Warhol - Contemporary Notion of Authenticity and Authorship - Essay Example

Warhol Comment and Contemporary Notion on Authenti and hip The comment that Andy Warhol makes seeks to elicit the attention of the masses to use his physical appearance to define him. Andy Warhol depicts that he does not care much about what people say about him but he holds a lot on what he believes about himself. He treasures in his philosophy which implies that looking at finer details of something makes it to appear wrong. This is a provoking comment to the masses that he is still famous despite what people might say about him. Warhol reveals that he is stable despite the new trend emerging in the field of artwork (Wolf & Koestenbaum, 2004:90). In addition, the comment draws the attention of the masses that they do not have to go to their screens to watch Andy Warhol. This is because whatever they saw was the real and famous Pop artist. Through this comment, Andy Warhol identifies himself with his era and culture suggesting that nothing is perfect. Warhol is very much interested in the surface of things and not their deeper attributes. This is a depiction that words have no meaning and the appearance of something is enough to give all the necessary information about it. Therefore, Andy Warhol alludes that there is instant disclosure of information about something when one considers the superficial qualities (Wolf & Koestenbaum, 2004:92). There is a lot of reasoning in this statement. To start with, Andy Warhol refutation of depth is a criticism against the rich and legacy of novelty. This comment can also be a tool of defence of Warhol that elicits interests of the audience to differentiate what is genuine from the unreal. Andy Warhol’s pieces of art flourished in television and screens. He was a legend in filmmaking and paintings. Through his mastery of art, Warhol could paint different items from shops and supermarkets. Warhol used silkscreen techniques to produce duplicate images of the items. Some of the famous paintings comprised of Marilyn and Campbell Soup which demonstrate well application of artistic prowess. Through his paintings and speech, Andy Warhol sent a message to American to re-examine their perception about the work of art. This was in the light that the art industry was losing its stability. Examination of the work of Andy Warhol displays a lot of originality and creativity. Therefore, it is without no doubt that Andy Warhol gave a new face to American art. Warhol perfected in art and expended his entire academic prowess in making people to understand United States through art. Some of his great works such as Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse, the Electric chair, and many others touched on crucial things and personalities of his life time (Preziosi, 2009:317). Andy Warhol refuted the claims that pieces of art were an expression of the individuality of the artist. Warhol wanted to create awareness to the American people about the deplorable state of society, which was a product of inequality. Andy Warhol’s work can be related to contemporary notions about work. A thinker such as Roland Barthes closes his obituary of the author with suggestion that the birth of an authors is at the expense of the death of an Author. The work of art has experienced practices of radical appropriation from other artworks are common. The works of art of Andy Warhol have little or no manipulation or no alteration. The copies depict their originality and continue in present and supports the idea that author is dead. The authorship of the works of the art appears to be under compromise from the start by inclusion of many components of other people’s artworks. These are sometimes unmediated. The traditional concept of artists holds artists responsible for every aspect of their creations. Andy Warhol captured every feature in the work of work is a result of decision of the artist. The paintings of the accidents by Andy Warhol depict real picture of how it happened and this remained in his work (Preziosi, 2009:317). This feature makes the work of art understandable and interpretable. There is a huge difference in contemporary work of art when one compares to that of Warhol. In modern art, there is extensive incorporation of borrowed imagery. The contemporary art has diverse styles because it makes use of other people’s work such as Warhol. Contemporary art has no unified stylistic marker. They are no more products of single artistic activity. Warhol has lent his screens to various artists such as Elaine Sturtevant (Irvin, 2005:124). Borrowing from other artists is an honoured practice throughout the history of art. For instance, contemporary arts have repainted and re-coloured the works of others. The aim of this action is to explore the application of their styles to a recognizable subject matter and composition. Painting somebody’s artistic work and the painter claims that it is his/ her own product challenges the concept of authorship. This did not happen during Warhol’s time. During the time of Andy Warhol there was appropriation of popular and consumer culture. The artists had to decide to classify some objects as artistic work and other did not qualify as artistic work. The authorship and authenticity of contemporary art of work is very much compromised from the beginning by incorporation of large components of other artists work. The traditional norms of art hold that artists ought to exercise responsibility for their creations. The act of contemporary artists to use other people work of art without virtually altering them they replace the artistic skills of others and assume it as their own (Irvin, 2005:124). Looking at the artistic work of Warhol it reveals that there were conscious and careful choices that gave the work a unique appearance. Warhol artistic reflects different choices on how to pose the subject and how to reframe the image. Reproduction and use of technology has affected the originality of the work of the art. The contemporary art has many manipulations that occur during printing process bringing unwanted contrast and thereby suppressing finer details on the product of art. The use of technology makes different forms of the art resemble each other denying the artists the authorship and making appear less in their artistic work (Wong & Dutfied, 2010:311). However, people classify the manipulated work of art as art. This has seen modern artists receive every form of recognition for their artworks. This means that despite manipulations and reproduction, the world views the artists as the authors of their work. To some extent, the world acknowledges that the artists do not produce masterpieces in their artistic work. Nonetheless, the world recognizes that those who practice art are the authors of the works. Roland Barthes in the Death of the Author observes that contemporary art has undergone a lot of changes when compared to the tradition pieces of work. This is despite the fact that people seek explanations for the failure of a piece of work from the original author of the work. According to Roland, Mallarme predicted the need to replace language of the authors of pieces of work (Barthes, 1977:1). This is because Mallarme strongly felt that that language was a media through which it conveyed author’s message. The poetic work of Mallarme restrains the authors since he is interested in writing. Roland depicts Mallarme as directed by the readers to restore their place in the work of art. Roland allude that the author does not count in the pieces of art but it is the language that matters. This is an implication that people recognise the role of an author when he/she is writing a piece of work. It is an illusion that the language is more important than the owner of the work. This puts pieces of the art at the verge of eliminating their authors thereby creating a vacuum that invites forgery. Roland points out that dropping the author brings transformation to the pieces of art and the readers perceive the absence of the author (Barthes, 1977:3). Cessation of the author the work of art makes it lose originality because the readers cannot attach it to a given person. Roland reveals in the case where the author is missing, a given piece of art relies on language to back up originality. However, there are many flows with the use of language to establish authenticity of artwork because it cannot answer many questions explicitly. Contemporary piece of work is a mixture and blend of many pieces of art in which many have a clashing interest. According to Roland, neither of these works is inventive and lacks creativity. This is a contrast to the distinct pieces of work from Andy Warhol, which was full of creativity and very informative. Roland portrays the modern notions of as patches of different ideas taken from different sources with diversified cultural backgrounds (Barthes, 1977:1). Some authors duplicate others writings through mixing in a tactful way to hide their actions. Roland notes these forgers of artwork have to consult other people’s work to establish whether their way of thinking is right. Imitation robs the forger the ability to be creative and to express his/ her feelings, humours, impressions, and passions. Rather, the forgers constrain themselves to the thinking of the genuine authors of their work. This makes the imitators to be less creative in the artistic work (Barthes, 1977:4). Coping tends to detach the authors from their pieces of work. The efforts to trace the authentic authors become a futile affair. The work of art loses an explanation and limits the readers or audience access to the original work. It is apparent that comparing Warhol’s work of art the contemporary pieces of work appears to violate the conventional conception of authorship. Warhol’s choices of art determined every aspect of his work. The details of his work were interpretable based on the meaning of his artwork. Warhol was the author of his work because he had used his skills and prowess to create an artistic masterpiece. In contemporary art it is difficulty to establish the genuine author of artwork and the forged authorship. In the case of forged authorship, the element of author is missing in relation to his/ her work (Irvin, 2005:126). Conventionally, forgery in today’s work of art takes a form of two categories. The first way of forging one’s artwork entails using the original copies of an individual work and claiming ownership. The second category of forgery of art manifests itself when artists design new works that incorporate the contents and styles of the original author of a piece of work. There is a developing trend of forgery of the work of in the contemporary world. This entails prediction of what the artists will do next and approximation of the next artistic product. The individual involved in this mode of forgery aspires to produce the work of their target authors before they make an attempt to produce their genuine pieces of work (Irvin, 2005:133). These types of forgers have a tactful approach in their forgery activity. For instance, the forgers study the authors’ techniques for success in the work of the art. The forger learns from all sources to establish the trajectories in the authors’ pieces of work and the content. Some forgers may participate in recreation of already existing pieces of art to get the knowledge of the intellectual and material processes that produced the artwork (Wong & Dutfied, 2010:309). The forger will imitate all the processes to have the same stream on thinking and ideas, which their targets used to succeed. The forgers can use up to date software algorithm to apply the predictions of which it produces. Through the use of these different forms of forgery the genuine authors loose the authorship and the work of art looses its authenticity. Bibliography Barthes, R., 1977. The Death of the Author. Available from: http://www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf [Accessed 13 May 2012]. Dantini, M., 2008. Modern & Contemporary Art. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. Irvin, S., 2005. Appropriation and Authorship in Contemporary Art, British Journal of Aesthetics 45, 123-137. Available from: http://www.ou.edu/ouphil/faculty/irvin/Appropriation.pdf [Accessed 13 May 2012]. Preziosi, D., 2009. The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wolf, R., & Koestenbaum, W., 2004. Ill Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews : 1962-1987. Cambridge: Da Capo Press. Wong, T., & Dutfied, G., 2010. Intellectual Property and Human Development: Current Trends and Future Scenarios. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More