Artist/Painter-Humanities

Few artists are as inexorably linked and have contributed more to the postmodern concept of Pop Art than Andy Warhol , changing forever the way people look at everyday items . From his paintings to his silkscreen prints , films to television shows , he embodied all that was sacrosanct in popular culture . His work as a champion of commerciality and consumer culture made his some of the most lasting images of the twentieth century , and his emphasis on America places him next to the likes of Norman Rockwell for the innate ability to capture his country

br But , unlike Rockwell , Warhol would use his art to subtly show the rampant push of commercialization in American culture , from technology to art . His Brillo Box marked a crucial point in the history of Pop Art and precipitated many of the movements that would come after it

Andy Warhol 's legacy in generating interest in Pop Art was no fluke Before his fame , Warhol enjoyed immense success as a commercial artist in New York , receiving accolades for his work and getting more opportunities to pursue personal projects , as in 1952 when he had his first individual show at the Hugo Gallery exhibiting Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote the success of this show led to several other galleries displaying his work , including his first group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1956 (Cribbs , 2002 . Warhol also once commented that department stores were like art museums , and this comparison could be seen in much of the art he produced . Warhol also once declared that Pop artists painted pictures of things that anyone walking along Broadway could recognize in a split second - comics picnic tables , men 's trousers , celebrities , shower curtains refrigerators , Coke bottles - all the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried so hard not to notice at all (Craven 1993 ,

. 574 . Warhol 's desire to set abstract expressionism on its ear succeeded with his production of Brillo Boxes ' in 1964

When Warhol created Brillo Box he took imagery from advertising and mass media to show that it was hardly discernable from art . He created the work using plywood covered in serigraph and acrylic . The irony and the work 's effect on neo-expressionism is that the original Brillo box was created by an abstract expressionist artist , Jim Harvey . When Harvey 's gallery , the Graham Gallery , heard of Warhol 's Brillo Box , they issued a press release condemning them : It is galling enough for Jim Harvey , an abstract expressionist , to see that a pop artist is running away with the ball , but when the ball happens to be a box designed by Jim Harvey , and Andy Warhol gets the credit for it , well , this makes Jim scream (Gaddy , 2007 . Despite these objects , the neo-expressionist movement had begun , and Warhol would be a key player in its proliferation

Neo-expressionism , like Warhol 's Brillo Box , used recognizable objects and often made commentary on social issues . It was also a movement that rejected the traditional...