Andy Warhol
Born: 1928, McKeesport, Pennsylvania
Died: 1987, New York City
Andy Warhol dreamed of becoming rich and famous throughout his modest childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1928. Widely considered the founder of the Pop Art movement in America, Warhol began his successful career as a commercial illustrator in New York City in 1949. Store window displays, shoe design, and advertising and illustration work for magazines such as Vogue and The New Yorker quickly cemented Warhol’s in-demand professional status.
A radical departure from the intuitive and subjective motives of the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950’s, Pop Art’s focus shifted outward toward the external influences that defined American society. The inherent artistic qualities of everyday things were championed in this attempt to remove the distance between fine and commercial art. Repetitive images appropriated from popular culture became the basis for much of Warhol’s work in the 1960’s. These included Campbell’s soup cans, Brillo pads, Coke bottles, dollar bills and celebrities. Mass-produced pieces, often silkscreened, were executed by his assistants at The Factory, founded in 1962 in Chelsea. Warhol’s primary studio and its entourage also became known for its experimental films and musical endeavors.
Warhol originally marketed his quick and cheap artwork to the public. By the 1970’s he turned his attention to creating commissioned portraits of rich and famous celebrities and politicians. Throughout his career he was known for his obsessive work ethic and prolific art output. Warhol’s straightforward and simple images remain enduring symbols of Pop Art and its mass-produced culture and commercialism. He died from complications of gallbladder surgery in New York in 1987.
Died: 1987, New York City
Andy Warhol dreamed of becoming rich and famous throughout his modest childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1928. Widely considered the founder of the Pop Art movement in America, Warhol began his successful career as a commercial illustrator in New York City in 1949. Store window displays, shoe design, and advertising and illustration work for magazines such as Vogue and The New Yorker quickly cemented Warhol’s in-demand professional status.
A radical departure from the intuitive and subjective motives of the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950’s, Pop Art’s focus shifted outward toward the external influences that defined American society. The inherent artistic qualities of everyday things were championed in this attempt to remove the distance between fine and commercial art. Repetitive images appropriated from popular culture became the basis for much of Warhol’s work in the 1960’s. These included Campbell’s soup cans, Brillo pads, Coke bottles, dollar bills and celebrities. Mass-produced pieces, often silkscreened, were executed by his assistants at The Factory, founded in 1962 in Chelsea. Warhol’s primary studio and its entourage also became known for its experimental films and musical endeavors.
Warhol originally marketed his quick and cheap artwork to the public. By the 1970’s he turned his attention to creating commissioned portraits of rich and famous celebrities and politicians. Throughout his career he was known for his obsessive work ethic and prolific art output. Warhol’s straightforward and simple images remain enduring symbols of Pop Art and its mass-produced culture and commercialism. He died from complications of gallbladder surgery in New York in 1987.
(American, 1928 – 1987)
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