Andy Warhol and Julian Opie were both recognised pop artists that created portraits of celebrities. Although they worked during different eras they both have their similarities and differences. Francis Bacon and Vincent Van Gogh were portrait artists as well although they used different technique and had different influences.
Andy Warhol was one of the founders of the pop art movement and was mainly inspired by popular culture and celebrity status which was a revolution during the 50s. Warhol’s work was also subtly inspired by surrealism as he used outrageous colours and different scale shapes. Warhol was largely credited for his paintings of famous individuals such as Marilyn Monroe and Mick Jagger.
Julian Opie, like Warhol, was inspired by celebrities and the commercial world. Opie also liked to do portraits of people doing everyday things such as walking or playing a sport. Unlike Warhol, Opie’s work displays only basic facial expression and simple features such as reducing the detail of the eyes to just two black circles and using lines to display other facial expressions such as the mouth. Some of Opie’s work is even simpler and shows only the outline of a figure filled in with basic colours.
Francis Bacon, like Opie and Warhol, was a portrait artist however wasn’t influenced by popular culture. Bacon was influenced more by emotion and isolation which stemmed from his displacing childhood.
Bacon often painted pictures of the Pope, in this picture he has the Pope sitting in an armchair, trapped in cage. This could be influenced by his strong views on religion, representing how isolating and restricting religion can be. People screaming are a recurring theme within Bacon’s work which could link to his fascination of oral diseases, it could also be linked to the trauma he suffered when his grandmother locked him in a room causing him to scream.
Vincent Van Gogh was also a portrait artist though his influences were totally different to any of Warhol's or Opie's as his work was inspired by French artist Paul Gauguin who took part in post - impressionism. Van Gogh's art was also deeply influenced by his overwhelming illnesses, he suffered from Epilepsy and Bipolar Disorder, Bipolar Disorder having a bigger influence on his work as it causes unusually prolonged periods of depression as well as manic episodes, creativity and hallucinations, which are similar to Bacon's emotional influences.
After looking at the work of these four artists I have gained liking and inspiration from some of their work but i couldn't say for sure which one I like better, as I only like certain aspects of each artists work. With Andy Warhol I like the fact that he started a new revolution for art which later lead onto the work of Julian Opie who was brave enough to strip art to it's basics and still earn his place as an artist. As for Bacon, I like the way he was able to incorporate emotion and deep meanings into his portraits without making it too vague. The aspects of Vincent Van Gogh's work that I find most interesting is that all of his work is carefully planned out with his draw first - paint later theory that proved successful but his work as unfortunately unappreciated during his time as an artist.
