Andy Warhol: Modernism Vs Postmodernism

Andy Warhol: Modernism Vs Postmodernism By reference to both art works and writings- within the period of 1950-1970, critically discuss to the extent in which Andy Warhol has produced art after Modernism. In what ways has the artist upheld, adapted or rejected modernist values. This essay will critically discuss the extent to which Andy Warhol upheld, adapted or rejected Modernist values which will further investigate how Warhol created art after Modernism. In order to answer this question the main Modernist values will be discussed, these include ideas such as avant-garde, the machine age, transhistorical, equilibrium, aesthetic, individualism, form, purity, essentialism, universality. This will then form the basis to which a conclusion will be made as to whether or not Andy Warhol upheld, adapted or rejected these Modernist values. Modernism described cultural tendencies and a cultural movement which started in the late 19th century and ran into the early 20th Century which fixes its origins at the shattering of cultural symbols and norms. Modernist artists believed that the traditional, social and political order is no longer able to portray the modern needs as different from the past. They sought stylistic innovations that could better expose their present reality. The first Modernist value to be discussed is avant-garde. The Modernist avant-garde practice can be defined as the combination of three qualities: technological experimentation, aesthetic engagement with the means of signification and an immanent social political commitment. This definition refers to Modernists experimental and innovative art which pushed boundaries of what was socially accepted. Warhol emerged alongside Neo-avant-garde in the mid 1950s, where Modernist values were subverted by the values associated with modern art within the Modernist period through the eruption of more diverse, new practices. Warhol and his Pop Art work was an example used to show that the neo avant-garde is an avant-garde that exists as a mere inauthentic mirage of the avant-garde of the 1910s and 20s. Warhols use of the photographic silk screening process was the decisive step by which Warhol aligned his working method with the content of his paintings. It was through this step that he made conspicuous and quite specific contribution to the advance of avant-garde art. The neo-avant-garde was a new take on avant-garde which wanted to bridge the gap between life-as-art and art-as-life and remodel our day to day existence. Pop Art was used to tell a melancholic story of arts inability to imagine socially better works. Warhol therefore adapted the Modernist value of the avant-garde where he added to the ideas of this Modernist value. He did this by adapting to the ever globalising society and created new means of creating and viewing artworks. In the 1960s, Andy Warhol created several mass-produced images from photographs of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. He used the technique of silkscreen printing, this is seen as neo-avant-garde. This can be seen in his Turquoise Marilyn (Fig 1.) is based on a publicity still of Marilyn Monroe, with vivid colours highlighting her eyes, lips and earrings. He also famously replicated the same image in a variety of different colours. Warhol created many pieces using the silkscreen technique which was a useful technique as many of the same image was easily replicable. This idea leads me onto the next Modernist value of the Machine Age. Within the Modernist period, artists had to come to terms with the idea of machines. Many embraced the idea, soughing to fuse art and life through an expanded approach to mass culture, performance and production. For example the Italian Futurists encompassed the ever advancing machine age. They created work whereby they repeated shapes over and over like a machine. Warhol sought to be machine like in his everyday life and also his artwork. He did this by using repetition in a lot of his work. He stated: I think everybody should be like a machine, I think everybody should be like everybody. Within his day to day life he acted like a machine and this was reflected within his work entitled Campbells Soup Cans (Fig.2.) He claims he created this piece of work because he drank it daily, it was a routine. I use to have the same lunch everyday, for twenty yearsthe same thing over and over again. Warhol liked the idea of other people creating the same work as him; he said I think it would be so great if more people took up the silk screens so that no one would know whether my picture was mine or someone elses. People thought that this would turn the art world upside down yet Warhol argued back by repeating that he just wanted to be machine like; I feel that whatever I do and do machine like is what I want to do. While working as a commercial artist Warhol believed the process of doing work in commercial art was machine-like, but the attitude had feeling to it. This feeling within work was seen as bad to Warhol as he wanted to be more detatched from his work, hence the wanted to be machine like. Peter Halley admired Warhols work and felt that one had a sense that one could actually participate in the making of the work. This was what Warhol was aiming for. He upheld the Modernist value of the machine age and brought it further forward into a more developed art practice ideal. Warhol upheld the Modernist value of the machine age through his use of repetition and other people doing his work for him. Earlier mentioned was that Warhol wanted to be like a machine, thus meaning that he rejected the Modernist value of Individualism. His work has been described as having a sense that one could actually participate in the making of the work. The idea of art not being individual caused emphasis on depersonalized production process, forming an attack on the artists role. Transhistorical is another Modernist value which can be said to create timelessness among Modernist art. It described the same style yet a change in materials throughout history. The intention of artwork has been described as fulfilling the idea of the transhistorical, it specifies the invariant condition for something being art in every world and which there is art at all. The transhistorical concept of art is the largely unacknowledged foundation for the first general art history. Warhols art has been described as providing an illustration of the essential emptiness of art. His art can be seen as the termination point for the visual arts in world history when art as a medium has become inadequate, exhausted. In relation to the question, Warhol would be seen to reject the modernist value of the transhistorical, this is because he changed art itself, not just the mediums used. The next Modernist issue which I am going to address is the idea of Equilibrium. Equilibrium stands for a balance, where by a considered harmonious decision making process takes place within art. Warhol seems to reject the idea of equilibrium, when the equilibrium is not in itself so intrinsically compelling, and the handling of the paint is kept adamant, the result is that the painting tends not to hold the eye: the spectators eye keeps bouncing off, no matter how hard he tries to keep it fixed on the painting that has no inherent depth and ends up erecting a kind of hand ball court for the eye. Another Modernist value is aesthetic which is an emotion derived from the appearance of artwork. The aesthetic was very important to Modernist artists as they aimed to create a spiritual place for the viewer observing their art. Warhol incorporated the idea of the symbolism between the aesthetic of art works and those of other non art products. Warhol as it were redefined aesthetic experience in terms of critical resistance. Warhol developed his own comprehensive aesthetic theories, so we can say that Warhol adapted the Modernist idea of the aesthetic. He did this by changing the way in which we viewed work by changing the way in which work was made. Form was another important value in Modernism where Clement Greenberg drew much attention to the importance of form and in particular; flatness. Greenberg believed flatness was wanted in art because it was what something which was exclusive to painting. He says: For painting, such a focus means, most importantly, the exploration and assertion of flatness, that is, of the two dimensionality that distinguishes a painting from a sculpture. Warhol used form in his work, but in a way that differed to most Modernists work. Form is the organisation of materials. Warholsuse of photo silk screensplays a role in the progressive discarding of paintings tradition-laden baggage, while preserving its form. The Modernists values of Purity and Essentialism link together in Modernist work, as they refer to what is needed in art works and what is essential and left after everything is taken away. It was Warhol himself who revealed as mearly accidental most of the things his predecessors supposed essential to art he brought the history to an end by demonstrating that no visual criterion could not solve the problem through art alone. Warhol reproduces rather than represents, he seems to reject artistic sophistication, he does not take authorship for his work. Earlier mentioned he was said to wish for others to create his work for him, however, he strips his works down into a limited palette of colours, rather than defining every detail he uses only the essential lines so that the viewer can recognise what the subject matter is. Warhol has adapted the ideas of purity and essentialism. The final Modernist value is universality and the idea that art applies to everyone and that everyone can respond to art work. He does this by using famous people so that the everyday man could recognise his subject matter, he also believed that anyone could be an artist and wanted equality in society. Warhol also used everyday objects or subjects in his work, so that everyone could relate to his art. He upheld the Modernist Value of universality, for example in designing his Brillo Box-Soap Pads (Fig.3.) out of an every day material to show the defining role of theory to be a universal truth about all art. Warhol speaks of making his Brillo Boxes in conjunction with his Campbells soup cans: I did all the (Campbells soup) cans in a row on a canvas, and then I got a box made to do them on a box, and then it looked funny because it didnt look real I did the cans on the box, but it came out looking funny. I had the boxes already made up. They were brown and looked just like boxes, so I thought it would be great just to do an ordinary box. The second part of the question asks how Warhol created art after Modernism, through influence of modernist values Warhol successfully created art after modernism in the movement entitled Pop Art. Lawrence Alloway was the first person to render the idea of Pop Art in 1958 which he described as mass produced culture , it then became commonly used to describe new works of art which had been produced in the period that had become a central stylistic concept of the pop scene and a synonym for the cultural movement for the period in general. Warhol became part of this movement through his use of colour and subject. Art is anything you can get away with was a famous statement by Andy Warhol, who produced artwork after the Modernist period which influenced and inspired many. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928 and died in 1987. He moved to New York and became a successful graphic designer in the early 1950s, he worked for shoe fashions and as designer of display windows, then towards the late 1950s he began to produce and exhibit his own drawings, in 1960 he produced his first canvas and then he developed into an chic artist becoming part of the up and coming avant-garde movement known as Pop Art. If they told me to draw a shoe, Id do it, and if they told me to correct it, I would-Id do anything they told me to do, correct it and do it right. Id have to invent it and now I dont; after that correction those commercial drawings would have feelings , they would have a style. The attitude of those who hired me had feeling or something to it; they knew what they wanted, they insisted; sometimes they got very emotional. The process of doing work in commercial art was machine-like, but the attitude had feeling to it. Warhol was described as mercilessly debunking Modernist protocols. Warhol took an anti-Modernist approach in some aspects of his art work and disregarded the Modernist idea of Abstract Expressionism; a movement deeply informed by its subject matter and the artists attitudes towards their themes directing their attitudes towards form and process. Warhols process of creating Silkscreens was a whole new technique. The silkscreen is simply a stencil, however Warhol combined it with photographical techniques which created different tonal ends. Warhol selected his images from newspapers and magazines he then sent it to a commercial silkscreen makers with a note as to the desired dimensions of the screen and the number of colours to be printed. When the screen had been prepared for printing, it was returned to Warhols Factory. This process of silk screening meant Warhol could reproduce work quickly, simply and identically. Warhol also employed assistants to print his silk screens in his Factory. Warhols use of silkscreening can also be linked to the earlier point of universiality as this technique was mass produced and identical mirrored his views on an equal society. Warhol was openly homosexual and his anti Modernist position educated his most renowned subjects, Marylin Monroe (Fig.4.) and Elizabeth Taylor. These celebrities were as much gay icons as objects of male heterosexual desire, not just because of their publicised suffering in heterosexual relationships, and his silkscreen-printed portraits of 1962-3 the garish inks virtually functioned as make-up, creating drag queen connotations. The Coca Cola bottle represents an image of mass produced consumer culture which was encountered often in American society. Andy Warhols 210 Coca Cola Bottles (Fig. 5.) was made using the printing technique common to most of his work. The stacking of his products in rows implied a submission to the routinisation of supermarket-era shopping, as well as mimicking the techniques of mass production. This also links to the earlier mentioned idea of universiality In conclusion, Andy Warhol changed art as was once know. He upheld the Modernist ideas of the machine age and the universal, whilst rejecting the idea of equilibrium, purity and essentialism and finally adapting the ideas of the avant-garde and aesthetic. Finally he said: Someday everybody will think just what they want to think and then everybody will properly be thinking alike; that seems to be whats happening. I feel that this sums up art after Modernism as it shows how the changing ideas are adapting the ever changing world.

Philosophical Groundwork of a New and Innovative Teaching

The purpose of Montaigne's â€Å"Education of Children† is to lay down the philosophical groundwork for a new and innovative way of teaching children. The purpose of this new system is to foster the child's intellectual growth as opposed to filling the child's head with facts that he regurgitates, but does not understand. In Montaigne's words, the education should put a child â€Å"through its paces, making it taste things, choose them, and discern them by itself† (110). As well as encouraging intellectual growth, Montaigne also intends to promote wisdom, character and physical development as a way of education the entire person. Montaigne's assertion is that the purpose behind education should not be for the sole aim of the increase in knowledge, but â€Å"to have become better and wiser by it† (112). The overall effect of the education should be to produce an individual that is both wise and happy; according to Montaigne the two are irreconcilably bound, as â€Å"the surest sign of wisdom is constant cheerfulness† (119). The methods used to achieve Montaigne's ideal education are a mixture of the ability and talent of the tutor; the individual attention paid to a student and the well-rounded nature of the curriculum. Montaigne asserts that a pupil is only as good as the skill of his tutor. The ideal tutor in Montaigne's eyes would be one that is more wise than learned, having â€Å"a well made rather than a well filled head† (110). The tutor should not have the student repeat what is told to him, as the goal of the education is not to memorize, but rather to learn. The tutor should be a guide in order to offer the ideas of great authors to the student and then â€Å"let him know how to make them his own† (111). Furthermore, the tutor is only responsible for one student at a time and without interference from parents. Being alone with the student allows the tutor to truly become aquatinted with the student†s aptitudes and allows for the formulation of an individual and personal education for the one pupil. The actual subjects to be learned are divided by not only the discipline of study, but also the development of physical ability, moral fiber and interpersonal skills. The development of mind, body and spirit together leads to the transformation of a child to a well-rounded man. Montaigne believes in the training of the body as well as the mind, a typically Greek concept. The tutor, therefore, is responsible for physical training as â€Å"it is not enough to toughen his soul; we must also toughen his muscles† (113). The training of body serves a duel purpose, to ease the burdened mind by giving it something else to think about and by building up the pupil's body in order to fight off injury and disease. It is only after his body has been trained that the intellectual education can begin. Intellectually, Montaigne believes in beginning the students formal education with the sciences, in order to foster the understanding of the world's natural laws. The tutor should â€Å"explain to him the meaning of logic, physics, geometry, rhetoric and the science he chooses† as a way to give him â€Å"the marrow and the subject predigested† (118). This explanation of basic scientific principles gives the student the ability to understand and interpret the passages written by famous scientists given to him by the tutor. This assertion, that children should be allowed to recognize important information for themselves, is the cornerstone of Montaigne's theory of education. The other subjects to be studied should be literature and philosophy, and should be taught in the same manner as the sciences. Montaigne argues against the study of grammar and classical languages, such as Greek or Latin, as he believes these to be grounded in memorization as opposed to logical thought and reasoning. Montaigne asserts that the purpose of education is to produce â€Å"not a grammarian or a logician, but a gentleman† (125). However, despite the discourse on formal education, the actual intellectual instruction received is secondary to the child's overall development as a person. The next part of the child's education is argued by Montaigne to be the most important. The tutor should not only be an instructor on the matters of reason and logic, but also a moral force in the life of the student. The tutor's job is to instill strong virtues in the child while he is still young, â€Å"instructing him in the good precepts concerning valor, prowess, magnanimity, and temperance, and the security of fearing nothing† (120). The tutor is to teach the child moderation, civic responsibility, humility and a â€Å"honest curiosity to inquire into all things† (114). The goal of this instilling of virtues is to create an adult, â€Å"guided only by reason,† who is as capable of making wise decisions as well as being educated (114). The student, only after the competition of a great deal of education in academics and virtues, is taught a final lesson about interactions with others. At some point in the education the pupil is expected to interact with others and put his education to use. The student is expected to visit other countries in order to interact with a diverse array of people and cultures. Through these interactions the pupil will further his own education by rubbing and polishing his â€Å"brains with the contact with those of others† (112). The informal education through experience leads the student to gain a grasp of social situations and begin to understand the way society works. The ultimate goal in this is to have the student â€Å"put everything to use† by finding valuable education in all of those around him (114). Montaigne even goes so far as to assert that eventually â€Å"even the stupidity and weakness of others will be an education to him† (115). Overall, with the completion of the relationship between tutor and pupil the end result will be a reasoning, virtuous, educated and extremely wise individual who will be well equipped to deal with the world and who will be constantly bettering himself.

Micromanagement: Leadership and Shelly

Answer to Case of â€Å"Micromanagement† Q1: Is George guilty of micromanaging? Why or why not? Answer: No. George hates micromanaging and even disagrees that he is micromanaging. He thinks â€Å"micromanaging† is an excuse that Shelly threw out to dissemble her incapability, for the reason that a successful manager would never micromanage those employees who are capable enough. In additional, he thought Shelly is not so enthusiastic and hungry-to-learn as the beginning, which costs him a lot of time to correct her mistakes. Therefore, George may be angry rather than guilty.Q2: What influence tactics does George use with Shelly and what is her reaction to those tactics? Give an example to support your response. To what degree do his tactics engender trust with Shelly? Answer: George used 1) Rational persuasion, 2) Ingratiation, 3) Pressure. 1) Rational persuasion. After reading the release draft at the first time, George recommended a new title, and Shelly countered tha t she doesn’t agree. To make Shelly align with him, George used the rational persuasion tactic to analyze the situation logically and give evidence, and argued why he consists to use such a strong title.The reaction of Shelly here is she pursed her lips and nodded slightly, which means she wanted to argue, but gave up and accepted his suggestion reluctantly. Without enough participation from Shelly, George made the decision himself, largely harming the trust between them in this situation. 2) Ingratiation. After persuading Shelly to adopt his suggestion, George tried to encourage Shelly a little bit by flattering her: â€Å"Thanks Shel, you are the best†. Ingratiation tactic was used here.However, Shelly didn’t feel any happiness when hearing this, and she no longer like him as before. Again, the trust was failed to engender. 3) Pressure. This tactic was used many times in this case. For example, George demanded Shelly to do two things on the release. George als o said: â€Å"I count on you to get these things right. † Etc. Shelly had different response on the two situations I mentioned above. In the first case, Shelly accepted George’s suggestion reluctantly. In the second case, Shelly made up her mind nd defended herself by explaining why she wrote it in her way but not George’s way. Obviously, trust was failed to engender again since Shelly didn’t meet George’s expectation, and she was unsatisfied with George as well. Q3: Using our knowledge of the â€Å"full-range of leadership† model presented in class, how would you classify the type of leader behavior used by George to manage Shelly? Be specific and provide an example. Answer: To my understanding, George manages Shelly with the transactional leadership. To be specific, he used Management-by-Exception actively.For example, once George found a mistake on the unfinished release draft, he gave feedbacks and corrections immediately. Then he starte d to follow the case, and tried to monitor and correct Shelly’s mistakes and keep things constructive in an active manner. This is exactly as Rich said, â€Å"when George takes an interest, hands-on isn’t the beginning of it. He’s elbow deep in the stuff. † He thought he was providing guidance and necessary feedbacks to Shelly so that she would improve. This type of leadership behavior is a part of transactional leadership.Q4: The Company in this case is not meeting its goals regarding visibility, leads and sales. Shelly is responsible for this functional area of the business. What should George do to lead her more effectively to meet these business objectives? Answer: George can lead Shelly more effectively in several ways. Firstly, according to the Leader-Member Exchange theory, Shelly belongs to the out-group of George’s team. In this group, the relationship between leader and members is cold and impersonal with formal leader authority and less effective influence on members.Under this tense relationship, eventually, members would be tired off to boss by bad performance and less OCBs. To make it better, George can try to give Shelly more freedom, latitude, and responsibility, give her more support, and try to build trust with Shelly. In return, Shelly would probably generate higher performance and satisfaction, and greater dependability, involvement, and eventually, better OCBs would occur as well. By bringing Shelly from out-group to in-group, Shelly could enhance her performance and meet company’s business objectives more effectively.Secondly, George should learn how to apply efficient transactional leadership on Shelly. Besides the MBE active he uses, he should also use contingent reward and punishment. By using this tactic would help Shelly better meet George’s expectations. In this situation, George should communicate with Shelly and give her clear guidance on what would be rewarded and what would be pun ished, and deliver the promised rewards or punishments every time, therefore, trust would be built between George and Shelly.Thirdly, after effective application of transaction leadership, George should go beyond it and try to upgrade to transformational leadership. Transformational leadership requires more trust, credibility and integrity between George and Shelly. George should empower Shelly at a higher level, trust her and respect her decisions. Besides, George should discuss with Shelly about what are their shared goals and values, deliver the company’s short-term and long-term objectives to Shelly, and let she know how her work and efforts would help company to approach the objectives.Moreover, George should move Shelly to address higher needs besides salary, such as bigger growth opportunity, etc. Also, according to Bass’s theory, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration are some useful methods well implementing transformational leadership. Overall, using transformational leadership would help Shelly to perform beyond George’s expectation, so that their team would finally achieve company’s business objectives more effectively.

Jeanne Dunning, An Artist That Studied At Oberlin College

Jeanne Dunning is an artist that studied at Oberlin College in Ohio and has exhibited the majority of her art in Chicago. Dunning works primarily with photography and is heavily inspired by the Surrealism movement, shifting reality in the way she portrays human body parts to convey strong themes of sexuality and feminism through a bizarre sense of humor. Dunning has a long history of creating images revolving around female sexuality, including a series she named â€Å"Untitled Landscapes,† which consisted of extreme close-ups of human body parts, as well as a series of photographs incorporating close-ups of fruit that strongly resemble female genitalia. Dunning also draws upon classic art categories such as portraits, landscapes, and the nude, playing on the expectations of these categories to reveal sexual implications. Her unique use of sexually charged images that play with the expectations of her viewers allows Dunning’s art to â€Å"[fit] within Postmodern concept s of sexual politics.† One of Dunning’s better known works comes from her 1989-90 series â€Å"Heads† and is aptly named â€Å"Head 2.† This photograph features a woman with black hair and a black sweater sitting in the center of a frame, the camera zoomed in on the subject to only include her head and the very top of her shoulders. The photograph is taken like a standard portrait would be, but the subject is facing away from the camera so we only see the back of her head. She is placed against an off-white background, creating