Andy Warhol Posters 'n' Pop

Biography

Andrew Warhola was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh. He graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949 with a painting and design major. He moved to New York later that year, where he got his first break at Glamour magazine. He was commissioned to paint shoes, and then received more work from the magazine to draw for a feature series entitled "Success." The magazine misprinted his name, dropping the "a," and it was at this time that Andrew Warhola decided to become Andy Warhol.

Warhol continued his illustrations and advertisements, and achieved immense commercial art success throughout the 1950's. In 1960, he produced the first of his paintings depicting enlarged comic strip images, including Popeye and Superman. These were initially for use in a windows display at a New York department store.

After his commercial art success, Andy became world-famous for his Pop Art. In the 1960's, he began his paintings of Coca-Cola and sculptures of Brillo Boxes. He started working on his independent films, some of which carried on the motif of repetition found in his Pop Art. His films also dealt with ideas such as boredom and time. Among some of his most famous ones are Sleep, which features eight hours of a man sleeping, and Empire, a shot of the Empire State Building from sunrise to sunset. His films later became more complex, involving scripts and soundtracks. The Chelsea Girls is a film about the life at his studio called the Factory. Towards the mid-sixties, he began working with the band The Velvet Underground.

On June 3rd, 1968, Valerie Solanis, a rejected Superstar and founder of the SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) stormed Andy's Factory and shot him in the chest. Andy narrowly escaped death and was rushed immediately to the hospital, where he spent two months in recovery. . Solanis was institutionalized in a mental hospital and later sent to prison for three years. A movie, I Shot Andy Warhol, was later made about the incident in 1996.

In 1969, Warhol founded his magazine Interview. This magazine contained Andy's photographs of personalities and club events during his notorious night-life outings. Many celebrities' faces have graced the cover of this magazine, and many had their portrait painted for the cover.

Warhol continued to paint into the 1970's, shifting his focus to celebrities' portraits. He began publishing several books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again) and POPism: The Warhol '60s. The 80's saw an expansion of his work, including his Last Supper, the Camouflage, Oxidation and Shadows series. At this time, he also began collaborations with other artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Francesco Clemente.

On February 22, 1987, at New York Hospital, Andy died during gall bladder surgery.

The Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum was found after the artist's death and is located at his birthplace in Pittsburgh. It contains over 4000 of his works in paintings drawings, film and prints.

Visit the Andy Warhol Museum