Inspired by Warhol

Andy Warhol is one of the greatest artists to come out of the twentieth century, and it is impossible to escape his monumental influence. The reigning king of Pop Art, Warhol's thousands of silkscreen prints served to criticize American consumer society and the standardization of products.

Warhol famously claimed that “in the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes," successfully predicting the merging of media, art and business which we see today. His fascination with mass media and American advertising made him into a gifted visionary, allowing him to cross the frontiers of art and industry. And yet, who is the man behind these influential and thought-provoking works?

Andy Warhol, whose real name was Andrew Warhola, was born in Pittsburgh in 1928. He was the fourth child of working-class Lemko immigrants from present-day Slovakia. His parents were victims of the Great Depression and experienced great poverty. His father was a coal miner and his mother a seamstress, who never learnt English.

Warhol contracted Sydenham's chorea (also known as St. Vitus' Dance) at the age of 7. He remained bedridden for months, and it was at this time that his mother introduced him to drawing. This quickly became the young Warhol's passion. As he drew, he also listened to the radio and collected pictures of movie stars.

Warhol later described this period as being very important in the development of his personality and artistic technique. In 1942, Warhol's world was turned upside down when his father died due to liver complications. Warhol graduated high school in 1944, and studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh until 1949. He then moved to New York to pursue a Fine Arts degree.

Warhol soon started his career in commercial art, and was quickly commissioned by renowned international magazines such as Glamour, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. From this moment onwards he dropped the “a" from his last name and began calling himself Andy Warhol, dreaming of becoming a fully-fledged artist who would revolutionize the art world.

Behind the scenes, Warhol was surrounded by Hollywood's most exclusive crowd, which included Marilyn Monroe. The patron of Serendipity 3 also allowed him to display his first drawings in his bar.

In 1952, Warhol had his first official exhibition at the Hugo Gallery. From 1953 to 1955, Warhol created costumes for a theatre troupe, which also marked the period when he first adopted his famous silver wig.

As his signature style developed his notoriety grew, opening up the Pop Art movement to the rest of the world with fellow artist, Roy Lichtenstein. In the early 1960s he produced the Campbell's Soup Cans series, the Marilyn Monroe portraits and “The Eight Elvises" screen print. In 1964 he founded “The Factory," the studio where he created films and met with artists, writers, musicians and celebrities.

In 1968, he had a close encounter with death when radical feminist writer, Valerie Solanas, attempted to kill him. This would go on to influence his future work. In 1975 he founded “Interview Magazine" and published “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol", which was a collection of his ideas and findings. The Pop Art artist devoted the final years of his life to helping young artists obtain recognition for their work, which included the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Karing. Andy Warhol died in 1987 at the age of 58.

A controversial genius and keen observer of consumer society, Andy Warhol continues to inspire contemporary artists today. Discover artists such as Cartrain and Dominique Mulhem, who were influenced by the master of Pop Art.

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