Andy Warhol (1928–1987) born Andrew Warhola was an American artist who was a leading figure in the pop art movement. His work explores the relationship between celebrity, media, and mass production. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, he became a renowned artist and his studio—The Factory— became the meeting place of distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, bohemians, celebrities, and wealthy patrons. In addition to having a prolific art practice, he founded Interview magazine and authored many books. Most notable, he lived as an openly gay man before the gay liberation movement.
Warhol was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to working class parents. In third grad he contracted Sydenhams Chorea, a nervous system disease that causes involuntary movements of the extremities. This caused Warhol to spend much of his childhood bedridden and began his lifelong fear of doctors that would ultimately lead to his death.
Warhol gained fame from his art in the 1950s for his ink drawings of shoe advertisements. He was an early adopter of the silk screen print making process, and his work heavily focused on the toleration of imperfections. In 1962 his show at the Ferus Gallery was his first West Coast show and the debut of Pop Art. Pop Art employs objects of mass culture to emphasize the banal or kitschy and meaningless elements of culture. In this time Warhol founded his studio “The Factory”: a hip hangout for artists, drug users, and celebrities throughout the 60’s.
Warhol died in NYC in 1987 due to complications in recovering from gallbladder surgery.
Big Electric Chair, 1967 / Mao, 1973 / Ten-Foot Flowers,1967
