Warhol... A Savior

            I must say that being an artist in San Antonio, visiting art shows and local bars with “art” strewn across the walls I have grown this dis-respect of pop art. Countless times where I expected to see actual artwork I would see a monotone panel with a stencil of a celebrity on it. I would shake my head in disrespect because I didn’t understand why an “artists” would consider it a fine enough piece of work to hand out in public. It literally took to me to the point of not even respecting Andy Warhol as an artist. Until this week when I visited the McNay Art Museum and viewed the Andy Warhol exhibit.

            I have found a new great respect for Andy Warhol as an artist and I became enlightened to what pop art really is, what it meant then, as well as what it means now.  Andy Warhol was a smart man, somewhat of a genius in the art world and a savior to the underclass or underestimated artist. With artists before him like Jackson Pollock or Willem De Kooning making art fort the elite art Andy Warhol made recognizable images for the average person, which in turn brought more people of the era into the art world. Pollock and De Kooning made paintings and drawings for the intellectual, very humanistic qualities in their work, yet very expressionistic. Warhol turned the art world upside down, making very humanistic work with sublet notes for the more intellectual art viewer. He managed to take this images that the public can see and recognize and relate with and put feelings into the work for the more intuitive viewer. The one I saw that I enjoyed the most would be the work Warhol did of Mao Zedong, taking a Chinese communist leader and colorfully making him playful, even making a whimsical wallpaper of Mao’s face. Warhol’s touch changed this image of a powerful Chinese leader to a softer friendlier figure.

            I learned this week that pop art is artistic expression for the general public with notes for the intellectual. I see now that Andy Warhol did society a favor, showing the public and the art world that art work doesn’t have to be so expressionistic that the imagery is almost gone. Warhol showed the world art work that would appeal to more than just the elite. I’m still struggling to say I enjoy the pop art that local “artist’s” display around town, but I can say that I respect it… I think.