Olivia McKnight; Food For Thought

1: Iconic and instantly recognizable image 

Andy Warhol contributed to queer design by way of creating a culture in which both artists and their works were instantly recognizable.  Prior to Andy Warhol, it was the works of an artist that were recognizable, artists themselves were not public personas.. Take Pollock or Mondrian, their works are iconic and instantly recognizable but the artists themselves would not be able to be chosen out of a line up by most admirers. Warhol on the contrary used his persona in tandem with his creations, cementing both as iconic in the eyes of the public. All of a sudden, he had created a definite look for himself that was instantly recognizable; the blonde wigs, only wearing black and white, as well as the pasty white skin, and bored expression. The public became enamored with this enigmatic and cool artist whose few easily identifiable features cemented him as an iconic character of his time and beyond. 

2: Accessible Art

Another form of queer design that Warhol pioneered was accessible art. In the film one of the critics discusses that the reason he was so highly favored by Americans was because he gave them something that they knew about. For example; his campbell's soup series. Looking at those paintings required no outside knowledge to understand what was going on, the minute the viewer looks upon one, you get it. What they are is clear within seconds because the subject matter was a language that Americans understood. It was an ordinary aspect of Warhol’s day; his lunch that his mother made him, which many Americans easily recognized and understood.

3:Reinvented the definition of a painter

Warhol reinvented the perception of what it was to be a painter. He demonstrated two tactics that were interesting; the first being that he removed himself almost completely from the production of his works, and second; he recreated photographs in painting form. The first, not uncommon throughout history, was to have many assistants involved in the creations of his works. One critic revealed that they would even go so far as to say that someone else was signing the paintings on behalf of Warhol. Andy supervised the process but loudly removed his physical hand from the creations of his pieces. In addition, Warhol recreated photographs as screenprints. This practice reinvented and expanded art critics' understanding of what it meant to be a painter.