Andy Warhol Influence

Pop Art came to fruition at the wake of the Second World War eventually peaking at the prime of capitalism; the movement was distinguished by their portrayal of any and all characteristics of popular culture that had a powerful influence on contemporary society. Themes of consumerism such as advertisements, comic strips, film stars and products led to the blurring of boundaries between higher and lower cultures of that era, through the use of these received notions, pop art became a western sociological phenomenon, developing into a mirror of their epoch. The movement walked a tight rope of social commentary, “either honouring the accomplishments of industry and fashion or responding with sarcasm and concern to the nation’s consumer society”1.
His neutral and obsessive attitude towards popular culture transformed his work into a quintessential reflection of the industrial era. His adaptation of a multilayered process, and obsession with reproduction became the underlying feature that would set him apart from most pop artists. Warhol had a detached crisp style of art making that was centred on commercial imagery found in media outlets such as advertisements, magazine clippings, comics and newspapers. The use of silk screen allowed him to create copious amounts of near identical prints in a short amount of time, however he was not actually interested in the amount he could produce, rather he was more inclined to work with a mechanical process in which silk screen offered, by doing this he was able to replicate and critique the very way popular culture functioned, believing that a mechanistic process would erode the value and meaning of the image, in other words the more exposed you are to an image the more detached you will be towards it, reinforcing the statement that pop artists were generally more critical towards the society they
The iconography of the Atomic Kiss is used to completely disassemble the bubble that popular culture and consumerism has created for American society. Rabascall questions the way media is able to dissipate the violence and horror that circulates around the world (outside of America and Britain), by placing the mouth over the atomic bomb Rabascall attacks America’s inability to consider the travesties of the world around them, even the cataclysm that they have caused (Japan), in other words he questions the way Americas ambivalent consumerist society is able to hide behind the glorified icons of pop culture and cinema in the wake of mass destruction of nations that surround