Andy Wharhol - Questions

Stephen Monus 10 Media Arts

1. Question: Research inquiry into the artist Andy Warhol and find out what he did with his art.

Andrew Warhola or commonly known as Andy Warhol was a pop icon of the 1960’s, born August 6, 1928, in the industrial city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Andy showed an early talent in drawing and painting. After high school he studied commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Andy got accepted to many firms and created a name for himself. Andy Warhol is best known for his exploration of Pop Art, mass-producing images of mass-produced objects. Warhol experimented in media such as film, sculpture, paint, and silkscreen, but perhaps his greatest work was his invention of himself as an international celebrity and pop culture icon. His most famous works depicted Campbell's soup cans. Enlarged, hand-painted or silkscreened, framed, and hung in an art gallery, Warhol succeeded in turning these mundane images into ironic "art". An interesting fact about Andy Warhol is that, In July of 1968 a woman named Valerie Solanis shot the pop artist two to three times into his chest. Andy was seriously wounded and only narrowly escaped death. Valerie Solanis had worked occasionally for the artist in the Factory, his studio. Solanis had founded a group named SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) and she was its sole member. Life changing moments like this greatly influenced Andy and his art.

2. Question: What was the influence on him by his culture of the 60’s?

In the sixties Warhol started painting daily objects of mass production like Campbell Soup cans and Coke bottles. Soon he became a famous figure in the New York art scene. From 1962 on he started making silkscreen prints of famous personalities like Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor. His influence was major celebrities of his time and ordinary brand names such as coke for example.

3. Question: How does it relate to our present day culture?

This relates to our present day culture in that art is always changing for example pop art was big in the 1960’s but now in the 2000’s modern art is more in demand. Andy Warhol was well known back during his lifetime but is still being remembered 20 years after his death, for example his life’s work is being portrayed in two museums the Andy Warhol museum, and the second is the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh.