Warhol felt art should be accessible to all, and although most
people believe his quote refers to fame being fleeting, he was also referring
to changes occurring so rapidly in the art scene.
Warhol was born on August 6th,1928 to Andrej and Julia Warhola,
Czechoslovakian immigrants who had settled in Pittsburgh, Pa. Raised a devout
Byzantine Catholic, Warhol continued to attend mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in
New York City throughout his life.
Warhol’s father, a coal miner, died before he began attending
high school, and although the family lived modestly, Warhol had begun attending
free art classes at the Carnegie Institute as well as taking and developing his
own photographs. Warhol went on to attend Carnegie Institute of Technology
(Carnegie Mellon University) earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in
pictorial design.
After graduation in 1949, Warhol moved to Manhattan to find work
as an illustrator. His first published work was in Glamour magazine in
September 1949. Soon his unique style of drawing was winning numerous awards,
and he began exhibiting his work at Serendipity 3, an ice cream parlor on the
Upper East Side where he often entertained his friends and who helped him
create a series of self-published artists’ books.
In the 1960’s Warhol began immersing himself in painting, and
began his foray into Pop Art. The Pop Art movement began in the 1950’s in
London in referencing the works of a small group of artists such as Richard
Hamilton. Hamilton defined Pop as “Popular (designed for a mass audience);
Transient (short term solution); Expendable (easily forgotten); Low Cost; Mass
Produced; Young (aimed at Youth); Witty; Sexy; Gimmicky; Glamorous; and Big
Business.” Hamilton set out to explore the hidden connotations of imagery taken
directly from advertising and popular culture. Warhol first began painting
using comic strip characters as his theme, but soon developed his “pop art” by
debuting one of his most iconic paintings, The Campbell Soup Can series. After
this came his famous celebrity portraits such as Marilyn Monroe and with it
Warhol’s own celebrity status. In 1963, he created a studio known as “The
Factory” where he was the lead artist to a battallion of factory art-workers
churning out works often using screen-printing techniques. He premiered his
first sculpture series which included hundreds of replicas of large supermarket
boxes in a silver painted “Factory.” The Factory became more than just a studio,
visited by artists, rock starts, actors and students, the space was transformed
into a living fantasy world. A place for the “in crowd” to gather, becoming one
of Manhattan’s premier cultural hotspots.
Marilyn Manroe
Campbells Soup Cans
Warhol experimented with numerous mediums in nearly every
artistic field. His early love of photography continued, shown with his
numerous self-portraits, and he also began to explore cinematography. He
produced numerous movies, over 60 in total, his most famous film Sleep depicted the poet John Giorno
sleeping for six hours. Although panned by most critics, Warhol continued to
develop this medium by hosting two TV shows into the 1980s. His first mass
produced book, Andy Warhol’s Index, was
published in 1967; and a mere 2 years later he founded the magazine Interview dedicated to promoting popular culture. Warhol also
had a close collaboration with the
musical group, The Velvet Underground staging multimedia events on both sides
of the US.
Self Portrait, 1978
Self Portraits, 1963-64
Throughout the 1970’s Warhol was commissioned by hundreds of
wealthy socialites and film stars as his celebrity status began to exceed his
subjects. He himself had become a “pop star.” His frequent sightings at famous
night clubs such as Studio 54 as well as frequent socializing with his famous
cohorts Truman Capote, Liza Minnelli, and
Jackie Onassis perpetuated Warhol’s iconic status.
Warhol was a prolific artist, experimenting with numerous mediums
throughout his career. In the 1980’s his collaboration with a few young artists
including Jean-Michel Basquiat had him return to painting with a brush. He
continued to produce avant-garde work up until his untimely death stemming from
complications from gall bladder surgery at age 58. His two final exhibitions,
the Last Supper paintings shown in Milan and his Sewn Photos shown in New York
opened one month prior to his death in 1987.
Andy Warhol died a multi-millionaire, his estate being worth a
reported $220,000,000.
Both he and his art have been criticized as a testament to
America’s materialism, but no one can deny his unique genius. His goal was to
make art accessible to the masses; to counter the viewpoint that elite viewers
insisted on imposing one singular art form. In the end, he gained wide
acceptance from both spectrums of the public, and his work can be seen in
collections next to traditional masterpieces. Over 8000 works can be viewed at
the Andy Warhol Museum at Carnegie Mellon where this art collection includes
media-paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographs, and prints.
But perhaps Warhol himself can best sum up his philosophy in
these words:
“What’s great about this country is that America started the
tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the
poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know the
President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink
Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke
than the one the bum in the street is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and
all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, The President knows it, the bum
knows it, and you know it.”
Sources:
- The Warhol. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. <http://www.warhol.org>.
- MoMA, art terms, Pop art <http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10170>
- Tretiack, Philippe. Andy Warhol. New York, NY: n.p., 1997. Print.
- Warhol, Andy. Andy Warhol. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications,
2008. Print.
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