In 1986, Andy Warhol painted the Statue of Liberty to reflect the American dream (Warhol and Andy, 47). The painting is regarded as a tribute to the importance of liberty for all Americans, and it was painted in a deft manner. The Statue of Liberty is a six-foot-square, large-scale painting that represents America to the rest of the world. It has an impenetrable exterior that displays the unwavering adherence to American ideals in terms of political rights. Following a return to the iconic portrait during a time of prolific imagination and retrospective reappraisal, Warhol overlaid the painting with a strong recurrent motif camouflage.
Today, this painting is an abstract view of a national landmark, possibly in red to achieve “liberty” that the statue stands for.
Analysis
Warhol symbolizes Liberty by making most of the quintessential American icon in red camouflage. Through this, Warhol was able to invoke the specter of war as represented by the red color symbolizing American blood that had to be shed to realize the dream of liberty. This tends to pervade the complicated narrative that was spread regarding American history and democracy in particular. In this regard, it is important to learn that during President Reagan’s era, politics were the main factor shaping the nation. Through the red color representing liberty at the same time blood, Warhol was able to provoke the audience with the idea that freedom is not free but is earned.
This essentially means that Warhol’s painting is a pure representation of painting carrying great political criticism. The painting is clad in vivid red or candy colors of pop probably suggesting that his painting was a potent reminder that such an iconic imagery is complex as demonstrated by his style (Warhol, Andy). In this regard, the gleaming pop surface highlighted in red indicated that such a pop style was more complex than its original meaning or what would be interpreted by a large audience (Warhol and Andy, 56).
Compared to the original sculpture, Warhol’s Statue of Liberty was able to go back to the ubiquitous symbol that represented by America in large scale. The red color has made much contribution since it is vividly represented in canvas. According to Warhol and Andy (61), unlike the original full-length original colossal sculpture, Warhol shrewdly used these vivid colors to zoom in all important elements to the audience. In this case, Lady Liberty is portrayed clearly through a close-up view, exposing her steely expression. The steely expression, in this case, represented her steadfast commitment towards achieving not only liberty but also freedom. Thus, the red color is a pure representation of readiness to shed blood to achieve those crucial values. Moreover, the value of liberty is emphasized by the conveyance of Lady Liberty’s implacable façade, which is massive including her pointed crown that is extremely large.
Instead, his painting such as the original colossal sculpture, which is highlighted in green color, Warhol opted to render his painting in a symphony of blues in addition to the vivid red color. To the audience, this seemed to suggest that the painting had a bone through a kaleidoscopic prism of not only red color but also blue camouflage. It is worth to note that in art, such an excellent technique carries a dual-fold effect of simultaneously obscuring as well as highlighting the image. This was Warhol’s popular technique during that period, which he often exploited largely to accurately pass his communication to the audience as demonstrated through Wig Self-portraits that he had created during the same year.
The work by Andy Warhol is also made up white and black pictures that are made of silver gelatin. Threads that are in about three rows connect them to one another. The ends of the threads are extended such that they hung on both sides. The image is meant to represent a rectangular banner that is a celebration of the Statue of liberty (Warhol and Andy, 61). The banner occupies almost the entire part of the picture where it is seen as if one should read from below. Although it is seen to take all the space, it is only concentrated at the center, and the sides seem open. Near the head and in between the sharp shards of the object, there are three-dimensional stars that vary in sizes. Within the stars, are the words “Liberty enlightening the world” which the exact name of the sculpture. Also, the dates are well indicated that is (1886 and 1986). Below the top part of the sculpture, there are three on -vertical shaking lines that are thought to represent the location of the statue considering the New York harbor. Notably, up to the year 1987, Andy Warhol added more pictures that were in the black in white. Andy was very focused on taking pictures where he used to take pictures every day and later would form the pictures better and add them to the sculpture that conveyed a different meaning.
The six prints of pictures are advanced to various extents. From the top side corner of the left side to that of the left we see the colors alternating from bleached whiteness where the information in the bottom part is hard to comprehend, where we see some dark parts which continue being dark until nothing becomes clear. Notably, though they are not easy to understand, they all look alike which makes the statue look amazing. Something is noted with the statue of liberty were the sides with dark pictures moving to the side that is clear is associated with the work. Even though the word “enlightening” is seen in the sculpture, the darks become more that hides the light part especially when the sculpture is viewed from the left side to the right.
Andy Warhol established the work in several media showing images of architecture as well as monuments. As he was touring the globe, which was around 1956, he prepared sketchbooks that were made of images of buildings in Cambodia and Japan. Apart from that, he formed screen prints of iconic edifices, for example, the Washington Monument that was allowed to form paintings of structures, for instance, Trump Tower in New York. Also, he also added the images of building structures and monuments inclusive of the Globe Trade Centre. As we have seen in the paper, Andy Warhol did a lot of good work in establishing the statue to Liberty sculpture. However, among the best-known establishments by Andy is an eight-hour movie which shows the readers about the Empire State Structure which was formed in 1964 and was named Empire. The great status of the structures is well explained in the movie that is very clear and amazing.
Works cited
Warhol, Andy. The philosophy of Andy Warhol: from A to B and back again. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
