Andy Warhol Pop Art

Pop Art: A Critical Analysis “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” (Warhol) Thus summarizes the unique and captivating art style: Pop Art. In a high commercialized world, Pop Art emerges as a contending force and took over the world of advertisement. The entrancing world of Pop Art has been a large part of our art culture since the 1950’s. In order to understand Pop Art, a close look must be taken towards the history, development, and characteristics of the style. The foundation for the rise of Pop Art was laid by the growth of mass communication in the 1940’s. Visual images became a part of everyday life due to advertisements in television
The first person who pops into your head when you hear, “Pop Art” is probably Andy Warhol. In 1928 Warhol was born to a working class family in Pittsburg. (Andy Warhol: American Draftsman, Filmmaker, Painter, and Printmaker) Warhol’s childhood was not perfect. He suffered from a nervous disorder that would keep him at home for extended periods of time. Also, his father passed away. Though this was a tragedy, his family decided to pool the money from the death to send Andy to college. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and received a degree in pictorial design. After graduating, he found work as a commercial illustrator. He ended up moving up in the world art and advertisement, eventually getting into exhibitions and display windows. In the mid 1950’s he took note on famous artists, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and drew major inspiration from them. In 1960, his work was finally able to be characterized as “Pop Art”. (Andy Warhol: American Draftsman, Filmmaker, Painter, and Printmaker) After this, he moved into his mature period, where the majority of his iconic paintings came from. He continued with his theme of advertisement and commercialism. He began using very large scale canvases and would project an image onto in and either freehand painting it or tracing it. After this, he went onto silk-screening. This made the fabrication of prints very easy and effortless. After the making of the prints, he would typically paint them in different, vibrant, complimentary colors. Also during this time, Warhol experimented with film and became very successful with it, creating about 600 pieces. In Warhol’s later life, he returned to painting and leaned towards abstraction with his Oxidation Painting Series. After living an incredibly successful life, Warhol passed away on February 22, 1987. (Andy