Pioneer of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, pictured in 1977.
Andy Warhol was one of the most prominent figures in the Pop Art movement, and his innovative and daring pieces helped revolutionise the contemporary art world. Many of his works have now achieved iconic status, and Warhol is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important and sought-after artists of the 20th century.
Warhol’s influence is still keenly felt today, and his art remains extremely popular at auctions around the world. His market is dominated by prints, which account for 75% of his work sold at auction, with the majority of them selling for between £10,000 and £50,000.
Part of Warhol’s immense success can be attributed to his public persona, which he carefully cultivated over the years until the mystique surrounding him turned him into an icon in his own right. But beneath the public image was still a man; read on to discover seven things you might not have known about Andy Warhol.
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He Began Making Art As A Child
Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928 to Carpatho-Rusyn parents who had emigrated from modern-day Slovakia to the United States. As a child, he suffered from a nervous-system disorder and was sometimes confined to his bed. During this time, his mother provided him with art supplies, comic books, and movie magazines, and he entertained himself by reading, listening to the radio, and drawing extensively. He later said that this period shaped his obsession with pop culture, Hollywood, and current events, which was subsequently manifested in much of his artwork, including his prints featuring Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong.
His Most Expensive Print Sold For Over £3.35 million
Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) is a set of 10 screenprints in colours from 1967. Warhol had first started using the famous actress’ image five years before, after the news of her apparent suicide shocked the world and sparked a media frenzy. The mixture of celebrity glitz and personal tragedy that surrounded Monroe was irresistible to Warhol, and he was fascinated by her commercial appeal and iconic status.
These Monroe screenprints highlighted how the actress had been marketed by Hollywood in such a way that she became a simple product to be consumed, her carefully-curated glamorous façade concealing a real person with real problems. The prints are among Warhol’s most popular in today’s market, with one set breaking the record in May 2022 when it was sold by Christie’s for £3,350,925, more than £1.3 million above the top estimate.
Marilyn Monroe sold by Christies in 2022
He Was A Successful Commercial Illustrator
Before Warhol became a famous name in the art world, he made a living as a commercial illustrator in New York. Working for prestigious titles such as Vogue and The New York Times, Warhol became extremely well-respected and successful in this field throughout the 1950s before transitioning to fine art in the early ‘60s.
The commercial printing techniques of the advertising world served him well in his subsequent artistic practice, though, and he pioneered the use of screen printing (previously mostly used in commercial work) in fine art, with prints such as The Kiss (Bela Lugosi) being early examples of his experiments with the technique.
Vogue Magazine Cover Illustrated by Andy Warhol
He Worked In Many Other Mediums
Warhol is best known for his prints and paintings, but he was extraordinarily prolific, and he also worked in a number of other mediums, including photography and filmmaking. Between 1963 and 1968, he produced almost 650 experimental short films, including The Chelsea Girls and Kiss. Many of these films have attracted renewed interest in the decades since Warhol’s death, becoming classics of underground and avant-garde film, and securing his reputation as one of the most innovative and experimental artists of his time.
He Founded The Factory
As Warhol’s success as an artist grew, he adapted his way of working. In the early ‘60s, he moved to a new studio which became known as the Factory; though the location of the Factory changed over the next two decades, its name stayed the same, and over time, it has achieved legendary status in its own right.
At the Factory, Warhol’s assistants worked under his direction in an assembly-line process, echoing the consumer culture he was so inspired by, and allowing his art to be mass-produced. The Factory also soon became a focal point for the New York arts scene, famed for its wild, drug-fuelled parties, and attracting a heady, bohemian mixture of celebrities, artists, musicians, and hangers-on.
The Factory in New York in the 1960s
He Managed The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an experimental American band which included famous names such as John Cale and Lou Reed. Warhol became their manager in 1966, and they often rehearsed, performed, and hung out at the Factory. Warhol designed the cover for their first album, and between 1966 and ’67, he also organized a series of bizarre, psychedelic multimedia events for the band to perform during, known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (or EPI). The Velvet Underground have come to be recognised as one of the most influential bands of the 20th century, and their success can, in part, be attributed to Warhol’s association with them.
He Died unexpectedly
Warhol continued working prolifically all his life, and by the 1980s, he was a superstar of the New York arts and social scene. Around this time, he also formed friendships and began collaborating with a number of younger artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.
In February 1987, Warhol went into hospital to have routine gallbladder surgery, and he died unexpectedly following complications from it. He was only 58, and his death marked the beginning of the end of an era in the art world, which was further accelerated by the deaths of Basquiat and Haring over the next two years.
