Post-Presentation Post: Lingering Thoughts About Warhol's Imprints of Self (and Artist)

I would like to respond to the question posed about the notion of the imprint of the self versus the imprint of the artist. How are these two different? Where do they converge? How does this change the imprint? I suppose ultimately it would be impossible to completely separate the imprint of the artist from the imprint of the self. Warhol was the artist who was creating the work of art. Can we ever separate Warhol the artist from Warhol the person? Certainly not completely. However, could we locate imprints of Warhol as the artist and imprints of Warhol's self? I think we could try.

I would like to suggest that if we attempt to locate the artist imprint, we could use Derrida's notions of the Signature and Citation. Perhaps the artist's imprint can be located in the cutting of the composition and the addition of pop symbols into the Last Supper image. The way that he arranges the pop symbols may be somewhat more complicated. The pop symbols themselves may belong to the imprint of the artist. However, the way they are arranged (perhaps enhancing the spiritual meaning: dove for the holy spirit, the price tag in reference to Judas taking money to betray Jesus, the GE symbol for light, etc) could be a part of both Warhol's self (his religious beliefs) and Warhol the artist (the aesthetics).

The addition of the feet may also be a combination of imprints of Warhol's self and Warhol as the artist. The feet refer to his foot fetish and they refer to being at the feet of Jesus. Warhol used various images of the Last Supper - not Leonardo's image (it was being restored at the time). These images have feet, so perhaps it was not practical to exclude feet from his Last Supper series. I think both Warhol's imprint of self and his artistic imprint can be found in the Last Supper series. This further complicates the notion of the imprint of self, as it becomes something layered that cannot be completely separated. This is my attempt at explaining what I think the imprint of Warhol's self and his artistic imprint are and where they could possibly be located.

We have discussed the idea that the imprint is a rupture that is fleeting and located at a particular time. While this is mostly true, as Warhol made his imprints at a particular time. However, are we not left with a lasting image of that rupture in the future as we view the art? Does not the discernment of Warhol's imprint (the discovery of the signature) occur also in the future? How might this also change our idea of the imprint? Is the imprint what is brief while the signature is lasting? These are just some questions that I came up with in attempting to answer the previous questions.