James G: Warhol, Barthes, and that dude who talks to himself

The readings this week talk about the way audience responds and interprets art, how they should interact with art. In “Death of the Author,” Barthes suggests there should be a disconnection between the artist and the audience. He feels that artwork or literature should stand alone with no regard for who made it. He feels that if the author’s biography is taken into consideration a caricature of the author/artist casts a cloud over the work which then prevents it from being properly analyzed.

Lucas Samaras says that he wants to protect himself from other people’s imagination. Lucas Samaras seems to simultaneously want to keep himself separate from the audience and be accepted by them. Within half a page he says “most of my work was done to prove to others including myself that I was an artist” and then that he is running away from people’s evaluations. He doesn’t want the audience to interpret his work, but he makes it anyway. It is an interesting question whether or not the artist and the audience should have a relationship, or just the audience and the artwork.

There is no direct contact between the artist and the audience, the only communication is the artwork. There isn’t an ongoing dialogue between the two, the artist throws his work into the world, and then it is consumed by masses with the artist having no say over how the audience digests it. I think that aspect scares Lucas Samaras.

In contrast, Andy Warhol probably thought it is a wonderful idea that his artwork could be treated like a commodity, to be consumed and digested without his say in the matter. Andy Warhol says that his work is distant from himself, that there is only surface to the work. He doesn’t seem to want there to be an interpretation at all, just consumption.