Feb 16, 2012
— read in fullFamous artists: Andy Warhol
Who was he?
Andy Warhola was born in Pittsburgh in the USA in 1928. After studying Commercial Art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Warhola moved to New York in 1949, where he worked as an illustrator for magazines and advertising agencies. He also changed his name to Andy Warhol, and began exhibiting his own art in New York and across the USA.
In the 1960s Warhol established a studio called The Factory in New York, where he produced his famous paintings and silkscreen prints of Campbell’s soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles and famous celebrities like Marilyn Monroe. The Factory became a focal point for the pop art scene, with visual artists and film-makers hanging out with musicians like The Velvet Underground.
However, it was at The Factory that Warhol was shot in 1968 by Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist who had been trying to persuade Warhol to produce her films. Although Warhol survived the shooting, he had to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life, and spent his remaining career painting celebrities like Mick Jagger. Andy Warhol died in 1987, with over 2,000 people attending a memorial service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
Why is he famous?
Warhol was a pioneer of ‘pop art’, one of the most important artistic movements of the 20th century. Pop art says that anything can be art, which is why Warhol looked to things like consumer products, comic books and cinema for inspiration more than traditional artists. Warhol also believed that art could be mass-produced just like the soup cans he painted, and The Factory became a production line for his silkscreen prints, making hundreds of different copies of the same painting.
He also became obsessed with celebrities, and – although many older artists thought of cinema and TV as ‘lower’ forms of art – Warhol regarded them as a new religion, not only making his own experimental short films like Empire and Sleep but immortalising stars like Marilyn Monroe in paintings. Indeed, with his distinctive blonde wig and sunglasses, Andy Warhol became as famous as many of the stars he painted and partied with.
Famous quotes
‘In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes’
‘Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.’
‘I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.’
Related links
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Read about other famous artists
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