Wednesday 15 August 2007

When we get influenced..





When I was wondering the corners of the world of Facebook, checked my cousin's profile pic. A design that embarks his face into different colors. Simple work, yet nice to the eyes. It shows that he got influenced by Pop Art movement; especially by Andy Warhol's work.

Andy Warhol was an American artist who become a central figure in the movement known as Pop Art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter; an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author and a public figure known for his presence in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats.

He is generally acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Warhol's career had started in 1960s with creating paintings of famous American products such as Campbell's Soup Cans and Coca Cola.

His philosophy that expressed his affection for popular culture, and evidences an ambiguity of perspective that cuts across nearly all of the artist's statements about his own work.

He says: "What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

Question we raise here, we get influenced by such great inspired artists that came before us. These artists didn't have anything to inspire them except the social and culture they lived in. Can we as a young designers do something new that will mark us in history?

We will only have to wait and see.

1 comment:

Holly Mee said...

I tink there is always something new - surely there has to be, its just thinking about it, but also you obviously need to meet the requirements of a brief, the part where you can best explore is self initiated briefs where there are less constraints. But at the same time lie fashion it all comes back around again as your parents comment they used to wear the same stuff as we do, so who knows maybe there isnt anything significant as there are alot more budding designers, artists and photographers so the competition is stiff, but i think it can be done.