ANDY WARHOL

 

More than thirty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Warhol’s life and work inspires creative thinkers worldwide thanks to his enduring imagery, his artfully cultivated celebrity, and the ongoing research of dedicated scholars. His impact as an artist is far deeper and greater than his one prescient observation that “everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes."

 

He was born in 1928 as Andrew Warhola to working class parents from present day Slovakia.  In 1949, he moved from Pittsburgh to New York.  Initially working as a commercial illustrator, his skill at transforming the imagery of American culture soon found its realisation in his ground-breaking pop art when he exhibited paintings of Campbell’s soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, and wooden replicas of Brillo soap pad boxes.  Some of his best know works include the silkscreen paintings include Marilyn Diptych (1962), Silver Car Crash, Eight Elvisses (1963), Coca Cola (1962). 

 

Warhol famously said that "business art is the step that comes after Art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist." He became one of the world most successful artists, and made screen prints, sculptures, films, managed a band, and even designed wallpaper - projects that were often highly lucrative (and always built his brand).

 

Warhol died in 1987 at the age of 58  after a rather routine gallbladder operation.