Andy Warhol- Knives

A piece of artwork that I found to be unusual, and didn’t quite understand why it would be considered “artwork” is titled Knives, by Andy Warhol. It is an acrylic and silk screen on canvas. The date is 1981-1982. This piece of work was a preview for an exhibition of Andy Warhol.

At first impression, the piece simply looks to be a picture of six knives in pink and black color. The black background and the pink colored knives caught my attention as I was scrolling through the page. After I looked at the piece, I didn’t understand what made it art. Andy Warhol is famous for using normal everyday objects in his artwork. He was a leading figure in the pop art movement. After reading about this, I can see that Warhol definitely makes the images of the knives “pop”. The piece catches your attention and makes you give it a look. Two of the knives look to be the same type of knife, and the other four all look different from each other. I am unsure of if the knives are supposed to represent something other than knives. The two middle knives can be seen clearly, however, the other four handles of the knives are not easily visible. The knives seem to be an odd choice to be used in artwork because they are not usually seen in that type of setting. This piece may have come during a hard time of Andy Warhol’s life, because knives are used as weapons and can be seen as harmful. He also has done pieces involving guns, which are also used as weapons. Warhol is known for depicting violence and death, and this piece definitely follows that theme.

In the early to mid 1980’s, Andy Warhol had reoccurring themes of the dark side of American life and death, and also heaven and hell. He had pieces that included images of guns, knives, dollar signs, and crosses. People would usually associate knives with cooking, but in this piece Andy Warhol makes the viewer associate the knives with something dark and twisted, such as murder. Warhol does a good job of taking an everyday object that may not get a lot of thought, like the knives, and makes them appear in a way that makes you think of them much differently.

After doing research on Andy Warhol and his life, I looked at this piece a lot differently. At first glance, I thought the piece was just six knives, with no real central idea or message. It was just something that caught my eye. Now that I know some information about Andy Warhol and his life, I see that there is a central theme in this piece, and it is supposed to appear dark and violent, which it does. He has used other weapons in his art and has had periods of violent themes. I definitely look at this piece differently after knowing what the artist was trying to achieve and his reason for this piece.

Julian Stanczak - Rain and Reflection

After reading Margot Livesey’s article titled “What makes good art?” from the Boston Globe I continued to do research regarding contemporary artwork. Like most people today would do, I started out by searching the term on Google to see what would come up. The artwork that came up was visually pleasing and nothing truly caught my attention. Since this attempt, and many similar attempts, was not successful I researched artists I am somewhat familiar with such as Jackson Pollock and Salvador Dali. However, they didn’t seem to fit the particular subject matter and didn’t seem like a right research topic either. After further investigation and review I had stumbled upon Julian Stanczak’s artwork titled “Rain and Reflection” which immediately caught my eye.

Now, when I say that it caught my eye it is not because of its appeal or the way it grabbed my attention. It was because of the idea that it appeared to be a series of black and white vertical lines with a few curves on the canvas to break up the monotony. The artwork just seemed like a dull and boring piece of art that did not really stir any inner emotions or processes. Feeling unsatisfied, I looked deeper into the artist as well and this particular work of art. “Rain and Reflection” was created in the 1960s which was a very important era for Stanczak. According to his website this is the era when Stanczak became known as one of the key contributors to the launch the Op Art movement through an exhibition he held in New York titled “Julian Stanczak Optical Paintings”. Specifically, his artwork during this time period is described as artwork where “rhythmically energized surfaces became more controlled, the lineal spacing tighter, color relationships more intense and often of opposing, vibrating wavelength.” (www.julianstanczak.net) Op Artists use contrasting colors as well as the functions of colors to make their art appear as optical illusions. Stanczak has been known for the layering he creates within his work which gives his art a certain depth to them.

After hearing facts such as these I became more interested in seeing other artworks based about the Op Art movement. There are hundreds of different pieces of art that are completely extraordinary to the eye. Their geometry, depth, and complexity cause the viewer to get lost within the canvas to look beyond and fall into a meditative state. Once I saw artwork such as these I had to look back at Stanczak’s “Rain and Reflection” with my new, enlightened, point of view. This time I looked at the image from a distance and focused my thoughts to try and understand the message. I also took some advice from Livesey’s article and used her practice of “repetition” to help me achieve my goal of understanding. Unfortunately I was not able to get a full grasp of the piece of art, I got lost in the changes within the vertical lines from black to white and the arbitrary curves or shapes over the vertical pattern. Currently I have an appreciation for most artworks, but eventually I hope to be able to comprehend and get lost within certain art movements as much as their enthusiasts.