Andy Warhol “Pop Art” free essay sample

On August 6, 1928, Andy Warhol was born as Andrew Warhola to Andrej and Julia Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were a working class family that stuck close to the roots and traditions of their Eastern European heritage. In 1934 Andy began attending the local Holmes School and took free art classes at Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museum of Art). Andy had an amazing gift for drawing even from a very young age. In addition to drawing, Andy was fascinated by Hollywood cinema and spent much of his time at the local cinema. He also enjoyed taking pictures that he developed by himself in his basement.Through out the years Andy continued to pursue his artistic abilities and became astoundingly famous for them. More than twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Andy Warhol was known as a leading figure in the visual arts movement and was responsible for making colossal changes to what was commonly known as art. We will write a custom essay sample on Andy Warhol â€Å"Pop Art† or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Between 1945 and 1949 Andy attended college at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Pictorial Design with the goal of becoming a commercial illustrator. After graduation Warhol moved to New York city and began to work for Glamour magazine as a commercial artist. He won numerous awards for his work and became one of the most successful illustrators of the 50s. Towards the end of the 50s he began to devote more of his time to painting. His painting style was derived from his childhood love for comic books. This style quickly became known as â€Å"Pop Art. † 1962 marked the beginning of Warhols celebrity status as he released his famous Campbells Soup Can series, which completely changed the direction of the art world.Warhols Pop Art became the craze of the 60s, people couldnt get enough of it. He began to use this style to do a large sequence of movie stars, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. Warhol painted his masterpieces in a silver-painted and foil-draped studio named The Factory, located at 231 East 47th Street. Next, in 1965 Andy began trying his hand at creating films and videos. By doing this he brought a whole other source of attention to himself from the art critics. The films and videos he created were very different from the Hollywood cinema that he grew up on.They were said to be dark and â€Å"underground. † Warhol made near 600 films and near 2500 videos. Included in this are over 500, 4-minute films that feature friends, associates and visitors to The Factory, all considered to Warhol as possessing â€Å"star-quality. † In 1968, Andy suffered a nearly fatal gun-shot wound from aspiring playwright and free radical feminist author, Valeria Solanas. He was attacked in front of The Factory and it changed his persona forever. Some say this event pushed Andy further towards being a reclusive individual that caused his behavior to become very peculiar.He became obsessive about documenting his life to an extreme degree. He dictated every activity possible. He even hired interns to transcribe the content of what would amount to over 3,000 audio tapes. Portions of these accounts were published posthumously in 1987 as The Warhol Diaries. Moving on, in 1974 Warhol started a series of Time Capsules: cardboard boxes that he filled with his everyday life, including mail, photos, art, clothing and collectibles. He produced over 600 of them and they are now considered a goldmine that holds a remembrance of his life.During this time he also began to to create sculptures using the packaging of popular supermarket items such as Brillo Pad boxes and labels from Heinz ketchup bottles. These sculptures became yet another prolific form of Andys peculiar Pop Art. Throughout the rest of the 70s, Warhol began to spend a lot of his social time with people such as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and Truman Capote, both who have been subjects of his art. He started to receive amazing amounts of commissions for painted portraits from wealthy socialites, musicians and film stars. Celebrity portraits developed into a significant aspect of his career became his main source of income. In the early years of the 80s, Andy began to dabble in other areas of art such as fashion, music and media. He co-founded Interview magazine, which is still in circulation today; appeared in an episode of The Love Boat; designed Grammy-winning record covers for The Rolling Stones; signed with a modeling agency and even appeared on Saturday Night Live. At this time he also began to create his final painting series titles The Last Supper.On February 22, 1987, while in recovery for a routine gall bladder surgery, Andy Warhol died. He was buried in Pittsburgh, but his memorial service was held at Manhattans St. Patricks Cathedral. Plans to create The Andy Warhol Museum were announced in 1989, two years after the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual arts was established. Through the education provided by both of these institutions, Andy Warhol lives on as a fascinating cultural icon and an inspiration to new generations of artists all over the world.