The starting point of any civilization is underscored by anthropological findings and the external influences of sister cultures. Residual artifacts will steer our research to understand the social, economic, and cultural habitat. Ordinary everyday objects are scrutinized as a method to understand the experience of their social development. Underscoring there-genesis of any nation’s culture prompts us to glimpse at the remaining reliquaries of the past manifested in the individual self-centered creativity or the interaction of the components of that society.
Decoded by personal sensitivity and common judgment, Warhol places those residual relics and conveys the attitude and spirit of that particular age. Thru “popular objectsâ€, ordinary everyday objects distinctive only to the existence of those inhabitants, he creates a legacy that encompasses the beginning of a new culture. A “totem pole†upheld as an original monument to the birth of a new civilization: American Art.
Warhol’s living art assumed a place within a system, not in an individual vacuum, radically altering our early understanding of art. His art formulates transformations that proliferate– artistically, philosophically, and morally-into our “modus vivendi†and defines a new understanding in social relationships that no other civilization has previously upheld.
Walter Gopius’s fervent address to his students on the occasion of their exhibit at the Staatliche Bauhaus, encompasses Warhol’s common properties: “The artist cannot stand detached. We artists need the community as much as we need bread. Together we merge once more within the workshop.†“Art†is not allowed to remain private because it becomes stale and lifeless. Art is the reflex of a communal effort to understand who we are and create a base to spring into transformation. It has to radically assume a place in the system as a “commune†for art to develop and begin. “Andy works all the time. He seems to just stand around while others work, but he is the mastermind behind all of us, “Ultra Violet” recorded from Lou Reed’s observation in her memoirs, “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.â€
This creative milieu is fundamental in Andy Warhol’s innovative process. Underscoring the past of any nation’s culture and exposing the underbelly of human tragedy will support of new way of life and he will one day be bestowed with the title of the Father of American Art.
Faustino Quintanilla
Curator
