Warhol/Samaras Response (Jeff Barnard)

This week’s reading was a little different this week because it dealt with videos and not just a simple chapter to read. One such reading was “Warhol in His Own Words” which was a list of statements from Andy Warhol reflecting on his work and his outlook on certain things in society like TV and movies. I found it to be a unique experience to be reading words spoken by a famous artist rather than an analysis of his work and his feelings on it. As an Artist, this was great to for once read Andy Warhol’s true thoughts and find a link between us is our perspectives on certain things. For example, he says that TV today is the same thing in every show with a few details changed around to make them seem different. I can identify with that because there are some shows that follow a particular formula and because of that, I can predict what will happen and most of the time I’m right or at least very close. But then again, I can’t say the repeating aspects of the storyline are all bad because for some shows, that’s what helped them to gain a particular audience they wanted. Warhol was a unique artist and I think that’s what made him great.

Lucas Samaras’ “Another Autointerview (1971)” was yet another unique reading because it was in a interview format but it was done by the person being interviewed. Questions often repeat so the details of the topic can be thoroughly explained and Samaras tends to ask odd questions and gives odd responses. I found this reading to be a little biased because he’s only giving the information he wants to give out about himself and not allow someone else to get the info that people may want. But in one of his answers, “So that I can protect myself”, it seems that he wants to be open with the audience with his art and his mindset. Answers like this one seem to show that he is trying to open himself to us and be free of the information people seek from him. Then again, when I read this piece it makes me want to ask questions like why ask certain things of yourself and why particular responses were made.

In, conclusion I think the goal of this week’s reading was to show how artist reflect upon themselves as well as what’s around them. Warhol wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion on various aspects of society or on his own work because he wanted to be known for it and be noticed. Samara conducted his own interview so that he could get what he wanted out and not have his answers modeled after a typical interview format. This was a good reading because I think it was meant to encourage us to stick to what we think about art and how we create art. In the end, the most important perspective for an artist to have is his own and to keep it that way.