Thursday, January 12, 2012

An Inspirational Artist

Andy Warhol
(1928-1987)

Andy Warhola, know as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement know as pop art. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 1928. Warhol showed early artistic talent and studied commercial art, which is art created for commercial purposes, at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology. 
Here is a picture of one of his many shoe advertisements


In 1949, he moved to New York City and began a career in magazine illustration and advertising. During the 1950s, he gained fame for his fanciful ink drawing of shoe advertisements. These were done in a loose, blotted-ink style, and figured in some of his earliest showing at the Bodley Gallery in New York.

Warhol was an early adopter of the silk screen printmaking process as a technique for making paintings which creates the painting to look like the texture of a television scree in front of an image.  With bright colored images it looks like the painting sparkles. The effect is most visible when viewing bright white or very light colored images.  



Painting of Marilyn Monroe. The technique of silkscreen was used.

 Warhol began exhibiting his work during the 1950s. His first one-man art gallery exhibition was on July 9, 1962, in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angels. This exhibition marked his West Coast debut of pop art. It was during the 1960s that Warhol began to make paintings of iconic American products such as Campbell's Soup Cans and Coca- Cola, as well as paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor. He founding "The Factory," his studio during these years, and gathered around himself a wide range of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities. His work became popular and controversial.
In 1964, The American Supermarket exhibit was held. It held Warhol's famous painting of a can of Campbell's soup. The exhibit was one of the first exhibit’s that made the public aware of pop art.


Something interesting I found out about Warhol was that in third grade, Warhol had chorea, the nervous system disease that causes involuntary movements of the extremities, which is believed to be a complication of  scarlet fever. He became a hypochondriac, developing a fear of hospitals and doctors. He became an outcast at school and bonded with his mother. Confined in his room he drew, listened to the radio, and collected pictures of movie stars. Warhol later described this period as very important in the development of his personality.


I like Andy Warhol because he brought a new meaning of art to the world. He used color so differently then artists before him. He made people ask themselves what is art. One of my favorite paintings of his is Ten-Foot Flowers. The first time I saw this painting was in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It was right above the ticket desk. Even though he painted this same painting, but in different colors, the one in the MoMa is so mesmerizing. The alluring teal color makes it so beautiful.


Ten- Foot Flowers painting in the MoMa.


I enjoyed learning about Andy Warhol. He is such an inspiration and will never be forgotten.





1 comment:

  1. Mrs. Kiick, sorry for the change in fonts.. I don't know what happened. I wrote the post and then posted it and it came out weird. Hopefully it's not too confusing!! Sorry again.

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