The Disillusioning of the American Dream. Andy Warhol and Film Noir

Abstract

Prompted by an Andy Warhol exhibition held in 1980 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, this article by the historian and critic Paul Groot offers a negative critique of American society and the cultural statements that it produced. His argument is grounded on the view through the photographic and cinematic lens, and on theories of authorship as explored in the 1950s by the film journal Cahiers du cinéma. Within this critical context, Groot frames his account around American tropes such as the frontier spirit, the New Deal, and decadence. He points to the kinship between film noir and Warhol’s silk screen prints, such as Electric Chair (1965), seen by Groot as “the final weapon in the struggle of the classes used by the ruling class against the liberal social activities of the repressed.”