Image analysis Essay 2 draft

FEEDBACK - too focused on image analysis rather than relating the information and research to the contextualisation and conclusions of my first essay. There needs to be less emphasis on describing the images themselves, and more linkages to their relevance within the points made about population culture and mass communications.

Coca cola [3] is a large monochromatic portrait, hand painted using casein on canvas. The type in the design is simplistic and relevant, using the famous Coca-Cola logotype, accompanied by a bold, capital sans-serif type that is befitting of a short piece of informative text that doesn’t require fluidity. With the main depiction veering to the left of the piece, and the larger logotype being purposing cut out of the image, Warhol evidently plays with composition in order to enable with cool aesthetic, which mimics ‘the stand-alone nature of this commonplace consumer product on the blank canvas’ Christie’s (2013).  In fact, the bottle could be seen as an icon for American Pop Art, subjecting the consumerist culture that stimulated America.

Painted in 1962, Coca cola [3] is one of Warhol’s’ earliest works, defining the Pop generation. The Coca-Cola bottle can be considered an enduring symbol of modern mass-consumer and corporation culture in the USA. Marking one of the biggest TNC’s in the world, and a globally recognised brand, and the ‘cocacolonisation’ of the world, Warhol’s graphic design places popular culture inside the high art world, and jumpstarted the beginnings of the Pop Art movement in the US, which focused on art for the everyday person.

Warhol (1975): “You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you, can drink Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking...Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.”

Ultimately, high art and graphic design were merging, as work was being produced for the first time to a mass audience, regardless of race, gender or class, it was low-tech simplistic production, which essentially said what it meant. The painting was sold for $57.2 million, making it one of Warhol’s most expensive works ever sold and exemplifying its popularity. 

From a theoretic standpoint, Coca Cola [3] shows Warhol ‘as the ur-postmodernist’ whose ‘entire artistic practice and persona stood, quite intentionally, in opposition to modernist ideas’ Crispin Sartwell (2013). As such, Warhol presents here quite the antithesis of Pollock who was so acknowledged not long before him; rejecting the abstract and replacing it with actualities, with the intention of appealing to the masses (consumerism). 

 

Similarly to Warhol, the Obama ‘Hope’ poster, also described as ‘iconic’ was designed by Los Angeles based graphic designer and street artist Shepard Fairey, and also exploits the use of bold text and simplistic stylised stencilled imagery to depict the subject matter. The use of colour has a sense of sophistication and composure, using off shades of the primary colours, and the American flag – beige (yellow/white), red and blue. The dominance of blue is due to the colours ties with the Democratic Party, thus allowing for the poster to present the patriarchy and authenticity required for a campaign of its sort.

Steven Heller writes in his book ‘POP: How Graphic Design Shapes Popular Culture’: ‘almost form the very beginning, the Obama campaign sought to challenge the old-school cliché-mongers with a distinctively consistent typographic identity (the typeface Gotham was a nice touch), and a startling Obama ‘O’ logo, along with Obama Blue (not quite the flag’s blue, but distinctive)’. Heller characterises the ‘visual energy jolt’ Fairey provides, especially through the large, equally kerned, capitalised and sharp logotype. The selection of Gotham, which incorporates a perfectly circular ‘o’, exposes the commonality of the two words, emphasising the dominant message of Obama connoting ‘hope’. 

Designed in one day and created for the 2008 presidential campaign, the poster was constructed with the intentions of being used for mass widespread production across the USA, and even the world.  This motive for a fast turnover (which is generic in popular culture) was successful, and Fairey apparently sold 290 posters on the street immediately after printing them. Wider distribution then occurred in the form of simple digital print medium and other paraphernalia (mugs, t-shirts, etc). The ‘new media’ theory explains its technique, which allows for rapid distribution at a cheap rate, and sharing of the information with millions of people for free on the Internet, enabling free advertisement and promotion for Obama’s campaign. If it was to be successful, it should appeal to the masses and be simplistic in both image and type. Thus, this explains the chosen effect, which denotes no race and adheres to the collective audience – all aspects are recognisable and Fairey’s previous populist work with the brand Obey provided trustworthy aesthetics.

This piece of graphic design supports Danesi’s point of popular culture being ‘highly ephemeral’, as well as Delaney who stated brands who base themselves on popular culture are extremely short-lived and unsustainable. The icon of the work is the subject himself, gaining only celebrity status in the zeitgeist, and thus is only representative of that specific time frame. The fact that Fairey was so fast in distribution only supports the ideals of popular culture being a commodity culture for the now.

Like Warhol, the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover was designer by fellow pop artist Peter Blake and Jann Haworth in 1967.  By contrast to Fairey’s ‘hope’ poster, at the time, Sgt. Pepper was one of the most expensive album covers ever created. However nonetheless, it joins them both in being one of the most iconic images of its genre (in this case the rock n’ roll subculture). Moreover, it won the Grammy for ‘Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts’ in the same year of release and spent 27 weeks at the top of the album charts in the UK, and 15 in the US, selling over 32 million copies worldwide to date, making it one of the best-selling albums in history and presenting international communication and popularity clearly exemplifying a strong global popular culture. This point can be epitomised by the ‘Library of Congress’ who in 2003 placed the album in the ‘National Recording Registry’ honouring the work as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant". Furthermore, the ‘New Statesman’ magazine ‘praised its elevation of pop to the level of fine art’ (V&A Museum) we begin to see popular culture transcending high art, expanding on Joseph Hancock’s point of embracing the blending.

The album cover depicts the Beatles in costume as the ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’, standing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures cut out from life size cardboard cut outs. Arranged in a collage format, with vibrant colours that mirror the psychedelic movement and hippie culture they were appealing to. Additionally, the group all style a prominent moustache that was informed by George Harrison after disguising himself for a visit to India. This style again supported the growing influence and trends that stemmed from the hippie movement of the 60s, along with their mockingly flamboyant military styled costumes – ironically promoting peace and love.

The diversity of famous people illustrated, including more pop culture figures such as sportsmen and actors, to more highbrow figures like scientists and ‘Self-Realisation Fellowship gurus’ (or spiritual figures), embodies a piece that seeks to appeal to all, thus atypically indulging in popular culture whilst still being completely original of its time. This is best summarised by the author of ‘Popular Music and Film Ian Inglis who views the tableau “as a guidebook to the cultural topography of the decade”, which showed the growing societal democratisation whereby "traditional barriers between 'high' and 'low' culture were being eroded". The final cover included singer Bob Dylan, who relevantly played a huge role in merging folk and rock and thus breaking the barriers of high and low brow culture.

Thus, in conclusion, it is evident that although many may ridicule popular culture for being lowbrow and cheaply functioning solely for consumerism, it definitely has status when considering the examples discussed. Despite its generality, the graphic pieces produced on the backlash of popular culture all appeal to the mass consumer market, and are therefore all-inclusive in their considerations. It can still be argued weather or not there are transitory however, as Coca-Cola remains a huge mega brand, as do the commerciality of the Beatles, and even Fairey’s posters have been redesigned in light of the recent women marches in protest of President Trump, 8 years on.

Bibliography

References

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