Andy Warhol “Think rich, look poor.”

Andy Warhol

Born as Andrew Warhola, known as Andy Warhol and given the name Prince of Pop by the media, was a great artist who is identified with Pop Art. He is an American legend born in Pittsburgh in 1928. Warhol’s career started when he moved to New York and worked as an illustrator for magazines and commercial advertising.

Warhol made his first Pop paintings based on comics and ads in 1961. He started painting daily objects of mass production, like Campbell Soup cans and Coke bottles, later on in the sixties. Soon after that, he started making silkscreen prints of famous personalities like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor. During the same time, he also extended his talents into other fields of film, publishing, writing, and television, and he started his series of “death and disaster” paintings that included images of electric chairs, suicides, and car crashes.

Four Marilyn prints -Andy Warhol

Sticky Fingers

It was in 1963 when Warhol began making classic films; he made about 600 films from 1963 to 1976. His most famous film classics were Sleep (1963), Empire (1963), Kiss (1963-64), and The Chelsea Girls (1966). Warhol announced publicly in Paris during his exhibition in 1965 that he was retiring from painting to pursue filmmaking. In late sixties, Warhol published his first mass-produced book, Andy Warhol’s Index, followed by a series of best-seller books. In 1971, one of Warhol’s designs was nominated for a Grammy Award. The design was a close-up photo of the torso of a man wearing jeans with a real zipper; it was used as the cover for The Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers.

In the 1980′s, Warhol aired television shows nationally on MTV, and he also created work for Saturday Night Live and produced music videos for rock bands. He modeled in fashion shows, and in print and TV ads for many companies. Warhol died in New York city in 1987 due to complications followed by a surgery to remove his gall bladder.