Andy Warhol: a Pop Culture Icon
Andy Warhol: A Pop Culture Icon
Henry Matisse once said, "The freedom of the artist is in reality the impossibility of following the path beaten by all others." In other words, the degree in which an artist interprets the world that is laid out before him is what makes him unique. Andy Warhol was a master at creating a distinctive account of what came before him and what presently surrounded him. It was this rare talent that made Andy Warhol into a pop culture icon with a profound influence on the world of modern art. Andrew Warhola was born in 1928 to working class family of Forest City, Pennsylvania. His poor upbringing undoubtedly contributed to his future obsession with money and celebrity. In 1946, Andy enrolled in Carnegie Institute of Technology as a commercial art student. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City where he quickly became an accomplished art designer. He did graphic work for such establishments as Vogue and Harper 's Bazaar and advertising for I. Miller shoes. Although successful, Warhol eventually became disenchanted with his career and set out to be part of the new movement of pop art (Lucie-Smith 336). In the early 1960s, Andy Warhol rattled the art world with his silk screens of Hollywood beauties and the now legendary, Campbell 's Soup Cans. Society, up until that point, had never seen anything so literal be called art. In fact, the Campbell Soup Company forced Warhol to defend the paintings as legitimate works of art after they sued him for copyright infringement. They later dropped the lawsuit after deciding it was good advertisement (Pohland 157). The Soup Cans sparked something inside Warhol and he began to use everyday objects as his inspirations: Brillo soap-pad boxes, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Heinz 57, and Kellogg 's, to name a few. He began painting these objects by hand, but eventually silk-screened them directly to the canvas. This process outraged the art world. One critic even said, "his work is just too silly to
Henry Matisse once said, "The freedom of the artist is in reality the impossibility of following the path beaten by all others." In other words, the degree in which an artist interprets the world that is laid out before him is what makes him unique. Andy Warhol was a master at creating a distinctive account of what came before him and what presently surrounded him. It was this rare talent that made Andy Warhol into a pop culture icon with a profound influence on the world of modern art. Andrew Warhola was born in 1928 to working class family of Forest City, Pennsylvania. His poor upbringing undoubtedly contributed to his future obsession with money and celebrity. In 1946, Andy enrolled in Carnegie Institute of Technology as a commercial art student. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City where he quickly became an accomplished art designer. He did graphic work for such establishments as Vogue and Harper 's Bazaar and advertising for I. Miller shoes. Although successful, Warhol eventually became disenchanted with his career and set out to be part of the new movement of pop art (Lucie-Smith 336). In the early 1960s, Andy Warhol rattled the art world with his silk screens of Hollywood beauties and the now legendary, Campbell 's Soup Cans. Society, up until that point, had never seen anything so literal be called art. In fact, the Campbell Soup Company forced Warhol to defend the paintings as legitimate works of art after they sued him for copyright infringement. They later dropped the lawsuit after deciding it was good advertisement (Pohland 157). The Soup Cans sparked something inside Warhol and he began to use everyday objects as his inspirations: Brillo soap-pad boxes, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Heinz 57, and Kellogg 's, to name a few. He began painting these objects by hand, but eventually silk-screened them directly to the canvas. This process outraged the art world. One critic even said, "his work is just too silly to
Cited: Cooke, Lynne. "The Last Supper Portraits." Dia 's Andy. New York: Dia Art Publications, 2005. 27. Lucie-Smith, Edward. Lives of the Great Twentieth Century Artists. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1986. 336-340. Madoff, Steven Henry. "Publicist, Prankster, Parvenue, Andy Warhol Was the Pan of Modern Art." Time Magazine 8 Jun 1998: 23. Morera, Daniela. The Andy Warhol Show. Rome: Postonove, 2004. 18-75. Pohland, Mark B. "Andy Warhol." St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. New York: Gale Group, 2002. 157-159. Russell, John. "The Season of Andy Warhol: The Artist as Persistent Presence." The New York Times. 11 Apr. 1988. Warhol, Andy. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again. New York: Harvest Books, 6 Apr. 1977. 42. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. "Andy Warhol." Wikipedia Online. 2006. Wikimedia. 10 Sept. 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol#Films