The following article was given to me by Janelle Sullivan. Please read her Bio at the end of the article!
Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola, was an acclaimed visual artist who became famous for his incorporation of popular culture icons, commercial materials, and contemporary themes into his artwork. His works included not only pop art paintings, but also movies, books, and commercial illustrations. He made many contributions to the world of modern art, while working in his studio, known as The Factory. Warhol was also the subject of controversy, because his artwork often depicted drug use, graphic sexual scenes, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. In the 1960s, after he was shot by a radical feminist named Valerie Solanas in a failed murder attempt, he concentrated on commercial ventures, including portraits of the rich and famous. He died in his sleep in 1987 of cardiac arrhythmia, and was buried in his birthplace of Pittsburgh at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery.
Andy Warhol was born on the August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, PA, and was the fourth child of immigrants Andrej and Julia Warhola. His early years were marked by sickness and fear of sickness, possibly due to his bout with a neurological disorder known as Sydenham's chorea. After he graduated from high school in 1945, he went on to study commercial art the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 1949. His artwork first made appearances in New York in the 1950s, and his first major job was designing album covers for RCA Records.
During the 1950s, he also pioneered the silkscreen process and, in the 1960s, he ventured into the pop art movement and started making paintings of Coca Cola bottles, nuclear explosion mushroom clouds, and numerous celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, and Muhammad Ali. His paintings of Campbell's Soup cans and Coca Cola bottles became especially famous and controversial, as it led to critics accusing him of glorifying consumerism.
His famous commercial works include the cover art for both Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album and Velvet Underground's first album. Aside from his paintings Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962) and Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), some of his most famous works include:
- Marilyn Diptych (1962)
- Turquoise Marilyn (1962)
- Double Elvis (1963)
- Liz Taylor (1964)
- Cow (1966)
- Mao (1972)
- Mick Jagger (1975)
- Michael Jackson (1984)
During his life, he also produced and directed a number of films. The first of these movies was Sleep, a five-hour film which he produced in 1963. Another movie, Kiss, was nearly an hour-long and featured a variety of couples, each kissing for three and a half minutes. In 1964, he received permission from DC Comics to produce a short film known as Batman Dracula. In 1966, he directed The Chelsea Girls, a movie about the women who lived at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City. This movie was his first commercial success. In all, Warhol directed or produced over 60 movies, plus hundreds of short scenes. He filmed many of these at The Factory and is famously quoted as saying "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes", which gave rise to the popular term "Fifteen minutes of fame."
The Factory is the name of a consecutive series of locations where Andy Warhol established his studios in New York City. It was there that he honed his ability to mass-produce paintings, and where he produced many of his movies. A group of artists, who came to work there, became known as the Warhol Superstars. These included painters, cross dressers, music artists, pornographic film performers, and even drug users. Members of the Warhol Superstars featured prominently in his movies. Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, and Salvador Dali were among the many celebrities who visited or met at The Factory. The studio became known for mock cross-dresser weddings, lewd sex acts performed on-site, and homosexuality. Theaters that featured films from The Factory were targeted in police raids which resulted in arrests for violating obscenity laws.
Andy Warhol was a pioneer in the world of modern art. His works have helped to immortalize major aspects of popular culture, as well as advance the cause of tolerance and cultural open-mindedness. At the same time he was also a commercial success, pioneering the technique of mass producing unique art on one hand and making highly profitable portraits of famous people on the other hand. His works are as controversial now as they were in the past, with many artists still debating whether his art glorified or satirized the world of consumerism.
Warhol was also involved in charity. In 1982, he co-founded the New York Academy of Art, a non-profit private art school dedicated to figurative arts. He was also a devout Catholic, a part of his life he kept largely away from the public eye, and helped to finance his nephew's desire to join the priesthood. He routinely volunteered to help the homeless by serving meals at a shelter/food kitchen.
More About Andy Warhol & The Pop Art Movement.
Janelle Sullivan is an arts advisor, blogger and writer for the content development team at QuikshipToner.com. Janelle’s interest in visual arts became apparent at an early age. Born and raised in the heart of the Midwest, Janelle called Omaha, Nebraska her home through to the end of her high school years. After graduating and on the eve of the new millennium, she traveled to San Francisco, California to pursue an education, life and career in what she loved most: art.Janelle spent the next five years gaining an education and hands-on experience in various art disciplines. Eventually, she even opened her own art gallery in a small city storefront while renting the studio apartment above. After parting ways with her gallery, she moved to the Los Angeles area for a business opportunity and spent her free time writing for a local art publication.Today Janelle resides in San Diego where she spends her free time in her private art studio. Here, she works on her personal hobbies which include painting, sketching, typography and photography.
