Pop Art
I love cheese, not the food (though I love that too), but the cultural concept. I love 70s and 80s power pop (Styx, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Foreigner) and teen movies (10 Things I Hate About You, Drive Me Crazy, anything by John Hughes) and teen television shows (Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson's Creek, etc). I love calendars with pictures of kittens on them and sappy Hallmark cards. I'm a huge fan of cheese, but I wouldn't call any of those things "art". I don't really want to get into a whole discussion about what is and isn't art because I kind of burned myself out on that subject 10 years ago when I took "Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art". An hour a day for an entire quarter debating the question "what is art" is enough to drive even the most stable person to insanity. However, I realized today that the subject still inspires strong opinions in me. The mere mention of Marcel Duchamps still makes me irate.
One thing that used to really bug me (aside from the idea that a urinal and a snow shovel qualify as art) was the term "pop art". I have to give some credit to Andy Warhol for giving the world Interview magazine, but the soup cans and colorized images of Marilyn Monroe are not art and coining the term "pop art" doesn't make them art. That was the position I held for a long time.
One summer, about 5 years ago, I went to see The Who and it was at that concert that I finally decided that the term "pop art" might actually mean something. I know, it's a completely different medium than the term was coined for but it's far more applicable to The Who than Andy Warhol. Pete Townshend doesn't just write songs he tells stories, he creates characters and Roger Daltry brings them to life on stage. Like any art it is hard to really explain to someone else how it effects me, but I feel compelled to try.
There is a wall of stained glass by Chagall at the Chicago Art Institute Museum (Ferris and Sloane kiss in front of it in Ferris Beuller's Day Off) and every time I go there I go straight to the Chagall stained glass and stay there most of the day while my family explores the latest exhibits. My senior year in high school I went and took pictures of it from every angle I could think of. Every time I see that stained glass I see something different; I feel something different. It's kind of the same with The Who, especially seeing them live. However, every time I see that iconic Andy Warhol painting I see cans of soup and I feel nothing.
One thing that used to really bug me (aside from the idea that a urinal and a snow shovel qualify as art) was the term "pop art". I have to give some credit to Andy Warhol for giving the world Interview magazine, but the soup cans and colorized images of Marilyn Monroe are not art and coining the term "pop art" doesn't make them art. That was the position I held for a long time.
One summer, about 5 years ago, I went to see The Who and it was at that concert that I finally decided that the term "pop art" might actually mean something. I know, it's a completely different medium than the term was coined for but it's far more applicable to The Who than Andy Warhol. Pete Townshend doesn't just write songs he tells stories, he creates characters and Roger Daltry brings them to life on stage. Like any art it is hard to really explain to someone else how it effects me, but I feel compelled to try.
There is a wall of stained glass by Chagall at the Chicago Art Institute Museum (Ferris and Sloane kiss in front of it in Ferris Beuller's Day Off) and every time I go there I go straight to the Chagall stained glass and stay there most of the day while my family explores the latest exhibits. My senior year in high school I went and took pictures of it from every angle I could think of. Every time I see that stained glass I see something different; I feel something different. It's kind of the same with The Who, especially seeing them live. However, every time I see that iconic Andy Warhol painting I see cans of soup and I feel nothing.
posted by Beth at
4:39 PM
1 Comments:
Who says rock and roll has to be "pop art?" Music by The Who, Stones, Clash, Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, or anybody else is just art- straight up.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home