is comprehended, whereas the diamond dust invites a metaphysical element into the perceptual process. In the Summation of the Catholic Faith, Aquinas addresses the concept of a “twofold mode of truth”. Reason, he states, is conceivable at the highest tier of the human mind but Reason alone does not lead to complete Truth of the Divine. Aquinas …show more content…

Yet, beginning with sensible things, our intellect is led to the point of knowing about God that He exists. /There are consequently, some intelligible truths about God that are open to the human reason; but there are others that absolutely surpass its power” . Aquinas says that a truth perceived by human is not the Truth unless it is a product of Revelation by the help of God. In fact, he states it is the only way to gain absolute knowledge of the “natural law”. In Warhol’s collection of Grapes, realistic forms of fruit are registered as sensible objects by means of the principal of demonstration , which Aquinas adopts from Aristotle. To complete the artwork, the knowledge of the intangible takes the form of ambiguous shapes, abstract layering, and the diamond dust, which demands the guidance from the Lord in order to be