When one mentions Pop Art, no other artist is as much identified with it as Andy Warhol. He is referred to as the father of pop art. Warhol had a philosopher that would turn out to drive and move te content of repetition in his work in his work. “What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."By minimizing the role of his own hand in the production of his work and declaring that he wanted to be "a machine," Warhol sparked a revolution in art.
Warhol's marketing strategy was to make his art like a commodity that everyone had once owned, or had-the very basics of our everyday commercial experience, then making them into art by screen printing but then also through mass production in a repetitive format. Through this with the help of art workers helping to mass produce his works, he minimized the role of his own hand in the production of his works and declaring that he wanted to be a machine.Warhol was branded in every way imaginable. With a silver wig and signature red-rim glasses, Warhol turned himself into a branded and recognizable product. In 1968 Andy Warhol placed an advertisement in The Village Voice: "I'll endorse with my name any of the following: clothing, AC-DC, cigarettes, small tapes, sound equipment, ROCK 'N' ROLL RECORDS, anything, film and film equipment, Food, Helium, Whips, MONEY!! love and kisses ANDY WARHOL. Over 20 years after his death, one cannot envision the degree to which he has been commercialized.
"Eight Elvises" is the most expensive painting of Warhol ever bought worth $100 million
Below is an except from the last interview of Andy Warhol with Paul Taylor, where he talks about good art, and the market for art.
Paul Taylor: Is a better commercial artist one who sells more work?
Andy Warhol: I don't know. When I started out, art was doing down the drain. The people who used to magazine illustrations and the covers were being replaced by photographers. And when they started using photographers, I started to show my work with galleries. Everybody also was doing window decoration. That led into more galleries. I had some paintings in a window, then in a gallery.
Paul Taylor: Is there a parallel situation now?
Andy Warhol: No, it just caught on so well that there's a new gallery open every day now.There are a lot more artists, which is real great.
Paul Taylor: What has happened to the idea of good art?
Andy Warhol: It's all good art.
Paul Taylor: Is that to say that it's all equal?
Andy Warhol: "Yeah well, I don't know, I can't...
Paul Taylor: You're not interested in making distinctions.
Andy Warhol: Well no, I just can't tell the difference. I don't see why one Jasper Johns sells for three million and one sells for, you know, like four hundred thousand. They were both good paintings.
Paul Taylor: The market for your work has changed a little in the last few years. To people my age - in their twenties - you were always more important than to the collecting group of people in their fifties and sixties.
Andy Warhol: Well, I think the people who buy art now are these younger kids who have a lot of money.
Paul Taylor: And that's made a difference to your market.
Andy Warhol: Yeah, a little bit.
Paul Taylor: How important is it for you to maintain control?
Andy Warhol: I've been busy since I started - since I was a working artist. If I wasn't showing in New York I was doing work in Germany, or I was doing portraits