Warhol was born Andrew Warhola to Czechoslovakian parents, it wasn’t until 1949 when he moved to New York that he changed his name to Andy Warhol.
Warhol had been trained as a commercial artist – he saw himself as a “pure” artist but he had in fact created a new type of artist, which irritated, shocked, and changed the world of art. In 1954 he left school with a High School diploma, he worked for “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar”, did window displays for “Bonwit Teller” and his first advertisements for I.Miller Shoe company. In 1952 he had his first one-man exhibition at the Hugo Gallery, New York. He designed stage sets, dyed his hair straw-blond.
In 1954 he was in a collective exhibition at the Loft Gallery, New York.
In 1960 he made his first pictures based on comic strips and company trade names. In 1962 he produced his silk-screen prints on canvas of dollar notes, Campbell’s soup cans, Marilyn Monroe, etc.
He was also included in the exhibition the New Realists and started his series of disaster pictures car crash, plane crash suicide, tuna fish disaster and electric chair.
Between 1962-64 he produced over 2,000 pictures in his factory and made movies such as Sleep and Empire.
In 1964 his flower pictures were exhibited at the Galerie Sonnabend, Paris and he was forced for political reasons to paint over his Thirteen most wanted men which he had attached to the wall of the New York state pavilion for the worlds fair in New York. Between 1966-68 he made severel more films and in July 1968 Warhol was shot down and dangerously injured, also in that same year he brought out his novel “a”, which was consisted of telephone call recorded in his factory.
He made his first move for cinema “Flash” followed by “Trash” in 1970. In 1969 the first number of the magazine “Interview” appeared, which Warhol helped to produce. In 1986 he made portraits of Lenin and self-portraits.
He tragically died as a result of an operation in 1987.
Famous works of Warhol include: -
“Marilyn reversal series”
“Liz”
“Campbell’s soup cans”
“Dick Tracy”
“ Coffee Label”
“ Flowers 1964”
“ Self-portrait 1962”
