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Art

The Life and Works of Andy Warhol
by Jodie Wells-Slowgrove

Andy Warhol was fascinated by fame. As a young boy, he collected photographs of movie stars and dreamt of becoming a tap dancer like Shirley Temple. Growing up, Andy discovered that his talents lay in the world of art. But would that be enough to make him famous?

Born on August 6, 1928, the third son of Ondrej (Andrew) Warhola and Julia Zavacky Warhola, Andy was encouraged to draw from a young age. His mother often held drawing competitions for her sons, offering a Hershey bar as the prize. Andy, who loved chocolate, always endeavored to win.

When Andy was eight, he became very ill with rheumatoid fever and St. Vitus' dance, a disease that affects the central nervous system. For more than two months, he was unable to attend school. He spent this time, drawing, coloring, and reading comic books. Then by the age of nine, he attended an art class for gifted students at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Andy was never afraid to be different and his work often polarized opinions. In college, where he studied painting and design, he refused to follow the teachers' instructions. He persisted in doing things his own way. Though not all of the staff agreed, many teachers insisted that he drop out of college. However one teacher, who believed in his ability, invited him to attend summer classes, which Andy paid for by working at a fruit stand. The pictures he drew of his customers that summer got him readmitted to college and he went on to win a scholarship.

When Andy completed college, he decided to move to New York and become a commercial artist. Although he was successful, it wasn't enough. Andy wanted to be a serious artist. He wanted to be famous. At that time, Abstract Expressionism was the leading art form, but a new movement called Pop Art had also begun. While Abstract Expressionism was all about "high art" and the emotional and spiritual state of the artist, Pop Art was a rebellious form of "low art" that focused on mass-produced images of popular culture and the exclusion of artistic expression.

Andy began by hand painting his now famous images of Campbell's soup cans, but soon developed a more impersonal technique—-a silk-screening process that allowed him to take a mass produced image of a photograph and create multiple images that varied only in quality or color. In his "Factory" studio, where he often employed apprentices, his artworks could then be mass-produced like the original images. However, his work generated strong and conflicting opinions amongst those who questioned the relevance of Pop Art as an art form.

Andy Warhol died in 1987 of complications from a routine operation. But he is most remembered for his iconic images of screen stars like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Warhol became an icon of the Pop Art movement, and as he had dreamed, achieved world-wide fame for his contributions to the world of art.

Bibliography

Cologne, Museum Ludwig. 20th Century Art. Köln: Taschen, 2003.

Oliver, Clare. 20th Century Art 1960-80: The Object of Art. London: Heinemann Library, 2000.

Ruben, Susan. Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter. NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2006.

Whiting, Cecile. A Taste For Pop: Pop Art, Gender and Consumer Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Internet
www.artchive.com/artchive/W/warhol.html
http://edu.warhol.org/20c_chron.html
http://www.warhol.org/
http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/marilyns.html

Photo: courtesy of Wikipedia

Jodie Wells-Slowgrove is a freelance writer and teacher-librarian. She lives in a pretty house by a creek on the outskirts of Sydney with her husband, two children, and numerous pets..