ANDY WARHOL The quintessential American Pop artist was
Andy Warhol(1928–1987). An early successful career as a com-
mercial artist and illustrator grounded Warhol in the sensibility and
visual rhetoric of advertising and the mass media, knowledge that
proved useful for his Pop artworks. In paintings such as Green
Coca-Cola Bottles (FIG. 36-24), Warhol selected an icon of mass-
produced, consumer culture of the time. The reassuringly familiar
curved Coke bottle especially appealed to Warhol:
What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition
where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the
poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can
know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and
just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no
amount of money can get you a better Coke.^17
As did other Pop artists, Warhol used a visual vocabulary and a
printing technique that reinforced the image’s connections to con-
sumer culture. The repetition and redundancy of the Coke bottle re-
flect the omnipresence and dominance of this product in American
society. The silk-screen technique allowed Warhol to print the image
endlessly (although he varied each bottle slightly). So immersed was
Warhol in a culture of mass production that he not only produced
numerous canvases of the same image but also named his studio
“the Factory.”
Warhol often produced images of Hollywood celebrities, such
as Marilyn Monroe. Like his other paintings, these works emphasize
the commodity status of the subjects depicted. Warhol created Mar-
ilyn Diptych (FIG. 36-25) in the weeks following the movie star’s
suicide in August 1962, capitalizing on the media frenzy her death
prompted. Warhol selected a Hollywood publicity photo, one that
provides no insight into the real Norma Jean Baker (the actress’s
name before she assumed the persona of Marilyn Monroe). Rather,
the viewer sees only a mask—the image the Hollywood myth ma-
chine generated. The garish colors and the flat application of paint
contribute to that image’s masklike quality. The repetition of Mon-
roe’s face reinforces her status as a consumer product on a par with
Coke bottles, her glamorous, haunting visage seemingly confront-
ing the viewer endlessly, as it did the
American public in the aftermath
of her death. The right half of this
work, with its poor registration of
pigment, suggests a sequence of film
stills, a reference to the realm from
which Monroe derived her fame.
Warhol’s ascendance to the rank
of celebrity artist underscored his
remarkable and astute understand-
ing of the dynamics and visual lan-
guage of mass culture. He predicted36-24Andy Warhol,Green Coca-Cola Bottles,1962. Oil on canvas,
6 10 –^12 4 9 . Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Warhol was the quintessential American Pop artist. Here, he selected
an icon of mass-produced consumer culture and then multiplied it,
reflecting Coke’s omnipresence in American society.36-25Andy Warhol,Marilyn
Diptych,1962. Oil, acrylic, and
silkscreen enamel on canvas, each
panel 6 8 4 9 . Tate Gallery,
London.
Warhol’s repetition of Monroe’s face
reinforced her status as a consumer
product, her glamorous visage con-
fronting the viewer endlessly, as it did
the American public in the aftermath
of her death.984 Chapter 36 EUROPE AND AMERICA AFTER 19451 ft.
1 ft.
36-24ASEGAL,
The Gas
Station,1963.36-25AMARISOL,
The Last Supper,
1982–1984.