A Glance into The Life Of Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, initially Andrew Warhola, was an American artist, producer and director who was lauded as a leading figure in ‘pop art’, which was a visual art moment of the 1960s.

Warhol was born on August 6, 1928, and brought up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Ondrej Warhola, was a construction worker, while his mother, Julia Warhola, was an embroiderer. Warhol, at the age of 8, contracted St. Vitus's Dance, a fatal and rare disease of the nervous system, for which he had to spend several months being bedridden. During these months, while Warhol was sick and bedridden, his mother, herself a skilful artist, gave him his first drawing lessons. Soon, drawing became Warhol's favourite childhood pastime. He also had an appreciation for the movies; so his mother bought him a camera when he was 9 and he took up photography, developing film in a makeshift darkroom he set up in their basement.

When he was 14, his father passed away, leaving the family money to be specifically used towards higher learning; it was decided by the family that Andy would benefit the most from a college education.Warhol graduated with a degree in pictorial design in 1949 from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. At first, he went to New York City and pursued a career as a commercial illustrator for about a decade. He became one of the most successful and highly paid illustrators of the 1950s even before he began to make art destined for galleries. 

Warhol began diverting more attention to painting in the late 1950s, and in 1961, he premiered the concept of "pop art"—paintings that focused on commercial goods that were mass-produced. In 1962, he showcased the now-renowned paintings of Campbell's soup cans. These canvas works created a frenzy in the art world, bringing both pop art and Warhol into the nationwide limelight for the first time. 

Warhol's famous pop paintings illustrated Coca-cola bottles, hamburgers and car crashes. He also painted portraits of celebrities; his most famous subjects were Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor. These portraits gained fame and Warhol began to receive hundreds of commissions for portraits from the renown. Eventually, in 2008, his portrait titled "Eight Elvises" resold for $100 million, making it one of the most valuable paintings in art history. Eventually, during the 1960s, Warhol devoted his attention to filmmaking, usually categorized as underground films. Websites like BlouinArtinfo.com and Artsy.net can be visited for more information on Warhol’s works and exhibitions.

Warhol died tragically at age 58 on February 22, 1987, following complications from routine gall bladder surgery. After his death, the artist’s estate became The Andy Warhol Foundation, and in 1994 a museum dedicated to him opened in Pittsburgh.