Research on artists who work with repetition

Warhol, Andy biography at :

ASX, (2015) Prince of boredom in: ASX (17/12/2015) at:

Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director and producer who started his career as a  successful magazine illustrator from the 60′ that is known by the iconic Campbell’s soup advertisement which was an allegory for consumerism ( mass production, big business and etc). After that he start doing the same type of images with other mass production products such as coca-cola and then celebrities. His method was to silkscreen images and produce it over and over again showing that even in repetition an image is never exactly the same, and there is no such thing as perfection .Andy Warhol strongly believe that artists should be able to change their styles and I think his repetition was also a way to say that. In many ways his repeated image show the fluidity of life in terms of same things happen daily in our lives but it is never exactly the same way. Repetition is not precise at all. We have routine demands such as eat, sex and sleep but it doesn’t mean it will be precisely the same although it is repeated over and over again.

Audrey V, Silka P and Angie Nordic, (2016)  ‘Repetition in art’ in: Widewalls 24.08.16 at:


TATE (2012) exhibition of Yayoi Kusama at:

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who spent over 60 decades dedicated to her work. Her trademark the motif  polka dots which she has uses in drawings, paintings, installations, sculputures and video art. She made to New York when she was in her 20′ when New York artworld was dominated by male in 1950′. Kusama always know what she wanted to do in art and how she wanted to achieve it. Although she has always suffered from mental illness, her obssession with dots as a motif and for painting constantly without much rest; was used in a very productive way. Her repetition using the same motif over and over shows no barrier between, where they could be placed,no matter the subject, place or size. She just kept doing and still does even now in her 90s’. She channeled her trauma in a creative way. In her installation “aggregation” where furniture and a boat is covered by penises, it was her own way that repetition took place to release trauma, the uncomfortable feelings related to sex and the man’s genital. In my opinion, Yayoi uses repetition as an intrinsic way of let go everything unwanted inside her.

Allan McCollum (2016)[user generated content online] Creat.National gallery of Art, 30/06/2106 at:


Allan McCollum is a contemporary American artist. He tried to show through “Plaster surrogates” , in a single object what we tend to collect. His repetition shows that all sorts of painting can be hanged in our wall but not only paintings. Items and others objects. The frames are also an illusion of frames as they were molds he casted in plaster and kept making more and more of it in differents sizes and colours for over a period of  10 years. The paragraph bellow is taken from my Assignment two in module two in Understanding Visual culture. 

The concept of  ‘Plaster Surrogates’ is not about  a piece of art but a representation of all sorts of ‘collectables’ people tend to purchase for their homes. McCollum  did not intend to represent commercial, vulgar things but in keep creating a fair amount, it created a relationship with the rise of Capitalism during  Modernism. This phenomenon   resulted in a compulsive consumption in big quantities. I also personally believe in another  meaning of ‘Plaster Surrogates” in being a framed ‘black painting’ as  an allegory of how consuming became an act of gather in quantity rather than being selective of what to pursue, being it the same or not of what we already possess.

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