Judy Rey Wasserman's Art & Scripture Blog

Post Conceptual Art uses symbols for every stroke. It is a direct historical descendant from Andy Warhol’s work, such as the his Last Supper paintings towards the end of his life, where he uses logos (symbols) including from Dove Soap and General Electric to reference religious concepts of the Holy Spirit and Light.

Earlier Warhol focused on images as symbols. This can be seen in his famous portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor and other celebrities. His repetitions of products and people in the media pointed to people being treated as products. For the famous their face was a business and personal logo, which Warhol brilliantly captured.

Unlike previous portrait artists, Warhol was not interested in revealing the inner person, only the outer shell. To emphasize this he made many copies of a radically simplifies image of the person’s face, but altered the background with often garish colors. Purposefully what lies beneath Marilyn’s simplified façade lacks any spirituality or emotion. Like the Campbell ‘s soup cans and Brillo boxes, she becomes just a product, a symbol of her Hollywood stardom.

Warhol’s Pop use of symbols helped inspire conceptual artists to use symbols to create concepts or visual ideas. This also includes Word Art, which is all about symbols (letters) that reveal meaning.

A Warhol silk-screen image can be understood as a stroke because all in the same movement and in closely related time the silk-screen is laid on the canvas. A brush stroke also happens in a complete movement and in continuous uninterrupted time. Many logos can be applied with one stroke via a rubber stamp. Thus, Warhol’s symbols and logos may be seen also as singles strokes (for more on strokes see “The Manifesto of Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art—A Painting’s Meaning is Inherent in its Strokes”.)

Once a logo or the black image of one of Warhol’s-screen portraits is understood as a stroke, the influence his art has on inspiring my new Post Conceptual Art theory becomes apparent. It again becomes even clearer when viewing some of Warhol’s Last Supper works where images of Jesus, the disciples, silk-screened motorcycles and logos overlap each other.

While those images and logos remain fully recognizable, once one sees them as strokes it is clear that they would still exist on the canvas and have their intrinsic meaning even if they were overlapped with enough images to become unrecognizable.

In many of my Post Conceptual UnGraven Image work, especially in the Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise and Written on the Wind series, many layers of painted strokes are applied to build up the image. When watercolor pencils are used applying water naturally blends or diffuses some of the strokes, but they are not blended in a painterly way. Warhol’s silk-screens are also an obviously layered process of work.

While the works in the above mentioned series are sometimes mentioned of being reminiscent of Impressionism or Pointillism, these are not styles noted for layering. However there is a relationship between Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art theory and Impressionism in that both are focused on portraying energy. While Impressionism focuses on the light, the Twenty-first Century art focuses on using symbols to represent the strings of elementary physics, the pre matter and energy, and light is a form of energy.

Andy Warhol’s influence as an artist prompted his portrait being the first one created in the original experiment that became the Essence series. The strokes chose are the binary, alpha-numeric and phonic symbols of the original font of Psalm 19. It is my favorite psalm. I hope that Andy Warhol, who dutifully attended the Eastern Orthodox church every Sunday would be pleased.

Andy Warhol’s influence as an artist prompted his portrait being the first one created in the original experiment that became the Essence series. The strokes chose are the binary, alpha-numeric and phonic symbols of the original font of Psalm 19. It is my favorite psalm. I hope that Andy Warhol, who dutifully attended the Eastern Orthodox church every Sunday would be pleased

As time progresses Andy Warhol’s influence on me and other Post Conceptual artists who will come along, will be further shown in our works. Post Conceptual UnGraven Image art theory is a direct descendant of Andy Warhol’s unique Pop Art.

Also of Interest:

Did Leonardo da Vinci Envision Post Conceptual Art?

Christian and Jewish Theological Basis of Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art

Un – Deniable Red Portrait of Andy Warhol

Birthday Tribute to Andy Warhol

   *  *  *

Judy Rey Wasserman is an artist and the founder of Post Conceptual Art theory and also the branch known as UnGraven Image Art at ungravenimage.com.

Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art theory is based at the intersection of ancient spiritual wisdom and cutting-edge contemporary science. It shows us a new and enhanced spiritual and science-based way to see the world. It is a life changing vision that can even become an actual new way of seeing that is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Can this be true? See for yourself.

Check out the Fine Art Limited Edition prints, decorative prints, books, and printables that are currently available to you through Judy Rey’s Art of Seeing The Divine Shop. You don’t have to buy to avail yourself of the art and inspiration available there. However, if you select to collect investment quality archival art, or decorate your home with images created with strokes that are original letters from Bible texts, or buy a gift for someone special, there is a secure shopping cart that accepts most credit cards so your purchase is easy to accomplish. https://artofseeingthedivine.com.