American Consumer Culture as Reflected in Andy Warhol's “Marilyn Monroe” and “Green Coca-Cola Bottle”
Abstract
Andy Warhol was in an extremely prosperous post-World War II United States when Pop Art was flourishing in America, when art was becoming civilianized and began to focus on the daily lives of the public. Andy Warhol was keenly aware of the effects that consumer society brought to the mass culture and he brought the commodities and elements used by the masses into Pop Art, such as“Green Coca-Cola Bottle”and“Marilyn Monroe”which concentrated and distinctly embodied the cultural characteristics of the consumerist. This paper applied The Consumer Society written by Jean Baudrillard to argue the consumer culture reflected in two of Andy Warhol's classic paintings, namely “Green Coca-Cola Bottle” and “Marilyn Monroe”. The former reflected the state of consumption-controlled production in America, while the latter reflected the emergence of the consumer protagonist as the new concern of popular culture, the rise of mass media and the frenzied pursuit of consumer symbols. Lastly the inspiration he brought to us that is to provide an in-depth and well-reasoned understanding for the consumer culture reflected in Warhol's paintings and the implications for modern consumer society and contemporary art.
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