Warhol Geek #2

Phillip Chee

In Homage To...

Andy Warhol

Born as Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a working class immigrant family of Ruthenian ethnicity from northeast Slovakia, he showed early artistic talent and studied commercial art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1949 he moved to New York City and began a successful career in magazine illustration and advertising. He became well-known mainly for his whimsical ink drawings of shoes done in a loose, blotted style.

In the 1960s, he started to make paintings of famous American products like Campbell's soup cans and Coca-Cola. He switched to silkscreen prints, seeking not only to make art of mass produced items, but to mass produce the art itself. He said that he wanted to be like a robot. He hired and supervised "art workers" engaged in making prints, shoes, films, books and other items at his studio, The Factory, located on Union Square in New York City. Warhol's body of work furthermore includes commissioned portraits and commercials.

A lot of Warhol's works revolve around the concept of Americana and American culture. He painted money, dollar signs, food, groceries, women's shoes, celebrities, and newspaper clippings. To him, these subjects represented American cultural values. For instance, Coca-Cola represents democratic equality because "What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it." He used popular imagery and methods to visualize the American cultural identity of the 20th century. This popular redefinition of American culture is a theme and result of Warhol's art. Because American culture has had great international influence, Warhol did as well.

Outside of the art world, Andy Warhol is best known for saying that "In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes." He later told reporters, humorously, "My new line is, 'In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous.'"

Source: wikipedia