Andy Warhol Biography: The Most Popular Character in The Pop Art Movement

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was an artist who was famous for his works in pop art. He was best known for paintings of Campbell's Soup cans, and has also used various methods in creating artwork. His works focus on the expression of people, and also focus on films and advertisements. A lot of his work is in a museum in Pittsburgh that is dedicated to him.

Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburg to a Czechoslovakian family on August 6, 1928. He really liked art even when he was little. According to the Andy Warhol biography, he “contracted Chorea, [which] is a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system that left him bedridden for several months.” His mother gave him drawing lessons, and that later became how Warhol passed his time. He also liked movies, so his mother also gave him a camera when he was 9 years old. This caused him to be interested in photography as well, and he would create films in the basement.

When Warhol went to high school, he took classes at the Carnegie Museum. Warhol had a tough time in his teenage years as well because his father died when he was 13. Warhol was upset since he couldn't go to his father's funeral. After the death of his father, Warhol inherited his father's money so he could go to college. Warhol attended Schenley High School, and graduated from there in 1945. He later enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and got his Bachelor's Degree in Pictoral Design.

After he graduated with his Bachelor's, he went to New York City to work as a commercial artist. He started to paint a lot during the 1950s, and uses the Blotted-Line technique he discovered in college in some of his commercials. His work surprised a lot of people, and they started to imitate his style. The 1950s advertising period helped lead him to his artwork in the 1960s.

In the early 1960s, he helped publicized pop art. He made paintings of Campbell's soup cans, and that helped pop art and himself to become famous. He also painted other products such as Coca-Cola bottles, and hamburgers. He even painted celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe in garish colors through a process known as silk screening. He also made a lot of films around this time period as well such as Sleep and Empire. Both of these are very long films that just depict one thing going on.

After Warhol went into commercial art, he wanted to go into business art. According to an magazine article “Andy Warhol: New York and Chicago,” his “art of the first half of the 60s continued to be wildly lauded, and the work that resulted when he resumed painting in the 70s after after a virtual break of some five to six years, seems like a confirmation that he had indeed sold out.” The 70s was a period where Andy Warhol used different artistic mediums, and where he wrote books. He published a magazine that was titled Interview, and his books talked about pop art and himself.

Andy Warhol went to Milan to attend an exhibition of The Last Supper paintings in 1987. His right side started to hurt tremendously, and he was scared to go to the hospital initially. He went to the hospital after people told him to do so. The doctors found out that he had problems with his gall bladder, and they were trying to treat him. He didn't fully recover, and on February 22, 1987, Andy Warhol died. After he died, the Andy Warhol Museum was created. According to an article titled “Andy Warhol Museum: Pittsburgh,” a “major effort was needed to make up for the lost time” after Warhol's death. It was finally opened on May 13, 1994, and became the largest art museum dedicated to one person in the US.

Overall, Andy Warhol was a creative artist as he used various ways to create his work. He had a really hard life due to struggles, but he overcame it by earning his way into the art world. He became famous for his paintings of Campbell's soup cans along with paintings of other famous people such as Marylin Monroe. His life ended when he had issues with his gall bladder, and then a museum opened to pay a tribute to his works. The museum was the largest art museum dedicated to one person in the US.