Andy Warhol
(August 6, 1928 - February 22, 1987) |
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bright colored prints, pop culture icons Art Work
| Name: |
Andy Warhol |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Nationality: |
American |
| Birth: |
August 6, 1928 |
| Death: |
February 22, 1987 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
bright colored prints, pop culture icons |
| Medium: |
painting, silkscreen, ink blot, film |
| Method: |
painting, silkscreen, ink blot, film |
| Style: |
Pop Art |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
Printmaking
Filmmaker |
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Biography
Andy Warhol, possibly the most well-recognized modern artist in pop culture today, was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, PA to working-class immigrant parents from Slovakia. The young Warhol was often bedridden and outcast from his peers due to a nervous system complication causing involuntary muscle movements, which resulted from a childhood bout of scarlet fever. Consequently, Warhol enjoyed drawing and listening to the radio as a child.
Warhol was educated in commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and worked in advertising quite successfully for most of his life. In the 1950s, Warhol began attracting some critical attention after showing some ink drawings of shoe advertisements in the Bodley Gallery. In 1962, the artist held his first one-man exhibition as a fine artist. The 1960s were characterized by the artist's many silkscreen prints of pop culture icons, including the Campbell soup can, Coca-cola bottles, and celebrities such as Marylin Monroe and Elvis. Warhol's art was popular at the same as it was highly controversial, especially in the art world where his critics accused him of selling out to capitalism.
At the same time as he was venturing into fine art, Warhol continued working as a commercial artist. As his reputation grew, Warhol began using more and more assistants to increase his production volume. In his studio--dubbed "the Factory"--Warhol also produced numerous sculptures as well as over 60 films during his career.
In 1968, Warhol was shot in the chest by Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist who was disgruntled after the artist had misplaced her script and could not return it to her. Warhol barely survived the attack and suffered health complications the rest of his life.
The decade of the 1970s, Warhol was primarily engaged in producing large-scale portraits of famous celebrities, including Mick Jagger, Micheal Jackson, and even Mao Zedong in 1973. Many criticized these portaits as shallow, purely business transactions rather than art. Others, however, claimed that Warhol's works presented an unflinching mirror of the superficiality and commerciality of contemporary society.
Warhol died in 1987 of post-surgery cardia arrythmia. His will used the immense wealth the artist had acquired during his lifetime to establish the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which remains one of the biggest grant-awarding organizations for the arts in the US. |
Samples of Work
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