University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations 2012 Fifteen minutes and then some: an examination of Andy Warhol's extraordinary commercial success Alycia Faith Reed University of Iowa Copyright 2012 Alycia Faith Reed This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2973 Recommended Citation Reed, Alycia Faith. "Fifteen minutes and then some: an examination of Andy Warhol's extraordinary commercial success." MA (Master of Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, 2012. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2973. Follow this and additional works at:http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of theHistory of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons FIFTEEN MINUTES AND THEN SOME: AN EXAMINATION OF ANDY WARHOL’S EXTRAORDINARY COMMERCIAL SUCCESS by Alycia Faith Reed A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Art History in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2012 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Craig Adcock Copyright by ALYCIA FAITH REED 2012 All Rights Reserved Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER’S THESIS This is to certify that the Master’s thesis of Alycia Faith Reed has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Arts degree in Art History at the May 2012 graduation. Thesis Committee: Craig Adcock, Thesis Supervisor Dorothy Johnson Julie Berger Hochstrasser ! To Mom, who loved Andy first. ! ii! Some company recently was interested in buying my “aura.” They didn’t want my product. They kept saying, “We want your aura.” I never figured out what they wanted. But they were willing to pay a lot for it. Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) ! iii! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Professor Craig Adcock, for his support and guidance, and for allowing me to write about Andy Warhol as much as possible over the course of my time at the University of Iowa. I would also like to thank my committee members, Professor Dorothy Johnson and Professor Julie Berger Hochstrasser, for their enthusiasm and wisdom, not only in the completion of this thesis, but in the classroom as well. Thank you to Matt Wrbican, chief archivist at the Warhol Museum, and Jay Reeg, member of the Warhol Board of Directors, for their generosity in exchanging long e-mails, answering questions, recommending books, and for sharing their love of Andy with me. Thank you to my parents, Bill and Paulette Reed, for emotional support, emergency phone calls, mini-vacations, and for listening to endless stories beginning with, “Did you know that Andy Warhol . . . ?” And thanks to Tim, for knowing I am a Warholic and loving me anyway. ! iv! TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES vi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. “I MEAN, HOW CORNY”: THE BRANDING OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM 13 II. “PARTS OF THE STARS”: THE BRANDING OF ANDY WARHOL 33 CONCLUSION 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY 67 APPENDIX FIGURES 72 ! v! LIST OF FIGURES Figure A1. Artist disputed, Red Self-Portrait, 1965. 64 Figure A2. Andy Warhol, Eight Elvises, 1963. 65 Figure A3. Andy Warhol, Nosepicker I: Why Pick On Me (formerly titled The Broad Gave Me My Face, But I Can Pick My Own Nose), 1948. 66 Figure A4. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1962. 67 Figure A5. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1941. 68 Figure A6. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1941. 69 Figure A7. Andy Warhol, Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 1963. 70 Figure A8. Andy Warhol, Lemon Marilyn, 1962. 71 Figure A9. Jasper Johns, Painting with Two Balls, 1960. 72 Figure A10. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1946. 73 Figure A11. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1944. 74 Figure A12. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1943. 75 Figure A13. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1943. 76 Figure A14. Campbell’s tomato juice advertisement, 1949. 77 Figure A15. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1937. 78 Figure A16. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1947. 79 Figure A17. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1947. 80 Figure A18. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1942. 81 Figure A19. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1956. 82 Figure A20. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1965. 83 Figure A21. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1966. 84 Figure A22. Campbell’s soup advertisment, 1967. 85 Figure A23. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1968. 86 ! vi! Figure A24. Campbell’s soup mug advertisement, 1970. 87 Figure A25. Campbell’s tote bag advertisement, 1968. 88 Figure A26. Campbell’s beach towel advertisement, 1969. 89 Figure A27. Campbell’s “Souper Bowl” advertisement, 1969. 90 Figure A28. Campbell’s “Souper Dress” advertisement, 1968. 91 Figure A29. Campbell’s record album advertisement, 1969. 92 Figure A30. Last of a 3 panel Campbell’s Soup advertisement for a “ Campbell’s 93 Pop-Art Bowl,” 1968. Figure A31. Advertisement for Fredrix artists’ canvas, c. 1963-5. 94 Figure A32. Pioneer Electronics advertisement, 1975. 95 Figure A33. Advertisement for U.S. News & World Report, 1977. 96 Figure A34. Sony advertisement for Beta tape, 1981. 97 Figure A35. Advertisement for Drexel Burnham, c. 1985-7. 98 Figure A36. Absolut vodka advertisement, “Absolut Warhol,” 1985. 99 Figure A37. Absolut vodka advertisement, “Absolut Warhola,”1990. 100 Figure A38. Keith Haring, Andy Mouse, 1985. 101 Figure A39. Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, Andy Mouse, 1986. 102 Figure A40. Album cover for the Velvet Underground album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967. 103 vii!