Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?,1956

Marilyn (Three Times) 1962

Warhol - Marilyn, 1964

Elvis, 1964

Warhol - Campbell's Soup 1, 1968

Cow Wallpaper, 1966

The Dollar Sign images are another example of Warhol's preference for symbols over objects. They are supposed to represent how the art system is linked to the commercial marketplace. This theme of consumerism runs through most of his work. The art work itself is to be seen as a money making opportunity for artists, dealers, and collectors. The image should remind the viewer that art is judged by its dollar value, art represents money on the wall.

Flowers, 1964

The Electric Chair painting is one that marks the begining of a series of morbid subject paintings for Warhol. In this painting death remains impersonal and stimulates the viewers imagination. The silkscreen print is distorted to give a negative tone. Warhol shows this piece as a static image that gives a powerful message.

Five Deaths Eleven Times in Orange, 1964

“I think art since Cezanne has become extremely utopian and unrealistic …. It has less and less to do with the world, it looks inward – neo Zen and all that …. Outside is the world; its there. Pop art looks out on the world; it appears to accept its environment, which is not good or bad, but different – another state of mind” – Lichtenstein.

In the Car1963Magna on

canvas

Whaam!1963Magna on canvas

Lichtenstein-Blam 1962Oil on canvas68 x 80 in

Takka Takka1962Oil on canvas56 x 68 in

Cubist Still Life with Playing Cards1974Oil and Magna on canvas96 x 60 in

•Washed dishes for extra money & while scraping food off plates imagined food changing into art •Realistic scale replicas of merchandise sold in shops – plaster soaked cloths draped over chicken wire & painted descriptive colours in enamel. ( pies, jewellery, ice cream sundaes, cakes etc.) •Displayed on shelves in an actual store he opened on 2nd street New York in the same way that the real objects were displayed, yet they were not mass produced but were hand made art. •Had art prices e.g $149.98 for an Oldenburg sandwich •The trompe le’ oeil character – made them irresistible to thieving neighbourhood kids. •NB I make art to look like its part of the world around it At the same time I take great pains to show that it doesn’t function as part of the world around it. These objects arouse appetite yet one cant eat it.

Oldenberg, Giant Hamburger with Pickle attached, Slice of Iced Layer Cake, 1962

His focus on food is NB – nothing is more banal, less surprising in taste or more culturally fixed than American “fast food”The enamel on the cheeseburgers, dripping in its gloopy parody of Abstract Expressionism is like syrup. One imagines a gross tawdry taste on the tongue as bright & as synthetic as the the colour itself. Appetite & repulsion are built in to the same image.

Oldenburg, Two Cheeseburgers with Everything, 1962, Burlap soaked in plaster, painted with enamel.

Later he created these delicacies in vinyl and canvas, stuffed with kapok; but now on a gigantic scale as they might appear in a surrealist nightmare. Wife & “Factory hands” (Park avenue matrons & penniless dancers) helped him.

He translated hard or rigid objects, bathroom or kitchen fixtures, into soft and collapsing versions (e.g. Soft Toilet 1966 and Soft Giant Drum Set 1967)

Oldenberg, Switch, 1964

His soft sculptures become metaphors for the human body A double light switch, vastly expanded & remade in soft vinyl, acquires the pathos of a middle aged torso, with switch arms transformed into two sagging breasts. These soft objects bring to mind Dali’s melting clocks & collapse in violation of their essential natures & become disturbing commentaries on the nature of contemporary life. In his interest in paradox, Oldenburg is closer to the original dadaists or surrealists than most other pop artists.

Magritte: The Listening room

Takes on the American love of gigantism.

40 ft clothespin – like a monster in a movie this object suggests that the real world has contrived to rise against its owners. It recalls experience of the giant apple in the room. We also read this clothespin as a man – it has two legs, the spring clip on its “torso” suggests compression, force & military inhibition – all the angles are sharp.