Andy Warhol Life Facts - Research Paper Example

Andy Warhol Andrew Warhola was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Biography.com His father, Ondrej Warhola, was a construction worker and his mother, Julia Warhola was an embroiderer. They were Slovakians who migrated to the United States. His early introduction to art started at the age of eight when he became inflicted with Chorea or St. Vitus’s Dance, a disease of the nervous system. Since he was bedridden for several months, his mother gave him drawing lessons. Photography became another one of his interest when his mother bought him a camera at the age of nine.

Warhol studied elementary at Holmes Elementary School and later on took free art classes at Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. He attended high school at Schenley High School after which in 1945, he studied pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In 1949, he graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts. He then moved to New York and started a career as a commercial artist. It was also during this time that he dropped the “a” in Warhola and became Andy Warhol. After a year in New York, Warhol was hired as commercial artist for various famous brands such as Columbia Records, Glamour magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, NBC, Tiffany & Co.

and Vogue (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts , par 4). His style as a commercial artist includes the use of his original blotted line technique and rubber stamps. He became one of the most popular commercial artists in the 1950s, winning several awards. It was in 1961 that Warhol introduced the concept of “pop art”. These were paintings that were focused on mass-produced commercial goods. One of his most popular works is the painting of the Campbell soup cans which he exhibited in 1962.

Some of his other famous pop paintings are the Coca-cola bottles, vacuum cleaners and hamburgers (Biography.com 2). Warhol expressed his reason for painting these products, “I wanted to paint nothing. I was looking for something that was the essence of nothing, and that was it” (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts , par 5). Aside from pop art, Warhol also painted portraits of famous celebrities with vibrant and dazzling colors, such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Mao Tse Tung (Biography.com 2). It was in 1964 when Warhol opened “The Factory”, his own silver-painted art studio in New York City.

It was in this factory that he started another venture, films and videos. Some of his experimental cinema classics are Sleep and Empire in 1963, Blow Job and Kiss in 1964 (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts , par 6). Warhol made around 600 films and almost 2,500 videos. In 1967, Warhol published his first book, Andy Warhol’s Index. This was followed by two other books in the 70s, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Exposures (Biography.com 2). Warhol passed away on February 22, 1987 at the age of 58 while recovering from a gallbladder operation.

A famous quotation by Warhol is, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art” (BrainyQuote 1). This quotation from Warhol gives us an idea of how obsessed he is with art. For Warhol, everything is art, which explains why he has engaged himself with almost every form of art. One can also say that definitely his art is good business because his paintings command a high price, the most expensive of which is his portrait, Eight Elvises which resold for $100 million in Works Cited Biography.com. "Andy Warhol.biography." n.d. biography.com. Web.

7 July 2012 . BrainyQuote. "Andy Warhol quotes." n.d. brainyquote.com. Web. 7 July 2012 . The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. "Andy Warhol biography." 2011. warholfoundation.org. Web. 7 July 2012 .