Compare Donald Judd's Untitled and Andy Warhol's Gold Marilyn
A cursory glance of Donald Judd’s Untitled and Andy Warhol’s Gold Marilyn reveal highly distinct works of art. Warhol’s Gold Marilyn follows the style of Pop Art, that rejects the idea that art should be focused on abstraction in favor of the view of celebrating contemporary and recognizable subject matter inspired by every day events (Simpson, 2017). In contrast, Judd’s Untitled follows the stylistic movement of minimalism that plays special emphasis on the formal parts of artwork (Simpson, 2017). Minimalism rejects the view that the artist’s gestures and the subjective expressionistic focus play a role in the outcome of the art. Instead, it embraces the view that art should establish a relationship between a specific object (art piece), the viewer, and the actual space they both occupy. Regardless of the differences in stylistic movements, both workpieces are rooted in abstract expressionism, a style that came out in the 50s and 60s. Even then, both art works share other similarities.
For instance, both stylistic movements successfully explored the language of modernism to its end. Pop art successfully merged classical art, popular culture, technology, and commercialism. Gold Marilyn is a good example that intended to elevate a photo-silkscreen with a gold background to a religious level, turning the Hollywood star to a Byzantine Madonna. Note that the emergence of pop art was not instantaneous. Instead, it is the final outcome of the impressionist and post-impressionist movements that held a significant influence on modern art in its time. Similarly, minimalism brings out the full potential of strict geometries and non-representational abstraction that expanded the conceptual space of art beyond their 2D and 3D spaces. Judd’s Untitled is a good example of minimalism, where it focuses of specific geometric forms that are uniformly repeated to make its viewer notice the relationship between themselves and the physical size of the art work.
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Additionally, Gold Marilyn and Untitled are similar in the form that they both were created with commercially available materials. For Gold Marilyn, the print image was acquired from a material intended for single use only. The colors that were later added, such as the red shade of her lips and the gold color of her hair was done with easily available commercial materials. Similarly, Judd’s Untitled intends to embody materialism , where the focus is on using industrial materials to create the artworks. Even then, Warhol’s Gold Marilyn and Judd’s Untitled share another important and sublime similarity.
Both artworks lack outward meaning. These are not qualities unique to the individual art works but manifestation of their respective stylistic movements. The absence of outward meaning also implies that interpreting both works was meant to be literal. There was not subjectivity involved in both or any metaphorically hidden meaning. In other words, both are the embodiment of the phrase what you see is what you see. Such is brought to focus when they were made from common materials, thus depriving them of a uniqueness similar to that of mass-produced goods. Despite these similarities, the two artworks share some differences.
For instance, Pop Art focuses on recognizable images, specific objects , and technology. Gold Marilyn is a good example where the focus shifts from classical iconography to current celebrities in pop culture. In contrast, minimalists created their works using fluorescent lights, concrete blocks, plywood wireframes, and even gallery floor. As a result, while it was easier to recognize Pop art, it was harder to distinguish minimalist art like Judd’s Untitled from everyday objects.
Compare Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and Judy Chicago's Dinner Party
When looking at Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Chicago’s Dinner Party, it immediately becomes clear that they share more differences than similarities. For instance, the artists that created them had very different intention. On the one hand, Chicago’s Dinner Party follows the feminist art movement. Chicago herself is a renown follower of feminism who created the Dinner Party as a feminist response to the Last Supper by da Vinci (Almeida, 2018). Instead of having 13 of the most significant men in history, Chicago’s Dinner Party plays tribute to the historically significant women from goddesses to mere mortals. Even then, her work is an embodiment of pluralism , where instead of doing everything by herself, she allowed over 400 contributors to share their unique cultures and experiences through the art work.
On the other hand, Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is a site-specific art piece in the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Built with over 6000 tons of stone and earth, Smithson’s intention was to represent the inevitable impact of anthropogenic activities over nature. Even then, it is also a representation of the supreme and inviolable power of nature (Almeida, 2018). After all, with time, the Spiral Jetty was subject to entropy , erosion, and decay. Therefore, though the jetty emerges as the water level drops, it is never the same as the last time it was exposed to the atmosphere.
Another difference is that the Spiral Jetty represents the concept of impermanence of nature. Due to entropy , nothing can manage to withstand the forces of nature, especially time. Therefore, Smithson accepts that the Spiral Jetty will one day disappear completely. The same laws of entropy are also applicable to Chicago’s The Dinner Party. Yet, the art work is on permanent Display at the Brooklyn Museum in a perfectly preserved manner. The permanence of the exhibit contrasts the fact that it will decay with time, regardless of the efforts taken to preserve the individual work pieces.
Despite these differences, the two art works share one similarity. They were created to express a specific idea or construct. The Spiral Jetty was created to embody the supreme power of nature over all processes. In contrast, The Dinner Party was created to elevate the position of women through the activities of those who had significant historical impacts. The art piece also celebrates the crafts and activities that society has relegated to be menial and only to be performed by women.
References
Almeida, D. V. CAN GENDERED CREATIVITY IN THE VISUAL ARTS BE POLITICALLY SUBVERSIVE?. QUESTIONING THE ONENESS OF PHILOSOPHY , 187.
Simpson, A. (2017). Twentieth-Century Sublimes The Turn from Modernism to Postmodernism: Barnett Newman, Agnes Martin, and Andy Warhol (Doctoral dissertation).
