Cars on the Street n.d.

Andy Warhol made this gelatin silver print, “Cars on the Street”, in the latter part of his career, likely in the 1970s or 80s. It shows a nondescript streetscape with parked cars outside a row of businesses. Warhol’s roots were in commercial illustration, and even as a fine artist, he retained a fascination with the mundane visual culture of consumer capitalism. In its matter-of-factness, this photograph treats the automobile not as a precious commodity, but as an everyday feature of the built environment. Warhol's art questioned the distinction between high and low culture, and even between art and non-art. It refuses any sense of the artist's special vision. To understand such a work better, we might explore the social and institutional history of American photography, the rise of Pop Art, and the cult of celebrity around Warhol himself. By studying these contexts, we can appreciate how Warhol challenged conventional ideas about artistic value.