Rhiannon's Blog

In the many articles written about Andy Warhol the person, there is one common outcome for the journalist: Andy Warhol is an enigma. Despite the several interviews and studies of the man behind the soup cans, it seems hard to make a definite conclusion about Warhol’s actual life. Warhol went to extreme measures to deny himself a personality and a background from which people could find interpretations of in his works. For example, he once said, “the interviewer should just tell me the words he wants me to say and I’ll repeat them after him. I’m so empty I can’t think of anything to say” (Whiting 70). He also encouraged people to find him in his art with quotes such as, “if you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface: of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it” (Berg 3). Oftentimes when being questioned, Warhol would let the interviewers lead the session and make conclusions about him based on what they said themselves since he would hardly say anything at all (Whiting 70). He wanted people to think of him not as a normal person with a past but instead as someone who was just born full grown and as is (Bergin 359). By examining what he said then, we can begin to understand him or at least the identity he created for himself and what values were most important to him in keeping that identity.

This Wordle is a compilation of quotes by Andy Warhol about his work and himself taken from a number of sources.

(Click image to enlarge)

As seen through this visualization, certain words were emphasized by Warhol such as “want”, “art”, “think” and “mirror”. Also the appearance of words like “beauty”, “things”, “nothing”, “business” and “easier” are significant. This shows that Warhol was completely engrossed in his ideas about the surface of things being everything because they are reflected in his choice of words. If we disregard the common words “want”, “art” and “think” and look instead at “mirror”, “beauty” and “nothing” we can see he is focusing on shallow ideas. “Mirror” is how he wanted people to think of him, as a device that simply reflects back what the viewer wants to see and does not reveal whatever is behind it. “Beauty” was something Warhol admitted to loving and he often expressed his want for beautiful things. And finally, “nothing” was what Warhol declared was inside of him and his works because all there is is the surface that people can see.

The words “easier” and “business” were also important to Warhol because he thought of art production and its marketing as equals. His use of the silk-screening technique for his paintings, not only created a distance between himself and his work but also was a faster and easier way to produce art. The machine does the work for you and Warhol could produce works without even being there (Whiting 70). In addition, to Warhol, like any other professional, an artist must known how to sell oneself to valuable consumers (Graw 100). He spent a lot of his time networking by going to parties, meeting wealthy art collectors and surrounding himself with people interested in his work so that he would always have somebody buying his art (112).

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