Biography of Andy Warhol

Pop art is a movement that occurred near the end of the 1950's. It was a reaction to Abstract Expressionism. Pop art emphasized contemporary social values, the sprawl of urban life, the vulgar, the superficial, and the flashy. Advertising provided a number of starting points for the subjects. A man named Andy Warhol is considered a founder and major figure in Pop Art.

Andy Warhol was born in 1928. There has, for years, been quite a bit of confusion to where and when Andy Warhol was born, but according to Andy's two older brothers and the birth certificate that was filed in Pittsburgh in 1945, he was born on August 6th in Pittsburgh. (www.warhol.dk) Warhol was a graduate of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949. After he moved to New York City and gained his success as a commercial artist. Andy got his first break in August 1949, when Glamour Magazine wanted him to illustrate a feature entitled "Success in a Job in New York." But by accident the credit read "Drawings by Andy Warhol" and that is how he dropped the "a" in his last name.

A particular favorite advertisement form that Warhol likes to use was product labels. You will see quite a few examples of this in some of his work. (Grolier 1996) Warhol did most of his well-know works in a four year span from 1960 to 1964. He started out by reproducing images such as comic strips on much larger canvases. Some examples of these would be Nancy, Dick Tracy, Superman, and Popeye. He later became much more interested in reproducing labels of products and some people. This became a standard procedure for Warhol during this period. He later began to make movies and photography. (Coplans pg 47-48)

At the beginning of his work, he started out with the making comic strip "reproductions." They really shouldn't be considered reproductions because they aren't an accurate portrayal of the product. Some of his pieces such as the thirty-two painting collection of Campbell's Soup Cans, are almost identical to the models he used. While others have a looser quality and are merely starting points on which to begin. (Coplans pg 47)

He accomplished the mass amounts of the same subject through many methods. Sometimes he would just paint each of the subjects by hand, one by one. Other times he would use stamp molds and silk-screening. The silk-screening process is very similar to that of a sophisticated stencil. There is a screen made of fine silk or similar material that is made impermeable to all places except that of the area wanted to be colored. This is done photo mechanically, a process that makes photographs into silkscreen. The silk-screening process is fairly simple. You pour ink or paint into the silk-screen, and then you run a squeegee across it so it goes through the open pores of the screen. You repeat this procedure for each of the colors to be used. An advantage to this is that you can use them more than once. To date, silk-screening is the cheapest and most effective means of reproducing many products of it type and quality. (Coplans pg 50) (Crone pg 11)

The main focus of serial imagery is redundancy. (Coplans) There are many ways in which serial painting differs from traditional painting. Some of these differences include that of theme, uniqueness, and variation. It is not important for serial paintings to be unique, the structure and composition are meant to be similar to the other members of the series. The objects of the serial paintings, like in the Campbell Soup series is show almost eternity or the feeling of never-ending. (Coplans pg 49)

Some of the portraits that were done by Warhol began with Troy Donahue, Warren Beatty, and even Elvis Presley. Then later on came Marilynn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. There was also a series of car crash pictures done around this time. The Jackie Kennedy portraits were done very shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy. They mirrored the mourning face of Jackie that was shown time and time again in the media. There were eight different images that were all taken from different newspapers at the time. The number of works in this series is still unknown. (Crone pg 29)

The car crash pictures had an extreme amount of variation to them. They ranged from having one picture to a canvas to having up to twenty on the same canvas at one time. There are many different colored pictures in this set. The most major change from one to another is the background color. It is difficult for critics to place the origination of the meaning of this set of works. (Crone pg 29)

The series involving the electric chairs has a very serious political statement. It is a symbol of misuse of governmental sovereignty; it has also been considered and open confession of a deficiency in cultural development. (Crone) About the same time as the electric chair pictures were being shown there were many other quite disturbing sets of pictures being shown. They were of race riots and many were taken directly from newspaper articles of the Nazi Germany and Castro's revolution in Cuba. (Crone pg 29)

One of the last serial sets that Warhol created before moving on from painting was of flowers. The flowers were produced in an extreme variety of sizes and quantities. These were on display in 1964. The original flowers were taken from a women magazine. Unlike most of his earlier works, these reproductions were touched up by hand on the screen. These are also different in that they do not represent anything to Warhol. They are strictly decorative. The colors used in the painting aren't used to symbolize anything but just to bring out color in decoration. In all there were about nine hundred of the flower painting made in Warhol's studio, other wise known as "The Factory" to him. These were among the very last of Warhol's paintings, in the remainder of his life he concentrated on movie making. (Crone pg 30) Even though he was never known for his movies, he did make a name for himself through his paintings.

On June 3rd, 1968, Valerie Solaris, a rejected superstar, came into The Factory and shot Andy three times in the chest. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, but after having his chest cut up and been given a heart massage, he survived, and later on that night Valerie Solaris turned herself in to the police. (www.warhol.dk) It seems that as if he had something left to live for after his near death experience, maybe it might have been his love for art that he had to live for.

During Warhol's life his work has been controversial. He has become more recognized and famous after his death in 1987. He died on February 22nd 1987 after a gallbladder operation. I think that his purpose for being an artist seemed to be different from that of other artists. I'm not convinced he painted and filmed for the love of the art or so much for his purpose in doing it. I think he had a message he wanted to get across to everyone and this was the medium he chose to express himself through. Andy Warhol is one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. His work continues to reflect our changing times.