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IN THE GALLERIES: ANDY WARHOL Donald Judd
It seems that the salient metaphysical question lately is "Why does Andy Warhol paint Campbell Soup cans?" The only available answer is "Why not?" The subject matter is a cause for both blame and excessive praise. Actually it is not very interesting to think about the reasons, since it is easy to imagine Warhol's paintings without such subject matter, simply as "over-all" paintings of repeated elements. The novelty and the absurdiry of the repeated images of Marilyn Monroe, Troy Donahue and Coca-Cola bottles is not great. Although Warhol thought of using these subjects, he certainly did not think of the format. The mildest aspect of the work is the descriptive sensitivity which is mingled with the stenciled elements. Unlike Lichtenstein, the only person with whom Warhol can be directly compared, Warhol does not strictly maintain the commercial scheme, or any other unillusionistic scheme. Also his sensitivity extends to the format: in one painting some bottles are empty, some full and some are half empty; one of Elvis Presley is "overall" within a rectangle set up and to one side, leaving a border of canvas; the photographs, probably repeated with a silk-screen, often lighten in value toward one side or are deleted. The repetition should be made more insistent and the variation, if it is necessary, rapid and also insistent. Troy Donahue's head and shoulders are within an oval, which cuts his coat to two red prongs repeating downward. That is pretty clear but could be emphasized. The variation between four small paintings of single heads of M. M. show what might be done with emphatic variations. The best thing about Warhol's work is the color. The colors are often stained; they look like colored inks, and often black is stenciled over them, which produces a peculiar quality. The stained alizarin and the black of some repeated Martinson Coffee cans is interesting, for example. The painting with repeated heads of M. M. has an orange ground. The hair is yellow, the face is a purplish pink and the eye-shadow is a greenish cerulean. The black image is stenciled over the flat areas. M. M. is lurid. The gist of this is that Warhol's work is able but general. It certainly has possibilities, but it is so far not exceptional. It should be considered as it is, as should anyone's, and not be harmed or aided by being part of a supposed movement, "pop," "0.K.," neo-Dada, or New Realist or whatever it is. The various artists are too diverse to be given one label anyway.
