TJ Aaron

HUM M10B

Professor Slattum

Museum Visit

Andy Warhol gave us many great works of art in his life time, two of which stand out as

provocative and interesting political pieces, Vote McGovern '84 and Mao. These two portraits represent

important political figures of the times and both portray their subjects in a comical, satirical light. Both

paintings can be found in the MOCA on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, California with descriptions

and details. The first of these paintings, Vote McGovern '84, is a medium sized portrait being exactly

106.68cm x 1060.05cm. For the medium, Warhol used a 16 color silkscreen, and a mixture of dark and

medium blues and lighter pinks and oranges to create the piece. The Portrait depicts a single subject

that is supposed to be President Nixon and was received as an advertisement telling people to vote

against Nixon in the election. Warhol uses heavy contrast on Nixon's face compared to his eyes, lips,

and coat all of which make Nixon look comical and despite his aggressive expression, utterly harmless.

There is an interesting color and style choice in regards to Nixon's suit as well, in the painting Warhol

painted his suit pink as if to say no one would take Nixon seriously if he's the kind of person who wears

pink suits. This piece also suggests a political leaning to Andy Warhol and that he was opposed to the

Watergate scandal and the charges of election tampering surrounding Nixon. The room this piece is

contained in consists of four plain white walls that do not reach the ceiling, there are also several

openings in the walls to allow passage into other parts of the gallery. On the ceiling above the piece

there hang metal bars with lights attached to them hanging just below several rows of skylights that

have been tinted darkly to avoid having too much natural light entering the room. There are also several

other paintings shown in the room with it as well as an impressionist sculpture in the center.
 The painting is clearly supposed to be a thought provoking and provocative portrayal of Nixon

after the most controversial part of his presidency during his race against McGovern in 1972. It is

intended to be ugly and comical to show Nixon in a negative light. Vote McGovern is a simple yet

powerful political statement against the crimes of the Nixon administration in '72 and was intended to

actually get voters to put in their support for McGovern instead of Nixon. The tone of the painting is

intended to make Nixon look intimidating with his facial features while simultaneously making him

look like a clown with the vibrant and unusual color pallet. This is supposed to make the viewer feel a

twofold discomfort towards Nixon as he is trying to be intense and authoritative while having a blue

face and hair in addition to yellow lips and a pink suit. All of these details show President Nixon in a

negative light which, considering the events of the times makes sense, and also does a good job of

vilifying the President for his administration's actions. It is not a celebration as none of the components

of this painting are shown in a positive light whatsoever.

On a satirical level this painting is also a masterpiece of tongue -in-cheek humor because rather

than distort Nixon's features to make him look even more ridiculous, Warhol used only color to

represent his subject in a negative light as if to say that he doesn't need to do anything else to make

Nixon look more ludicrous. This style is brilliant because it appeals to all members of society who view

it, since you can still tell it is supposed to be a joke, but is still subtle enough to make the more cultured

observer happy. In fact it is this subtlety that makes this work of art so great, the fact that Warhol didn't

need to use anything more than bright, ridiculous colors to make Nixon look silly, but that also speaks

to just how bad Nixon's reputation had become at the time. One of the most interesting things about the

piece though is its almost life like appearance, the use of the screen and cut outs by Warhol makes the

painting look as though it is going to move around, or at least shutter like a stop motion cartoon. He

achieves this effect by including lines in Nixon's suit and in the orange space around his shoulders,

giving him the impression of movement without actually showing him in a moving position. It is

because of these subtle details that viewers are drawn to this painting as soon as they see it.
 The second painting that was observed in the MOCA was also by Andy Warhol in the same era

as McGovern and that was his piece, Mao, also created in the 1970's. This piece was a personalized

print that was no bigger than 36cm x 36cm and depicted the leader of the then Communist party in

China, Mao Zedong. There were several screen print's in this line, making the official designation for

them the Mao series 90-99 all made in 1972. Like McGovern, Warhol uses a set of provocative colors

to represent his subject in a controversial and non-serious light. The light blue and yellow used for

Mao's face and coat make for a stark contrast against the bright pinkish red background and, also like

McGovern, is based off of a photograph of the subject. Like most of Warhol's works, this was achieved

by laying several different print screens over one another and painting the cut out portion to get this

startling contrast of color at each layer of the painting.

This painting, much like Warhol's other work McGovern is intended to be a political satire and

commentary on the political climate in China at the time. It was around this time that chairman Mao

was leading the purge through the Chinese bureaucracy and banishing or executing all those who didn't

agree with his policies or his totalitarian ideals. Andy Warhol once again achieves a fearless parody of a

powerful world leader in an attempt to condemn Mao Zedong in the world of art by using his regular

facial features and some extreme color choices to make the leader of China look like a clown. The fact

that he also simply uses a photo of Mao as his reference for the piece makes the satire even more rich

as he isn't using overblown features and ridiculous exaggerations like a typical caricature would. This is

once again supposed to make viewers feel negatively about the subject of the painting and holds Mao

in a negative light, using his serious look against him by making his face appear blue with bright pink

lips which make it impossible to take him seriously. It also makes the painting feel at once beautiful

and ugly at the same time, as it is easy to look at because of the color pallet, but also repulsive when

looked at more closely where more of the satire and comic nature of the piece is revealed. This work is

also very eye catching and thought provoking because of its bright colors and famous subject, and it is

this that makes the painting more powerful as it compels people to look at it.
 Ultimately what we are made to feel by looking at this painting is a sense of power over this

person who was one of the most feared and powerful men in the world in his time. It humanizes Mao

Zedong and thereby robed him of some of his frightening power and dignity, which would be even

more important during the time in which this print was made. Something that can compel someone

after the events of the Communist uprising in China to still laugh at Mao Zedong and feel at ease

opposing him would have been at ten times as effective in its time, telling people in the States and any

who could see it in China that it was possible to oppose Mao if he could be shown in such humurous

light. Where McGovern wasn't really celebrating anything, this piece does a good job of showing the

subject in a negative aspect while also celebrating liberty and freedom by making Mao look ridiculous

which would in turn make his ideals and principals look ridiculous as well.