"Change your thoughts, and you change your world." - Norman Vincent Peale
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Check out this painting by Cameron Gray, as seen at the 2013 Armory Show. Can you see the reference to Andy Warhol’s “Mao” painting? Or do you just see Twinkies, hamburgers, Shepard Fairey’s “Obey” Giant, babies, Mr. T, hotdogs and Madonna? For more on this painting and its tie to Warhol and Chuck Close, check out our investigation into “Yellow Mao” here.
Andy Warhol made the iconic Double Elvis, below left, which sold last year at auction for $37 million. Today at the Scope Art Fair, I saw the Double Elvis look updated by British artist Ryan Callahan (also known as RYCA), who has created this Double Han Solo. Even though one could say “he’s just copying Warhol,” I actually like the Han Solo piece a lot. I didn’t manage to ask the dealer, the Robert Fontaine Gallery of Miami, how much the Han Solo piece cost, but I’d like to think it’s a fraction of the $37 million that the Double Elvis went for!
I took this photo when I was exploring the Canal St. Martin neighborhood of Paris last November. The first and main thing I noticed was the pink reclining man, but now that I look at it closer, I see something I like a lot more … a graffiti stencil homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Do you see it?
I’ve extracted it and blown it up, below left, so you can see it better. It’s based on famous photographs by Michael Halsband – his works are shown below right – that were taken in 1985 to be used as a poster for an exhibition of collaborative paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
It seems there’s no shortage of inspiration from the cultural icon, Marilyn Monroe (as painted by Andy Warhol, top left). We saw her as a double-portrait in Cape Cod and as a mural in Troy, NY – and now we’ve got a couple more to add to the collection. We’ve got the Marilyn pillow, as seen at a store in Troy, NY, and the fabulous Gangster Marilyn tank top, as seen in a store in Virginia Beach. A Marilyn for all occasions!
If you were reading our blog last summer, you may have seen our post about spotting a double-Marilyn mural on a building in Cape Cod (below left). Just this past weekend, while in Troy, NY, I spotted this Marilyn mural (below right) painted in an alley. While of course there are some differences in the way she is portrayed, there are also enough similarities that makes one wonder if they’re by the same artist? Has anyone spotted any Marilyn murals in other parts of the country? If so, send them our way to share.
Andy Warhol made a number of paintings featuring dollar signs, with one example of his work shown below left. I think he would have appreciated this store’s window display, as seen in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark. It wasn’t clear to me whether this is supposed to be a “neon art work,” for sale as a piece on its own, or whether it’s just neon signage to let you know things in this store cost money? I have doubts on it being an art work for sale, because this is a floral shop, but isn’t it kind of dumb to put a dollar sign in a florist’s window? We know the flowers aren’t free …
The Artsologists are in Cape Cod this week and went to Race Point Beach tonight to watch the sunset. As we drove back to our rental home in Truro, we happened upon this large mural featuring a double portrait of Marilyn Monroe based on Andy Warhol’s famous painting. It was a dark and narrow road, but there was no missing this bright and unexpected painting, which grabbed our attention and caused a quick pull off to the curb to get a shot of this mural.
As I mentioned the other day, we’re down at Sandbridge on vacation … I went out for a walk this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the influence of Andy Warhol at work around here, as evidenced by this graffiti as seen at right.
Instead of having a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup, this graffiti artist is showing his can of “Campbell’s Tomato Spray.” At first, my thought was that this was “spray” suntan lotion, since we’re at the beach, but on second thought, it makes more sense that this is a can of spray paint – the tool of a graffiti artist – but “tomato spray” instead.
Below left (and detail in center), we have some various sticker art graffiti on some sort of utility box; the square 9-ball caught my eye, as did the bird-like creature below.
And at right, we’ve got something that is a funny oxymoron: a porta-potty that is called an “elite seat.” I think it’s the combination of a bow tie image on a portable toilet that makes me laugh.
My last post on unusual fashion and elevators actually came as the result of searching for what I wanted to show you in this post. I had seen a fashion ad in the New York Times which depicted a woman wearing a dress (at left) that looked like a visual cross between a Gerhard Richter painting (top center) and an Andy Warhol painting (bottom center). After I finally found information about this particular dress, I learned that it was based on the Monaco Grand Prix … for more information and the full coverage, check out the “investigation” here.
PBS has a new video channel called the “Idea Channel,” and in their current episode, they discuss the idea of whether we should consider internet memes and “LOL Cats” as art? My first reaction was “of course not,” but when they point out that “people are creating images and sharing them with strangers for the purpose of communicating their personal experiences” – well, I guess that does sound like art to me.
Then let’s take it one step further – they compare the creation of internet memes, where one might utilize popular culture, celebrities, the media, etc., with what Andy Warhol was doing. And when I see the two images below, an anonymously-made internet meme, below left, alongside Andy Warhol’s portrait of Muhammad Ali, below right, then from a visual standpoint, could you really say they are all that different?
But maybe before you make your own decision, watch the video and get the full story.
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