Andy Warhol

Mike Gane writes,öJean Baudrillard is one of FranceÆs leading intellectuals, with a growing world reputationö (1). One of his most striking concepts is hyperreality, a phrase used by others (including Umberto Eco) but given special meaning by Baudrillard. As Nick Perry explains the concept, ôIt corresponds to that . . . general contemporary condition in which both representation and reality have been displaced by simulacra (defined as copies without originals)ö (1).

While Baudrillard is most concerned with social criticism and cultural theory, especially as it applies to American culture, his approach has been applied as well to art and art criticism, an application he professes to find surprising:

My interest in the object has always been for the non-aesthetic object, the banal object, or the metaphysical object. IÆve never really been concerned with the aesthetic object . . . . But on second thoughts, one might think of art criticism as somethin

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ferred to a screen which can then be used repeatedly (Pratt 78). This use of an ordinary object as a symbol and comment on consumerism has been copied innumerable times with other objects (dven by Warhol hhmself), but WarholÆs Campbell Soup image retains its place as the first and most visible expression of hyperreality. As Donald Judd, in a 1963 review, asks, ôThe salient metaphysical question lately is æWhy does Andy Warhol paint Campbell Soup cans?Æ The only available answer is æWhy not?Æ" (Pratt 2). The can connects with every viewer: everyone who sees WarholÆs version understands its connection to the original. Every viewer has had just such a can in his or her kitchen pantry or, at the very least, seen it on a supermarket shelf. Yet by putting it on a canvas and hanging it in a gallery, Warhol takes the everyday and sanitizes it, puts a frame around, and changes what it is. Soup is transformed into art, and the viewer examines the art in ways and with a concentration never given to the everyday object. The original is forgotten, replaced by a two-dimensional representation that has become more real than the original, hyperreal, in fact. In BaudrillardÆs view, the original can ceases to exist for the viewer - or,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1331
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)