Friday, August 17, 2007

Warhol & Lichtenstein - Uranian artists.

Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were two of the best known names in Pop Art, a genre which emerged in the 1960s.

Adjectives such as radical, revolutionary, eccentric abound in articles about these artists, and their styles. We might expect to see Aquarius prominent in their charts - it isn't, there's no planet in Aquarius in either natal chart. (First two pics below by Andy Warhol)








No Aquarius planets, but there are a few significant similarities.







The chart shape in both cases is a "funnel" or "bucket", with one planet out on a limb, as a "funnel" or "handle" and acting as conduit for the energies of the rest of the chart. In Warhol's case it's Saturn, in Lichtenstein's it's Uranus. Saturn and Uranus are traditional and modern rulers of Aquarius respectively. Something else, too - in each case the "funnel" planet is within 6 degrees of South node of the Moon - one of the sensitive points in any chart. Odd!

Both charts have Grand Trines involving Uranus. Sun/Saturn/Uranus in Fire for Warhol. Pluto/Uranus/Venus in Water for Lichtenstein.

Uranus was in Aries when Warhol was born, it trined his Leo Sun. When Lichtenstein was born Uranus lay in Pisces and it trined(just) his Scorpio Sun.

These Uranus related coincidences must surely be more than mere chance?

There may be other similarities too, if we had birth time for Lichtenstein.

EXTRACT

"Warhol revolutionized the Pop Art Movement by transforming average, everyday items such as soup cans into celebrated works of art....... His eccentric persona attracted many celebrity writers, actors and artists, and his popularity rose to cult status.

Roy Lichtenstein tried many artistic styles including abstract expressionism, the dominant art movement of the 1950s, before experimenting with budding pop art imagery, his interest in the style of cartoons motivated him to create his signature technique, which incorporates Ben-Day dots, lettering and speech balloons juxtaposed with vibrant primary colors. Lichtenstein worked exhaustively finessing his signature style through painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Many commonalities exist between Warhol and Lichtenstein. They both explored similar themes in their work including comics, advertisements, politics, portraits and nature. In particular, both Warhol and Lichtenstein used the process of printmaking, which mimicked the commercial sources of their imagery and allowed the artists to easily create multiple pieces."


I've also read that Lichtenstein and Warhol collected each other's work.

3 comments:

Michelle said...

I got one for you to chew on. A chart I did recently which had sun, moon, mercury and venus in Pisces forming a funnel to Uranus in Libra.

I hadn't actually thought of the funnel idea until now. Was looking mostly at that enormous bunch of Piscean influence and thinking "eek!"

You write great thought-provoking articles, Twilight. I love the way you whack my stodgy old Virgo-Mercury brain sideways. ;-)

Twilight said...

I'm never sure how much weight to give to chart shapes (Bundle, Bowl, Funnel, Splash etc.) In this case it seemed such an obvious similarity that I couldn't ignore it.

In the case you mention, it would depend if all other planets were in one half of the chart and Uranus was the only one in the remaining semicircle. If so, Uranus would be acting as the funnel (as in one of the examples above) and the person would probably come over as a rather unusual personality in some way, inventive, or rebellious, or always wanting to be different from the crowd.

I often envy those with Bundle or Bowl shaped charts - they are so focussed and often very successful.
My own "Splash" chart fits me well - scattered energies, lots of interests, jack of all trades etc!

Virgo-Mercury is not as stodgy as my Capricorn-Mercury, Michelle, Mercury is Virgo's ruler, it's at home there - that's partly why you're such a naturally good writer.

Thanks for your kind comment!

Michelle said...

Capricorn in Mercury? Ok, you do beat me in the stodge department.

just joking! :-D

Yeah, I'm pretty scattered myself. I don't think I have more than two planets in one sign. (Leo sun and Venus)

Thanks for the compliment on my writing - Virgo has its uses? ;-)