Warhol is best known for is the Pop Art movement. Him along with New York based artists Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg pioneered the movement. The subject and style of Pop Art can be seen as a byproduct of the mentality of America in the second half of the 20th century. Much of the Pop Art incorporated the many parts of popular culture within the United States and provided commentary of what gripped on parts of the psyche of the postmodern American middle class. This can be seen though Warhol’s constant and repeated use of middle class motifs and icons. These include advertising, consumerism, self image, communism, celebrities, and production. Some of the most famous works of Warhol being his Campbell’s Soup paintings and multicolored …show more content…
Warhol and his works were a profound statement as to the status of the middle class of the United States between the 1950s and the 1980s. Through his art he was able to express the zeitgeist of the nation in relation to economic status, and consumerism. Warhol’s art and philosophy came during a time of astounding economic progress, The gross national product (GNP) rose from $212 billion in 1945 to $503 billion in 1960 The median household income of Americans in 1950 was $19,900 (adjusted for 1993 value). Comparatively the median household income of families in 1960 and 1970 were $27,435 and $36,747 respectively. In addition to that the number of people employed between the years 1950 and 1980 grew from 58,918,000 people in 1960 to 99,303,000 people in 1980. This massive increase was also during the large increase in household income as previously mentioned. All of this economic change and general household income increase came during the time period Warhol created the bulk of his work. With this rise in median household income came the rise of modern American …show more content…
Warhol thought that celebrities and television where amazing because they had such an ability to exist the same to a large audience. Because of this Warhol did many painting series involving figures that were on people's mind, literally and figuratively. One such was a silkscreen series where warhol created a number of prints which were simply nine multicolored dollar signs in a three by three grid. Another–regarded as the most expensive Warhol painting ever bought–is “Triple Elvis” where Warhol printed onto a large horizontal canvas a repeating tessellation of three silkscreen visage of the famous and pioneering singer and musician Elvis Presley who had major cultural influence and significance. Another figure that warhol created a series on was the communist leader of China, Mao Zedong who died three years after the creation of the paintings in 1976. This only two decades after the red scare of the 1940s and 50s. All three of these subject areas were of concern to the middle class, the economy, music, and politics. In producing–and mass producing–these pieces of art Warhol was able to proliferate the ability to identify with this time in