Andy Warhol American, 1928-1987

Biography
© Christopher Makos
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An Art icon across generations for his representations of pop culture symbols, Andy Warhol is recognized as the pioneer of the Pop Art movement. Born the son of two Slovakian immigrants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he left his hometown in 1949 to settle in New York and pursue a career in commercial illustration, including features in Vogue amongst other media. By the late 1950s, he began painting and rapidly gained notoriety with his "Campbell's Soup Cans" in 1962. In the same year, Warhol developed a unique silkscreening process, creating a seriality that would recall mass production. A painter, photographer, filmmaker and sculpture, the multidisciplinary artist shaped the pop culture imagery through archetypical subjects such as Marilyn Monroe, the Electric Chair and the Dollar Sign. He also realized a few abstract series such as Oxidations (1977–78) or later his Rorschach (1984) and Camouflage (1986) paintings. Today his works can be found in the most renowned private and public collections, notably the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum Of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York, the Art Institute in Chicago, the Tate Modern in London, and the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.
Exhibitions