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ACT: Reading Question #2 |
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This passage is excerpted from an art and aesthetics journal dedicated to artists of the twentieth century.
Warhol's Pop Life
Andy Warhol's art captures the essence of popular culture, like a mirror that reflects the popular images of the moment, such as celebrity portraits, colorful soup cans, dollar bills, and soft drinks. He often silkscreened the same image multiple times, compounding itself, demonstrating how in modern society, anything considered popular can be mass-produced, even a pretty face. Many people believe that his iconic pop paintings are the works of a genius. Others believe that he simply understood how to sensationalize his meaningless, mechanically reproduced prints of images that already existed.
Pop culture is any aspect of culture that can be mass-produced and mass consumed, such as comics, movies, magazines, popular fiction, popular music, and fast food. The pop movement itself developed along with the consumer culture that quickly grew in the 1950s. During this prosperous time, there were more products to buy than ever before. Advertising became an important part of selling the products, and the growth of television, magazines, billboards, and catalogues surrounded people with ads. If a product had a bright, glamorous image, then it was more likely to sell.
By the 1960s, pop artists saw the power of these visual images -- how they were so easily embraced by millions of people. Inspired by what they saw in magazines, movies, and even on grocery-store shelves, pop artists attempted to replicate the images in art. Their basic philosophy was to make art that conveyed a powerful, clear image; suggest that nearly anything can be turned into a product to be sold; and use their pop images to shock and transform attitudes of what is considered "art." In a sense, the pop art movement was a reaction against what was traditionally considered elite, high class, intellectual art; this artistic phenomenon was accessible, middle class, popular art. As advertising became more artistic, art became more of an everyday commodity to be marketed.
People still debate the relevance of Warhol's work, but one thing is certain: he manipulated pop culture to become popular himself. Before he became a famous artist, Warhol was a successful commercial illustrator in New York City. He used his talent for painting and design to create successful magazine and newspaper advertisements, along with other bright, eye-catching commercial designs. His earliest works of pop art were bold reproductions of popular images such as Popeye cartoons and product packages. His series of red and white Campbell's soup cans were featured in galleries and transformed the commercial illustrator into a pop-art sensation.
In his artwork, Warhol carefully selected images that were already well-known and likeable. He would paint or silkscreen a colorful reproduction of an image, then use commercial printing methods to duplicate colorful adaptations. These prints were mass-produced in The Factory, Warhol's large studio space in New York City. He had many assistants and other artists working there, duplicating the images and even providing some of the design. Andy also did many drawings and paintings that were not reproduced from existing images. He continued his commercial work as well, designing album covers, magazines, books, and packaging for products. The Factory was also a hub of creative activities such as performance art, photo shoots, experimental films, and live music by bands that helped shape New York City's underground music culture.
Warhol managed to produce successful art throughout the 1970s and 1980s by continuously evolving and changing with the times. He transformed himself by closely observing contemporary culture and maintaining a fresh approach to the artistic process. When he moved out of The Factory in the mid 1970s, Warhol named the new location The Office. Warhol's industry grew from an art production factory to a professional art business. Warhol moved once more in the mid 1980s, just as cable television emerged as a viable media outlet. To demonstrate his newfound devotion to television production as well as graphic art, Warhol named the new space The Studio.
Warhol was clever in the way he portrayed his own image: passive, cool, eccentric, and seemingly detached from his art. He never appeared to work very hard; his assistants seemed to do most of the work for him. But in fact Warhol was a workaholic and a perfectionist. He spent long hours working and reworking the smallest details of the layout, color, size, and shapes in a painting or a silkscreen. The work of his assistants was closely supervised by Warhol himself. Whenever Warhol developed a new concept, he told people about it and asked for their opinions. If enough people thought it was a good idea, he figured it would be popular and proceeded to produce it.
Unlike many artists, Warhol was reluctant to discuss his own artwork. Warhol would rarely agree or disagree with a critic's interpretation. Whenever people asked him about his art, he would either give a non-answer such as "Uh, wow," or have a friend answer for him. Warhol's refusal to pass judgement on his own art reflects his resistance to intellectualize art in general. His art was a mirror of modern society, reflecting it without distortion or profound hidden meaning. Warhol never implied that there was anything more than the image. In a consumer society, according to Warhol, the image itself holds meaning. Warhol's uncanny ability to capitalize on this irony of pop culture is exactly what enabled his work to straddle the vague separation between art and mass culture.
Question:
In paragraph 6, lines 5-6, the author suggests that when Warhol "moved out of The Factory in the mid 1970s, he named the new location The Office" because:
Choices:
The correct answer is (D).
Return to the referenced lines and find the context of the new location's name.
Be careful of answer choices that play off text near the referenced area. For example, (A) relates to very end of the preceding paragraph.
Similarly, (B) relates to the following sentence about The Studio, not The Office.
(C) contradicts the information in the seventh paragraph about how meticulously Warhol watched over his assistants; moreover, this information does not relate to The Office.
(D) is correct because this choice summarizes the information related to Warhol's new space.
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