Rock It

Humorous and slightly macabre, Josh M. G. Yates’ Rock It is an Andy Warhol-inspired Pop Art painting with a bite. The first art historical reference that comes to mind is, of course, Andy Warhol's Skulls series of the 1970s. Yates, however, maintains some stylistic variations that firmly set him apart from his infamous Pop Art predecessor. Yates takes a more figurative approach than Warhol's (who is already quite figurative) and more accurately depicts every fissure and crevice of the skull’s anatomy. Most importantly, however, Yates removes all other visual stimuli besides the barren head from the composition. While Warhol blurs the edges of his skulls by overlaying silkscreen prints on top of each other and sets them against an, at minimum, two-tone background, Yates liberates the skull from any distractions so that the viewer will devote all their attention to it.