Warhol, Andy: Single Elvis (1964)

WARHOL, the most influential and best-known figure of Pop Art, was a commercial artist before he turned into a star. His influence proved lasting not only in visual art, but in advertising design, underground music and experimental film as well. He made his first paintings after such symbols of American consumerism and mass culture as newspaper illustrations, product packaging and advertisements. The same were to provide subjects for his silk screen prints, the technique of which he learnt as a commercial artist. This industrial method enabled him to dismiss the centuries-old significance of the artwork’s originality and the mark of the artist’s hand. Single Elvis, the piece in our collection was preceded by the 1962 Red Elvis, a print with a press photo replicated in several rows on a red ground. In 1963 he returned to the subject, using a photo shot on the set of a western, Flaming Star. In the first series, the larger-than-life, greyscale figure appears in a dark, rectangular field, is separated from the silver background by a grey-toned field, intensifying the picture-within-the-picture effect. Later a second series was made for an exhibition at Ferus Gallery, and this time the figure was stencilled on canvases sprayed with silver paint. Using Elvis, an emblem of American mass culture, Warhol took a look at the respective myths of the Wild West and rock and roll, and underlined the power of mass media to transform cultural values.

Ü. K.