Warhol and Postmodernism

The two art works chosen to be compared are very unlike each other. Not only were they done in different times by different people, but they also are in different forms (the Van Gough—a painting, and the Warhol—a photograph developed with a special technique). However, the works have a similar subject and they both represent a larger theme of the times in which they were made.
Warhol's does indeed pose an interesting question for me. It makes me think about some of the larger things that were going on at the time of Warhol's life like the materialist movement, and the push to consume and conform. Considering both Warhol and Van Gough's pieces, postmodernism would seem to be a progressive movement. Van Gough's painting explores a very simple image, and it gives little insight into larger issues of the time. Warhol is portraying shoes in a whole different light, giving meaning the the subject as a signifier for larger ideas of the late twentieth century.