Andy Warhol is considered by many people as one of the most influential American artists of the second half of the 20th century. His signature style used silkscreen-printing techniques to create identical, mass produced images on canvas, then different colours were added to make each print unique and to create a variety of looks. When Marilyn Monroe died from an overdose of drugs Warhol produced a series of prints of her face, this was a tribute to commemorate her tragic death. He was an artist in the pop art movement, which is an abbreviation for popular art this movement was a reaction against abstract painting.
Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928. He left high school in 1954 with a diploma and between 1945 and 1949, he majored in pictorial design at Carnegie institute of technology. He moved to New York and became a commercial artist, he worked as an illustrator for several magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and The New Yorker he also did advertising and window displays for stores such as Bonwit Teller and I. Miller. His work was shown in several places during the 1950s, including his first group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1956. In the 1960s, he created many pop art prints that are icons of 20th century art such as Campbell’s soup and Marilyn Monroe. Several films, which he made, were also produced during this time. In 1968, Valerie Solanis, founder and sole member of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) shot the artist but fortunately, Andy survived. He also published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again). Tragically, On February 22, 1987 Andy Warhol died from gall bladder surgery.