The Start of Warhol
As a young child, Andy Warhol showed an extensive interest in painting and drawing in his free time. Soon after graduating from high school, Warhol decided to attend the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh where he would study in the field of commercial art. Through his degree in commercial art, he graduated in 1949 and went to the city of New York, where he would become a pronounced artist in the commercial industry. Working in illustration for magazines including Vogue and Harper’s Weekly he became the most successful commercial illustrator in all of New York City.
Coming Into the Light of Fame
Throughout the 1950’s, Warhol continued to amaze the public with his unique sense of style in his art work, in 1952 he composed the first one-man show exhibition at the Hugo Gallery in New York City. Then in 1956 he featured an exhibit at the renowned Museum of Modern Art featuring the many sides of Warhol.
"When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums"
Simply, in this quote stated by Warhol himself, he explains how art is always around us, even in department stores where we shop for clothes or kitchen gadgets.
As the baby boomer generation took off, Warhol took off in his professional career as an artist; he started painting daily and began doing paintings for major products like Campbell Soup cans and Coke bottles. Thus, becoming the figure of art in the New York scene, this allowed for his career to prosper as he gained recognition and support from his loyal fans. In the early sixties, Warhol began his legacy of captivating famous icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor in prints which would later become major pieces of the pop icon century.
The goal of Andy Warhol was to create a category different than the fine arts, being the commercial arts used for magazine illustrations, comic books, record albums, or advertising campaigns.
In 1962 Warhol opened the doors of The Factory, an art studio focused on mass producing prints and posters that he has composed. The location of the studio was on 231 E. 47th Street, 5th Floor (between 1st & 2nd Ave), in the heart of New York City.
Warhol's favorite printmaking technique used in his art was silkscreen, which is when a woven mesh screen is used to support an ink-blocking stencil. Ideally, for Warhol this was the closest to proliferation of art, which would be giving life to a piece of art. Apart from being an Art Producing Machine, the Factory served as a filmmaking and photography studio for capturing lively images. Warhol composed over 300 experimental underground films, which could be categorized as rather bizarre to society’s standards and even rather pornographic. None of Warhol’s productions were intriguing, but he took great pleasure in creating them because of being able to infuse his imagination into his work.
Murder
In the summer of 1968, a woman named Valerie Solanis; the sole idealist behind a group called SCUM (Society for Cutting up Men) shot Warhol two to three times near his chest area. Severely wounded, luckily he escaped dying. The woman was not a stranger as she was previously a worker at the Factory. She was arrested the day after the shooting and her final words before being put away were: "He had too much control over my life". It is suggested that Solanis became deeply envious of Warhol’s success and wanted her “15 minutes” of fame. Andy Warhol lived, but never fully recovered and had to wear a bandage around his waist area for the rest of his life.
Turning Point
For Warhol, producing art changed for the better of his career. The legend of pop art began to spend most of his free time creating many individual portraits of the rich during this time like Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, and Brigitte Bardot. Andy Warhol became an entrepreneur and not just in his art. He started up the magazine referred to as Interview and even a New York City night club. In 1974 the Factory was moved to 860 Broadway. Finally, in 1975 Warhol published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol. Within the pages of this publication Warhol said:
"Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art."
Ultimately, a lot was changing in the icons life, but at the same time he was expending his ideals and becoming an even bigger and well known artist of his century.
Understanding Andy Warhol Underneath the Paint
Warhol was a homosexual with a very unusual personality, which he portrayed in much of his work. Through the years, Warhol dyed his hair and ended up replacing it with blonde and silver wigs. He had an extensive collection of wigs which he enjoyed because of the fun associated with wearing them. In addition to his obsession with hair, he loved cats and typically depicted his love of them in several of his paintings. Although very successful, he was described as an extreme workaholic, which was due to his obsession to become famous and wealthy in the city of New York. Ideally, in his mind achieving his “American Dream” could only be done by working hard and having an ambition to succeed in his time. Before passing away, Warhol spread awareness about other artists he favored, such as Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe. Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987 from complications after a difficult gall bladder operation previously done. More than 2,000 dedicated friends, family, and fans attended the memorial service at St.Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan.
A unique, unknown fact about Warhol is that even as a concentrated pop art icon he was also a very religious man in his time.
In 1994, the Andy Warhol Museum opened its doors in the town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Warhol began his love of art as a child.
