Deeply Superficial

Overview & Synopsis

In place of the entanglement of person and work that so strongly marks the artistic work of Andy Warhol, and settles it in the usual Pop Art context, Mèlanie-Chantal Deiss locates it within the cultural context of America's post-war period. Viewed from this perspective, Warhol's work - which tends to be classified as superficial and ahistorical – exhibits unexpectedly serious engagements with concerns of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout his image series, expressive, somewhat ambivalent narrative strands from America's post-war period unfurl, which transmit a concrete image, as a kind of written historical document. Warhol's visualized narration ultimately culminates in a cultural critique, which treats America not just as a stage of images, but also as site of contemplation of a cultural imaginary, in which art can critically and productively intervene.