Famous Artists: Andy Warhol
Introduction
Andy Warhol was a famous pop artist from the United States. He used his works to analyze the connections between celebrity culture, artistic expression, and advertising. His work was known for traversing different kinds of media which included painting, film, photography, sculpture, and silk-screening.
Personal Life
Andy Warhol was the fourth child in his family and was born in Pittsburgh on August 6, 1928. In his early life, Warhol had the nervous system disease called Sydenham's chorea which made him begin fearing doctors and hospitals as he underwent treatment. Warhol was a bedridden child due to illness and was forced to stay with his mother at home as a school outcast. As Warhol spend most of his time in bed, he listened to the radio, drew pictures and collected those of movie stars near his bed. It was during this period that he developed his art skills, alongside his preferences and personality.
During his teenage stage, Andy Warhol received the Scholastic Art and Writing Award, and he wanted to study art education after completing his secondary education. However, he changed his plans and studied commercial art as well as serving as a director of arts of Cano, the student art magazine. In the 1950s, Andy Warhol dedicated his career to advertising and commercial art where he became a designer for Israel Miller, a shoe producer. He continued to develop his art career through various exhibitions and in the 1980s, he was in financial success and re-emerged in critical success since he had made many prolific young artists.
Andy Warhol's Techniques
Warhol's primary style was silk-screening, which was among the various media that he spanned. Some other techniques that he used include the oxidation paintings, acrylic painting, and watercolor painting. Warhol described his methods as all-time crying holy pictures since the techniques had dripped paint on canvas.
Famous Arts
One of the outstanding paintings that Warhol painted is the Banana that he drew in 1966. The banana print was a cover of the debut album by The Velvet Underground band that he was managing at the time. Coca Cola is another famous art that Warhol created in 1962. The art, which features bottles of Coca-Cola, represented modern mass consumerism. The painting was one of the most expensive pieces of art ever created by the artist and was sold for $57.2 million. In 1982, Warhol created another famous art of Mickey Mouse which was one of the fictional characters of a Myths-series he had created with silk screened portraits.
Legacy
Andy Warhol has been the topic of several books, documentary films, feature and retrospective exhibitions. Also, the museum in Pittsburgh (his home city) was named after him, and it has a wide range of permanent archives and art collection. The Andy Warhol Museum is the largest museum in the US to be dedicated to the legacy of one artist. Besides, a significant portion of Warhol's creations is highly valuable and very collective. For example, his painting, Silver Car Crash of 1963 was sold for the highest price of US$105 million.
