Andy Warhol was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today, Pittsburgh includes lots of the works and influences of Warhol. In the city is a museum dedicated to Warhol; it is the largest collections of his works. He was a famous artist known for his work in the 1960s pop art movement.

One of Warhol’s most famous piece is the Marilyn Diptych. It is a silkscreened photograph of Marilyn Monroe fifty times. The diptych is more than nine feet tall, announcing the importance of the subject. Repetition is the main composition technique incorporated into the piece. The repetition alludes to the consumerism of the 1950s. The use of silkscreen as the medium plays into the idea of consumerism as well. Warhol could have easily made depilates of it because of the machinery used to produce it. The image of Marilyn used for this piece was one already taken and was made for mass production. Marilyn’s identity is “flattened” in this piece in many ways. The silkscreen flattens her face, giving it no texture or form. Because it is the same picture reprinted over and over, the viewer only sees this one side of Marilyn and only this expression, making her appear to be emotionless.

When I visited the Andy Warhol Museum this past summer, I saw a piece that was so unlike Warhol’s usual style. Its uniqueness to the collection and a rope to prevent viewers from getting too close to the piece drew me over to it. Confused by what I was looking at, I read the plaque that was next to it. The piece is called Oxidation Paintings and people in the art world consider it to be part of Andy Warhol’s piss painting series. They were created by Warhol urinating on a canvas with metallic paint. Oxidation, a chemical reaction, created the different concentrations color spots. This piece mimics Jackson Pollock’s style of drip paintings. Changes in fluid and food intake effected the oxidation of the many pieces Warhol created.