Shamash meets Andy Warhol - Dollar Sign (1981)
Description
This painting is entitled Dollar Sign (1981) which was painted by Andy Warhol in 1981. This painting is one of Andy Warhol's masterpieces in the field of pop art, this painting is one of Warhol's important works that focuses on consumerism. It is generally known that the culture of consumerism is closely related to money and the dollar is the center of all this consumerist culture.
The dollar currency has become a symbol of the sovereignty of the United States and also the prosperity of the United States as a world economic giant. Ironically Warhol painted the dollar bill, when the United States economy was hit by a recession. At that time the world economy was in recession in the early 1980s, due to the political turmoil in the Middle East caused by the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War.
Philosophically in this painting, it seems as if Warhol reminds us too, that money is what actually moves many things in the world. What kind of social change would not then have an impact on the economy? Even changes in the fields of technology and science and culture always have an impact on the economy. Even disasters always have an impact on the economy as well. Andy Warhol highlighted the trend of consumerism with his famous paintings Campbell's Soup Can (1962) and also Green Coca Cola Bottles (1962), where many manufactured products from the United States were originally only commonplace in American society and then spread throughout the world. The culture of consumerism is created by spreading the products made in the United States to various parts of the world, so that many United States products that were originally only national products turned into global brands. Even drinking coca cola is considered a modern thing, because coca cola has become a global brand. Of course, what can move all of this is the dollar and the dollar is also the motive for multinational companies that popularize the culture of consumerism.