The Divine Simulacrum Of Andy Warhol:Baudrillard's Light On The Pope Of Pop's"Religious Art"

a review of

The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, Jane Daggett Dillenberger. (New York: Continuum,1998); 128 pages, $39.95.

By Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter 

From explicitly religious art to art that ‘is, but isn’t’ “religious,” from that which lies beyond art, such as objects of veneration, to a postmodern iconography of simulacra,Andy Warhol contributes significantly to the negotiation of twentieth, and now twenty-first,century culture in America and beyond. His influence on contemporary art, religion and culture is recognized and will continue to increase as thinkers pursue questions about image and reality, representation, originality, visual culture, identity, and sexuality, not to mention technology, spirituality, business, and God. Of Warhol’s multiple contributions, several stand out in particular. Warhol’s explicitly religious art, especially brought to light in Jane Daggett Dillenberger’s recent publication,

The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, reveals a transformation of traditional religious images and themes into lively twentieth century religious art. But beyond his explicitly religious works as highlighted by Daggett Dillenberger’s book, one can see that Warhol’s entire oeuvre has “religious” qualities,producing an art that ‘is, but isn’t,’ religious. Further, Warhol is significant for his part in what Jean Baudrillard calls the ‘disappearance of art,’ a kind of transfiguration of art into objects of veneration. Finally, in line with Baudrillard’s thought regarding the ‘successive phases of the image’ and the ‘disappearance of God’ into simulacra, Warhol produces images like that of Marilyn Monroe that no longer represent reality but offer a simulacra, never-ending play of signs among signs stretching to infinity.

The Religious Art of Andy Warhol

As early as 1964, Warhol received the tag of “Saint Andy.”[1] This title, however, referred more to his immense popularity among the young Pop and independent film crowd, and to the authentically innocent facade of Warhol’s physical appearance than to religious devotion. Not until his death did news of Warhol’s relationship to the spiritual come to serious attention by the public. John Richardson’s eulogy of Warhol at his memorial mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the spring of 1987 asked his audience to “recall a side of [Warhol’s] character that he hid from all but his closest friends: his spiritual side,”

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Jessica Beck

Jessica Beck

Jessica Beck is the Milton Fine Curator of Art at The Andy Warhol Museum. Beck has curated many projects, including "Andy Warhol: My Perfect Body" and "Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby," the artist’s first solo-exhibition, which debuted at The Warhol in the fall of 2018 to great acclaim from The New York Times and The Burlington Contemporary. Beck has published with The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Cantor Center for the Arts, Gagosian Quarterly, and Burlington Magazine. Outside of The Warhol, Beck served as the visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon School of Art from 2017-2018. She completed her MA with distinction from the Courtauld Institute of Art.