Factory Girl

Maggie Pringle

Paper #5

Artistic Movement: Pop Art

Factory Girl

Pop art, which is an abbreviation for “popular art,” is an art movement that took hold in England in the 1950’s and made its way into the United States by the 1960’s. Pop art was not consistent with classic art, it utilized the themes and items of mass consumption and advertising in contemporary culture. The works of pop artists were commonly compilations of different concepts and items all blended into one work of art. Important players in the American pop art movement were Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselman, and the infamous Andy Warhol. Product logos and labels, popular cultural items, and comic books were influential to the artists’ ideas. Andy Warhol is most famous for his Campbell Soup Cans,1962, in which he mass produced the image of the soup can and executed it in a grid like display. His work echoed the mass production and consumption that was going on in American society at the time. Warhol’s work had tones of irony and parody. Warhol did mostly silkscreen printmaking but he also worked in short films and installations. The pop art movement is an important stepping stone in history and should be recognized because of its effects it had on the art world. The playful, humorous works of pop artists introduced the idea that art doesn’t have to be a fine art painting or a massive bronze sculpture, it cleared the stuffy air in which art existed.

Factory Girl, a movie directed by George Hickenlooper, was a film based on a woman by the name of Edie Sedgwick. Edie Sedgwick was a young girl in the 60’s who met Andy Warhol while living in New York City. When the two met, Warhol became infatuated with her and he urged her to work with him in what was known as “the factory.” The factory was a studio in Manhattan where Warhol’s artistic style came to life. Warhol did not work alone in this factory, he had an entourage of artsy friends that would spend countless hours in the factory working alongside of Warhol. It should be noted though, their relationship was not sexual, as Warhol was gay. Edie quickly became seduced by the fame Warhol created for her. She was his muse, and they were inseparable for quite some time. This film really takes you into the time period of the 60’s when freedom of just about everything was being embraced. The film is full of music, drugs, sex, parties, alcohol, and the theme of free spiritedness. Each character lives their life as if they were untouchable, they experiment with drugs, they have open, sexual relationships and just about every character is smoking a cigarette in each scene. It was a carefree time and no one seemed to care about the consequences of their actions or what the future had in store for them.

This was the perfect environment for an avant-garde artist such as Andy Warhol. He had a permanent carefree attitude and he lived his life unaffected by others by simply keeping himself detached of any feeling or affection. His art was his life, and he relished in the fact that art critics could not make sense of his work. In interviews he rarely answered with more than a sentence, he was short with just about everyone he interacted with. In a time of elevated consumerism, Warhol in a way made fun of American society with his prints. He took everyday objects and would mass-produce them on a canvas or other medium. I think that Warhol might have been thinking when making these, that society might think his repeated images of the same object were silly, but in fact, he was simply mocking what they took part in everyday. He also loved to produce portraits, celebrity portraits to be exact. Some of his portraits include Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. In the film, just about every time someone walked into the factory, he was start rolling the camera or he would take a snapshot. He loved capturing life in its raw, untouched form.

Edie Sedgwick was Warhol’s inspiration, but she was swept under the rug of stardom and she fell in too deep. While Warhol kept Edie around for inspiration, he continued to stay detached and when he was no longer inspired he kicked her to the curb and moved onto someone new. Edie’s life took a turn for the worse, she was a drug addict and she had no money to live on after her days at the factory. Her old life of being a superstar had quickly spiraled out of control and she was left with nothing but a drug addiction and serious psychological issues. Edie eventually overdosed in the 70’s after multiple attempts at staying sober. Warhol moved onto another muse and he continued to create art for years to come. When asked about Edie’s death, Warhol only spoke about how long it had been since he had last seen her.

This film really captured the spirit of the pop-art movement. It was interesting to see how detached people were from real-life and how devoted they were to their artwork. I’m not sure if the heavy drug use had something to do with Warhol’s bizarre outlook on life but either way, it was eerie how cold he was. Warhol died in New York City on February 22, 1987, of surgery complications while getting his gallbladder removed.

Some quotes of Andy Warhol:

These quotes I thought were very interesting and very descriptive of Warhol’s overall attitude towards…everything:

“Fantasy love is much better than reality love. Never doing it is very exciting. The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet” -Andy Warhol

“I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, 'Well, what do you love most?' That's how I started painting money.” –Andy Warhol

“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” –Andy Warhol

“Being born is like being kidnapped and then sold into slavery.” –Andy Warhol

“If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, there I am. There's nothing behind it.” –Andy Warhol

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_warhol_3.html

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/andy_warhol_quotes2.shtml