by Juniper
In an attempt to categorically define Warhol based on readings from Jessica Dallow at the beginning of the semester, I defined Andy Warhol as mythical, absorbing, complex, cynical, and reflective. When John Fields, the curator of AEIVA, walked us through the AEIVA’s show, Warhol: Fabricated, and explained Warhol’s fascination with Beuys while the entire class gazed at Warhol’s Joseph Beuys in Memorium, 1986 (Screenprint on museum board, a drawn portrait of Beuys in front of camouflage print), it made perfect sense that the adjectives I ascribed to Warhol also fit the persona of Joseph Beuys.
I am drawn to Beuys as I am also an artist who manifests my ideas through performance. The radical thing about Beuys, though, is that he never stopped performing. In the early ‘40s Beuys enrolled in the German air force as a gun pilot. Supposedly, his plane was shot-down and he was discovered and nourished back to health by a group of nomadic Tartars in Crimea. This began, or perhaps perpetuated, Beuys’ cynical and mythical identity as a survivor, which heavily influenced his artistry. He absorbed his created image and reflected it most notably in his complex performances involving felt and fur, the sources of nourishment provided by the Tartars in his story.
In a similar likeness to Beuys’ image in Joseph Beuys in Memorium, 1986, Warhol’s figurative image is exposed through proverbial camouflage of society. He never created a story for himself in the literal way that Beuys did, but instead, that story was created for him by society (think in terms of buying “A Warhol”). His public persona was mystical and frequently characterized, and his art reflective of the experiences he had by way of capitalism. He was simultaneously more and less than his perpetuated societal characterization, which shows insight to Warhol's fascination with Joseph Beuys.
In an attempt to categorically define Warhol based on readings from Jessica Dallow at the beginning of the semester, I defined Andy Warhol as mythical, absorbing, complex, cynical, and reflective. When John Fields, the curator of AEIVA, walked us through the AEIVA’s show, Warhol: Fabricated, and explained Warhol’s fascination with Beuys while the entire class gazed at Warhol’s Joseph Beuys in Memorium, 1986 (Screenprint on museum board, a drawn portrait of Beuys in front of camouflage print), it made perfect sense that the adjectives I ascribed to Warhol also fit the persona of Joseph Beuys.
I am drawn to Beuys as I am also an artist who manifests my ideas through performance. The radical thing about Beuys, though, is that he never stopped performing. In the early ‘40s Beuys enrolled in the German air force as a gun pilot. Supposedly, his plane was shot-down and he was discovered and nourished back to health by a group of nomadic Tartars in Crimea. This began, or perhaps perpetuated, Beuys’ cynical and mythical identity as a survivor, which heavily influenced his artistry. He absorbed his created image and reflected it most notably in his complex performances involving felt and fur, the sources of nourishment provided by the Tartars in his story.
In a similar likeness to Beuys’ image in Joseph Beuys in Memorium, 1986, Warhol’s figurative image is exposed through proverbial camouflage of society. He never created a story for himself in the literal way that Beuys did, but instead, that story was created for him by society (think in terms of buying “A Warhol”). His public persona was mystical and frequently characterized, and his art reflective of the experiences he had by way of capitalism. He was simultaneously more and less than his perpetuated societal characterization, which shows insight to Warhol's fascination with Joseph Beuys.
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