The Tao of Andy

Nevertheless, the exhibit’s emphasis on traditional fine-art objects gives short shrift to the central role Andy played in the dematerialization of such artifacts as repositories of cultural meaning, to the removal of authorial intent from the creation of artworks (more often attributed to John Cage), and to the inversion of cultural center and margin that resulted from the popularity of camp. If Warhol was, in fact, solely concerned with creating attractive wall decorations and obtaining and protecting conventional economic advantage, it actually strengthens the argument for him as a brilliantly far-sighted original. Even today, recently established artists are loath to give up a successfully marketed signature style in their work. Going from apartment-size acrylics on canvas of shiny consumer objects to static eight-hour films of the Empire State Building (not to mention the helium-filled Mylar cushions hovering in Castelli‘s cow-wallpaper-lined gallery) wasn’t exactly the self-evident Machiavellian career move it seems in hindsight. To have taken on the Art World on its own labyrinthine socioeconomic terms and sussed out a plan of conquest involving playing den mother to a gaggle of bulimic transvestites on speed, making films like Taylor Mead‘s Ass and Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and spending years doing garish assembly-line portraits of anyone with 10,000 bucks is in itself an amazing feat of visionary aesthetic prescience.

One of the signs of Warhol‘s importance beyond his deserved slot as one of the pantheon of sure-fire box-office Modernist celebrities is the fact that nobody agrees on his significance. His deadpan acquiescence to any and all interpretations of his work (while steadfastly maintaining its superficiality) continues to ensure that a conclusive reading of his work remains beyond the horizon. The ability to accommodate these extremes within such an overarching neutrality is central to Warhol’s importance. It isn‘t Andy No. 1 or Andy No. 2 that is remarkable, but all the possible Andys, simultaneous and superimposed -- without affect and utterly flat. But none of this would have had the least impact if the work had not been rich and accomplished, cool and unflinching, beautiful and funny. Take advantage of the hype and enjoy this art on as many superficial levels you can.