Art History Article Questions
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Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Andy Warhol is often remembered as the father of Pop Art. He was trained as a commercial
artist and worked for years for “Vanity Fair.” However, he also made films, screen tests,
portraits, paintings, photos, and other works.
Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Warhol tells a lot about his essence in portraits. In “ArtPress” (April
2009), Leydier et al published an interview with curator, Alain Cueff, regarding the exhibition
“le Grande Monde d’Andy Warhol” (The Grand World of Andy Warhol). Regarding the 2009
exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Alain Cueff notes the importance of portraits in Warhol’s
record.
When many think of Warhol art, they think Pop Art. Cueff notes that the Pop Art part of his
career was only a small piece, consisting of works created between 1961 and 1963. According to
Cueff, “Already, at the end of 1962, his ‘Suicides’ and, in early 1963, his ‘Car Crash’ works had
broken with the dominant imagery. From this point onwards, right to the end, the most important
thing in his work was the question of the face and the possibility of representing it.” Cueff goes
on to reflect how Warhol portraits (i.e. the Marilyns) suggest a delicate balance between life and
death. Beginning in the 1960s, Warhol created prints of famous celebrities, especially Marilyn
Monroe, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
Cueff notes Warhol’s process for making silkscreen and paint portraits in the 1960s used the
powerful concept of negative space. He began with a photograph and cropped it to get the right
close-up of the subject’s face. Next, he transferred the photograph image onto acetate (a clear
plastic film). On this film, he corrected the person’s face. Using carbon, the facial outline was
copied onto canvas. He then traced the image and underpainted the canvas with bright paint.
Finally, he applied the silk screen and black ink by matching the image on the screen to the
canvas image. The result was a beautiful dark image with brilliant colors beneath.
More than just a brilliant printer, photographer, and painter, Andy Warhol was a huge public
icon. It was later in the 1960s after Marilyn’s death that he began to be mobbed in public. When
he worked on portraits for celebrities, Warhol got what Cueff calls the “economic question”
settled in the early part of a portrait session, rattling off how many thousands a client would be
required to pay for the work.
Warhol led an illustrious life, crossing many social boundaries in the changing society struggling
with civil rights and war. He died from the complications of gallbladder surgery in 1987 at age
59.
1. What genre of work did Andy Warhol make?
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2. What was Andy Warhol’s work about?
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3. How did his process use negative space?
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4. Describe the piece shown above. What are the notable things about it?
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Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Circumstance and irony would lead a young girl who once suffered from polio to become one of
Mexico’s most illustrious artists and famous women. Born in 1907 on the outskirts of Mexico
City, Frida Kahlo has frequently been associated with the surrealist movement, but her art is
equally a reflection of her homeland. The folk art of Mexico inspired Kahlo’s work and it was
her unique style that led to her world-side fame.
As a young girl Frida suffered from a weak leg, an effect of polio. Her slight handicap induced
her parents to encourage her to study science and the natural world as she could not participate in
many physical activities. Her use of a cameral and early bout with photography would eventually
have a profound impact on her later art. Frida was not an art student when she first met Diego
Rivera who visited her high school to paint a mural. However, they would later remember an
early meeting there.
In 1925 Kahlo was involved in a serious bus accident that would result in lifelong pain and many
operations. It was this event and its necessary stays in bed that led Kahlo to take up art. While
her initial works reveal an influence of great European artists like Botticelli and Modigliani, her
admiration of Rivera and similar nationalist artists as well as her innate passion for folk art
would lead her to become one of Mexico’s most celebrated artists.
Early in her development as an artist, Kahlo visited Rivera in his studio. Their mutual admiration
led to a tumultuous marriage with a brief interlude caused by infidelity on both sides. Rivera,
twenty years her senior, had significant influence on Kahlo’s development, but art historians
credit her work as far more personally evocative. Kahlo’s many self-portraits reveal her bouts
with physical and emotional pain. Her marriage, miscarriages, and personal events in her life
often appeared in work that also reflected her profound preoccupation with Mexican indigenous
life.
Kahlo was believed to have many liaisons including one with Russian revolutionary Leon
Trotsky. Her association with a famous husband and national and foreign revolutionaries has
made her a legendary figure of her nation. Yet, Mexico and the world know her best for her
works and singular artistic style. Some of her most famous paintings include Frida and Diego
Rivera (1931), The Two Fridas (1939), and Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940). These are
just three of the more than forty self-portraits that Kahlo painted.
Official records indicate that a pulmonary embolism was the cause of her death in 1954. Because
Kahlo was viewed as the wife of a famous artist, she did not obtain critical fame in her own right
during her lifetime. In fact, critical acclaim would not find her work until the early eighties when
it was rediscovered during Mexico’s Neomexicanismo art movement. Her life was recently
depicted in the award-winning film Frida (2002) that starred Salma Hayek. An extraordinary
artist, Kahlo’s work can be found in the world’s great museums such as Mexico’s Museo
Nacional de Arte, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and Musee National d’Art Moderne in
Paris.
1. What genre is Frida Kahlo’s work?
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2. What medical issues did Frida Kahlo have and how did they affect her relationship with
art?
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3. What was her relationship with the painter Diego Rivera?
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4. When did Frida Kahlo receive critical fame?
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5. Describe the piece shown above. What are the notable things about it?
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Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Jackson Pollock is often remembered as a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism alongside fellow
artist, Mark Rothko. Before his association with this movement, he was already making waves in
the New York art world. At the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, Jackson
Pollock’s work was shown in his third solo show from May 2 to June 3, 1944. This exhibition
was part of Peggy Guggenheim’s “Art of this Century” exhibit called “Spring Salon for Abstract
and Surrealist Artists (Under Forty).” This event prompted Clement Greenberg to describe
Pollock as the “most original contemporary easel painter under forty.”
Paul Jackson Pollock was born on January 28, 1912, in Cody, Wyoming. He studied art under a
theosophist artist while in high school in Los Angeles. At the age of 28, he joined the Art
Students League in New York City after following his brother there. His early training included
2.5 years under the guidance of painter, Thomas Hart Benton. Pollock’s genius in painting was
controversial over his short lifetime. In the 1940s, he created many drawings and mixed media
pieces. A sizeable collection of drawings and paintings by Pollock are permanently housed in the
Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy.
One example in the P. Guggenheim Collection in Venice is the oil on canvas – “The Moon
Woman” (1942). Pollock uses a combination of brilliantly contrasting colors, lines, and shapes,
including abstract and geometric forms. “The Moon Woman” reflects the influence of Cubism
(ala Jean Miro and Pablo Picasso) and Surrealism. His works by the 1940s also reflected his
investigation of the inner realms of the human psyche and the themes of the mythical, spiritual,
and occult. In “Tondo” (1948), composed of oil and enamel on metal, Pollock follows the
tradition of Caravaggio and the Florentine Renaissance painters with a beautiful circular
painting. In “No. 5” (1948), Pollock’s masterpiece of Abstract Expressionism combines a
balanced composition of paint splatters in many colors. This work became the most valuable
piece of art in the world when it sold for $140,000,000 in 2006.
Pollock met an early end due to alcoholism. On August, 11, 1956, he was driving a car while
intoxicated with alcohol and crashed his personal vehicle near his home. This accident resulted
in his death and the death of a passenger. A third passenger survived. His wife, Lee Krasner, was
also an artist who managed his interests after his death. Together, this husband and wife team
represented the attempt in the mid-20th century to help artists break free from traditional art
styles and customs.
6. What genre is Jackson Pollock famous for being a pioneer of?
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7. Where did he show his work?
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8. Describe the piece shown above. What are the notable things about it?
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