WARHOL ANDY
Real name: Andrzej Warhola
(born 1928 – died 1987)
Famous American artist, sculptor, designer, director, producer, writer. One of the creators of pop art, the face of American culture of the second half of the 20th century.
One of the most striking and controversial figures of American pop culture of the second half of the 20th century, an extraordinary personality and creator of the pop art movement, Andy Warhol, called his activities “production” and “fiction,” and himself a “machine” and dreamed that everyone people thought alike, and at the same time wanted everyone on the planet to become famous “at least for 15 minutes.” He erected popular culture to the rank of art and himself became a part of it, because the public perceived him not as a person, but rather as a part of his own works. Warhol had a tremendous influence on world culture in the second half of the 20th century. His life and work became confirmation of his famous phrase: “Art does not change anything, it changes itself, inevitably moving towards the end.” He turned art into a business and became fabulously rich.
Unfortunately, there is no exact information regarding the date of birth of Andrzej Warhola. Sources name not only different dates: August 6 and September 28, but also different years– 1927, 1928 and 1930. Andrzej was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into a family of poor immigrants from Czechoslovakia. His father died when Andrzej was 13 years old. The boy grew up withdrawn and shy; the worst test for him was school, where everyone laughed at the skinny, blond Andrzej. The boy spent all the time free from his hated stay at school at home, and his mother, who feared for her weak youngest son, I was afraid to let him go far from me. Andrzej developed a hobby quite early on - he made collages from color pictures of old magazines and comics - he cut them out, glued them together, and completed the drawings.
After graduating from school, Andrzej studied design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and later, by some miracle, he managed to enter the California Technical University in the design department. It was prestigious educational institution, and our hero looked quite pathetic there compared to children from rich families. He hardly communicated with anyone and cultivated his complexes, although at the university they did not laugh at him, as at school, here they rather pitied him. Soon it became clear to the teachers that Warhola was very talented, and they began to help him: fellow students did assignments on English language(Andrzej himself at that time could not put together two words on paper), professors fought to prevent him from being kicked out of the university when, instead of classical models, he painted beggars or children picking their noses.
After graduating from university, Andrzej Warhola went to New York - the center cultural life America and fashionable art galleries. He changed his name to a more harmonious one for the USA - Andy Warhol, rented a cheap studio and began knocking on the doors of advertising agencies and editorial offices of popular publications. Already his first works in advertising began to be used great success, they were bright and memorable - Warhol perfectly captured the trends of the times.
In New York, another talent of Warhol was revealed. Previously always reserved and unsociable, he began to attract people to him like a magnet. As if compensating for the lack of communication and entertainment in his youth, he became an active partygoer, did not miss a single presentation, exhibition or party, and constantly disappeared into nightclubs, which did not stop him from working in daytime, since Andy suffered from insomnia since childhood. Warhol later admitted to his pathological craving for parties: “If New York had staged Grand opening toilet, I would get there first.” This love of appearing in public places worked to his advantage: best advertising for an artist it was difficult to imagine. By this time, his image had already been completely formed - constant dark glasses, a gray wig (Warhol went bald very early) and an expensive suit, stained with paint. During the daytime, he rarely left his studio - his thin, light skin instantly burned, and if he went out into the sun, it was only with an umbrella and dark glasses.
Quite quickly, Andy Warhol became the highest paid advertiser in New York. However, this state of affairs did not entirely suit him, because Warhol believed that working in advertising, where only your colleagues know you, would not achieve world fame. At this time, a new direction was emerging in America - pop art, it blurred the lines between “high” and “mass” art; anything could become a pictorial object - advertising, newspaper clippings, cartoon characters. All this reminded Warhol of his childhood experiments with collages, with which the boy once entertained his family and the entire street. And as an adult, Andy again began to experiment in search of a new method that would help him achieve his goal - to become famous. In 1956, Warhol went on a trip: he visited India, Egypt, France, Italy, Great Britain and many other countries, where he studied local culture and art. The impression he voiced from this trip is considered an example of outrageousness: “The most beautiful thing in Rome is McDonald’s.” The most beautiful thing in Paris is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in London is McDonald's." From the point of view of mass art, this is indeed so. Palaces, temples and monuments of the Old World are elitist art, presented in single copies, and McDonald's is a single concept, the pinnacle of mass production and standardization.
During his world tour, Warhol finally became convinced that modern Art should be massive and commercial, and upon returning to America he takes up the canvas again.
After lengthy attempts and experiments with writing techniques, a successful idea, as it turned out later, was unexpectedly given to him by a friend who said: “What do you love most? Money. So draw a dollar. The point is to take something simple and known to everyone - the same dollar or a can of soup.” Monumental paintings with a can of Campbell's tomato soup, created by the artist in 1962, on long years became Andy Warhol's calling card and made him truly famous. Newspapers and critics were choked with delight, prices for his works skyrocketed, and the artist himself was surprised at how naive this world was, how simple everything turned out to be. Art critic Robert Hughes very accurately described the success of paintings with Campbell's soup: “Painting a tin can in itself does not mean engaging in real art. But the real thing about Warhol is that he raised the level of soup in a can to the level of painting, giving them the character of mass production - consumer art imitates the process, as well as the appearance of consumer culture." Another consumer product immortalized in Warhol’s paintings was Coca-Cola. The artist explained his choice by the fact that everyone drinks it - the president of the country, Liz Taylor, and the beggar who knows that his Coca-Cola is no worse than the president’s. Once, at an exhibition where, among other works, canvases of Campbell's soup were presented, a New York critic sarcastically told Andy: “If you can draw a soup ad, why not draw a beer ad?” Warhol agreed with him quite seriously, and the very next day a “portrait” of a beer can was on display. By the way, Warhol also depicted the dollar that his friend, who suggested the idea for the soup, was talking about...
A huge number of people were now constantly spinning around Warhol, and soon the artist opened a large studio, dubbing it the “Factory,” which later became a symbol of the new art. The rooms of the “Factory” were crowded with young artists, actors and just people who dreamed of becoming famous. They were attracted by Warhol's unusual aura, they worshiped him, sang his praises and were ready to fulfill his every whim, and this meant only one thing - Andy Warhol became a living pop culture idol. Andy drew his inspiration from conversations with people who visited the Factory or lived there. Because of this, he made himself a huge number of enemies, often using other people's ideas or including in his films recordings with frank stories of people to whom he promised not to show this to anyone. It was the “Factory” and its visitors that largely helped make art mass, as Warhol wanted, works appeared in the thousands, in a sense of the word it was real factory. The artist proudly declared: “In our “Factory” a film, a painting, a sculpture, a lot of drawings, a lot of photographs are created per day.”
For five years, from 1963 to 1968, Warhol was actively involved in, in his own words, “filmmaking.” During this period, he created several hundred films, starting with a mass of three-minute tests and portraits and ending with 150 full-length films. Andy Warhol's works did not fit into the existing cinematic framework; they were an explosive mixture of avant-garde, Hollywood and underground cinema, and included elements of pornography, theater, minimalism and portraiture. The length of these films ranged from three minutes to twenty-five hours. Only a few of Warhol's hundreds of films were understood and accepted by audiences. Often there was only one actor on screen for several hours. “I started making my films with one actor. For several hours he smoked, sat, ate, slept. I did this because I realized that audiences go to the cinema mainly to see their favorite actor. So I gave them this opportunity,” said Warhol. In the 1964 film Empire, the camera captures the image of the famous New York skyscraper, the Empire State Building, for eight hours. We can say that Andy Warhol’s films are the opposite of commercial feature films; in a sense, they are “anti-films” that have no analogues in the history of world cinema.
By 1968, Warhol had become a recognized master of pop art, with his exhibitions taking place all over the world. In America he was the most popular artist, his paintings were sold at incredible prices. Andy also became famous for his scandalous interviews, in one of which, to everyone’s surprise, he stated: “I have never been touched by my own work. I make cheap writing...” In Los Angeles in the spring of that year, at the opening of a large retrospective of his work, Warhol was greeted by a crowd chanting: “We love Andy Warhol!” The success of the exhibition was enormous. And at the same time, the artist’s exhibitions themselves could not be called purely artistic; the interior, light, and all kinds of installations played a role here. He could show at an exhibition piles of cardboard boxes randomly thrown in the corners of rooms - and nothing more, and the exhibition was still a huge success.
All in the same 1968, the radical feminist, the only member of the “Society for the Destruction of Men,” Valerie Solanas, brought Warhol a script for the film. The artist considered the script too “dirty” and refused to make a film based on it. When the girl appeared at the Factory several times demanding the return of the manuscript, Andy brushed her off each time and asked her to come back later. One day, the unbalanced Valerie's patience ran out. A couple of days after Warhol returned from Los Angeles, she reappeared at the Factory, approached Warhol, took a revolver from a paper bag and fired three shots at the artist, and wounded another person from Andy’s entourage. After which Solanas calmly called the elevator and left. On the street, she turned to the first policeman she met with the words: “I shot Andy Warhol.” Later, these words will be used to describe a film about her and this dark story.
At the hospital, doctors confirmed the artist’s clinical death. Few people thought that the physically weak Warhol could survive three bullet wounds, but he survived. Left for recovery whole year, and for the rest of his life the artist was forced to wear a corset due to the fact that doctors unsuccessfully sewed his abdominal muscles. Richard Avedon's photograph of Andy Warhol's naked torso with his stomach disfigured by terrible scars made the rounds in magazines all over the world.
After the assassination attempt, Andy, who had almost gotten rid of his complexes, again began to be afraid of people. He began to constantly wear a bulletproof vest, tightened face control at the entrance to the Factory and did not go out after eight in the evening. “After the shot, I felt like I was in a dream. I don't understand anything. I don’t understand whether I’m alive or dead,” Warhol often repeated. Now the artist was very reluctant to give interviews; he could only answer “yes” or “no” to all questions; sometimes asked reporters what they would like to hear from him, and gave permission to publish their answer as his own. Warhol did not like to talk about himself at all; he often answered such questions: “If you want to know everything about Andy, watch my films, my paintings. This is all I am. There is nothing more." Warhol began to avoid appearing in public; he often sent a person similar in appearance to him to give lectures on his behalf.
Andy Warhol did not hide his gay, but didn’t shout about it at all intersections. He didn't have loud and scandalous novels, like other stars, he preferred to be an observer rather than a participant: “Love fantasies are much more better than love carnal. It’s a very exciting thing to never do.”
It was also peculiar literary activity Andy Warhol. In 1968, his first book entitled “A” was published, consisting of recordings telephone conversations at the factory". The next book appeared a few years later, it was called “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol. From A to B and vice versa." Its main theme was the argument that art is a process of making money. Since 1969, under the leadership of Warhol, the famous Interview magazine in the United States was published, in which stars interviewed other stars.
In 1970, the most successful period in the work of Andy Warhol began - he began using silk-screen printing to create portraits of celebrities. His images of Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli, Jimmy Carter, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and Mao Zedong went around the world. One critic called Warhol's portrait of Marilyn Monroe the Mona Lisa of the 20th century. Now it was possible to talk not only about the American, but also about the world fame of the artist. Warhol's favorite method was silk-screen printing - a circulation technique; it made the creation of paintings not a long painstaking process, as was always believed, but a truly mass "production". Warhol used only bright, pure colors, without any halftones, shadows or nuances, he deprived his works of realism and life, they do not breathe, they are just prints, images, even more lifeless than on advertising posters, and their creator explains with satisfaction: "I love everything artificial." He eliminated the difference between the original and the copy, since silk-screen printing implied the creation of an almost unlimited number of prints. The artist believed that it was precisely this kind of art - banal and replicated - that was needed modern world, and, judging by his crazy popularity, he was right in many ways. In addition, the further, the more the public became interested in Warhol’s personality, and not in his works; Andy’s name became more of a trademark than the name of an artist.
In the 80s of the 20th century, Warhol again worked a lot in advertising. In 1980, he developed and implemented a project for his own cable television channel and became its director. The same year, the artist’s next book, Popism: Warhol in the 60s, was published. During this period, he finished working with images of stars and began to work on the painting masterpieces of the past - his series “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper” were published.
Since the second half of the 80s of the 20th century, Andy Warhol's health has noticeably deteriorated; this circumstance was aggravated by the fact that the artist was terribly afraid of doctors and refused to be treated. In the winter of 1987, his gallbladder inflammation worsened, and Warhol was forced to go to the hospital for a simple operation. The surgery was successful, but the next day the nurse found the artist dead in bed. He died in his sleep from a heart attack. This happened on February 22, 1987. Warhol was buried in his native Pittsburgh. At the April 1 memorial service About two thousand people were present at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
When, after the artist’s death, his friends and lawyers opened Warhol’s apartment, where he had not allowed anyone during his lifetime, they found there a huge amount of a wide variety of things that were in terrible disorder. Among them were many unpacked packages with purchases, numerous bottles of perfume and Indian incense, jewelry, masterpieces of world painting in the originals, mixed with outright rubbish from junk shops. Andy Warhol spent millions of dollars on purchases, but did not show his acquisitions to anyone. He also kept money in his apartment in cookie boxes, not trusting banks. Warhol's motley collection was sold at the famous Sotheby's auction for more than $25 million. This money, according to Andy's will, was transferred to the fund he created to help artistic organizations.
A few years after death famous artist In his native Pittsburgh, the Andy Warhol Museum was opened, which contains many of his works.
It is still unclear how this quiet and strange man, who always hid his true appearance under a wig and huge dark glasses, could become the face of his time and so successfully combine art and business. An obituary published in the New York Times gave perhaps the most accurate and succinct definition of the Andy Warhol phenomenon: “ Best Work Warhola is Warhol himself.” Indeed, it is impossible to appreciate his works without knowing anything about their creator; the image of this strange and shy man is inseparable from his works, and vice versa. One more thing, very precise definition Andy Warhol’s work belongs to rock musician Mick Jagger, leader of the Rolling Stones, who, at the height of his popularity, also appeared on the canvas of the famous artist: “If you want to know what was most popular in a particular period, look at what he was painting at that time Warhol." And it is true. Andy very sensitively felt the trends of the times and instantly reflected the preferences of the broad masses in his works - be it Campbell's tomato soup or Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola or Elizabeth Taylor.
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He was an artist, sculptor, designer, director, producer, writer... Andy Warhol is one of the most controversial figures in the art of the second half of the twentieth century. His works became a kind of symbol of the triumph and commercial success of American pop art. Warhol's work had a huge influence on the direction of development of modern art.
I wake up every morning. I open my eyes and think: here it is all over again.
In 1962, Warhol created a famous series of canvases that depicted, in loud colors, cans of Coca-Cola and canned food and the famous images of a can of Campbell's tomato soup, which later became Andy Warhol's calling card.
In 1963, Warhol bought a building in Manhattan, it later received the name “Factory”, here Andy started creating works of art. The building has a permissive atmosphere and all kinds of parties are held. Andy Warhol's building violated the idea of an artist's studio as a secluded place where he creates his masterpieces.
Warhol began to create shocking works, images of idols made in an acidic manner modern society: Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger, Elvis Presley, Mao Zedong.
In the second half of the 1960s, Warhol showed great interest in cinema. The films he shot with Paul Morrissey are the first notes of the sexual revolution. One of Warhol's earliest short films depicts fellatio between two men. Most of his film works are plotless films, lasting up to 25 hours, during which naked members of Warhol's "factory", the so-called "superstars" of Andy Warhol, like Joe Dalessandro and Edie Sedgwick, appear on the screen.
- Day after day I look in the mirror and every time I still see something: another pimple, for example. If a pimple disappears on top of the right cheek, a new one pops up on the bottom on the left, on the cheekbone, near the ear, on the tip of the nose, among the hairs in the eyebrows, on the bridge of the nose, exactly between the eyes. It's probably the same pimple moving from place to place.
Cover suggested by Andy Warhol best album The group Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers (1971), a shot of Dalessandro wearing tight jeans was chosen. The zipper of the jeans was real and, when unzipped, revealed the underwear with the markings of the participants. In 2003, VH1 recognized the cover as the best in the history of music.
Self-portrait
I love the uniform! Because if you are an empty place, then clothes don’t make you a person. The best thing is to wear the same thing and know that they love you for yourself, and not what clothes can make of you.
Andy photographs Muhammad Ali and his daughter, 1977.
A special subculture of youth has always revolved around Andy Warhol, one of whose participants, feminist Valerie Solanas, shot at her “teacher” in 1968, seriously wounding him. Although Warhol's life was saved, he remained disabled for many years, and in 1987 he died from the consequences of his wound.
Andy Warhol's muse. Edie Sedgwick.
She was amazing, a beautiful empty place.
A 63cm tall girl with dimples, Andy Warhol's muse, film actress, model, recognized as the it-girl of New York in the turbulent sixties, lived bright life 28 years long.
In January 1965, Edie's friend brought her to Andy Warhol's Factory. They were fascinated by each other. Eddie spent almost all her time at the Factory. Warhol said that he would discover a “poor rich girl” in Sedgwick and make her the queen of the “Factory.” Andy filmed Edie in his endless films (“Vinyl,” “Kitchen,” “Chelsea Girls” and others), they shone together in society; During this time, Edie often referred to herself as "Mrs. Warhol." They were together for over a year. The King and Queen of Manhattan, with identically cut bleached hair, wearing identical silver clothes.
In fact, “beautiful” doesn’t attract me that much. I like talkative people more... Talkative people do something. Beautiful are something. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it's unclear to me what exactly they are.
Diana Vreeland, editor of the American Harper's Bazaar, raised Edie to heaven; she said that “addicts have wonderful skin.” Edie became the goddess of style - short dresses, black tights, long earrings, eyeliner and short white hair were copied by thousands of girls who wanted to be like Eddie, to become closer to art.
By the end of that year, Edie was heavily addicted to cocaine and heroin. By 1968, she could hardly speak. In July 1971, Edie married her neighbor at the rehabilitation clinic, Michael Post. A few months later, she appeared at a fashion show in all her splendor, twirled in front of the cameras; Having arrived home, she took the prescribed portion of sleeping pills from her husband’s hands and went to bed. In the morning, death from an overdose was recorded.
And despite the fact that her fate cannot be called happy, Edie Sedgwick is still a heroine and a role model today, because thousands of girls love fun, drugs and people of art, but few of them manage to influence the world with their love, as she did Edie Sedgwick, the girl from the Factory.
Andy Warhol is a mirror of the 70s era, a genius of pop art and commercial art. This artist has never been shy about monetizing his art. And there is a lot to learn from him. Today we have prepared for you the TOP 10 of his most expensive works.
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 1. “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” (1963).
Sold in November 2013 at Sotheby's for $105.4 million.
Andy Warhole. "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 2. “Eight Elvises” from 1963.
Sold privately in October 2008 through French art consultant Philippe Segalot for $100 million. At that time it was record amount, paid for the work of Andy Warhol.
Andy Warhole. "Eight Elvises"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 3. “Triple Elvis (Ferus Tipe)”, 1963.
Sold in November 2014. This work - one of two sold by Thomas Ammann to a German casino in the 70s - became the top lot at Christie's auction.
Andy Warhole. "Triple Elvis (Ferus type)"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 4. "Turquoise Marilyn" (1964).
As one of several portraits of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, it was purchased in May 2007 by collector Steven Cohen through the Larry Gagosian gallery at a price of about 80 million dollars.
Andy Warhole. "Turquoise Marilyn"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 5. “Green Car Crash” 1963.
It was also sold in May 2007 in New York at Christie's for an auction record price of $71.7 million by collector Philip Niarchos, the son of Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.
Andy Warhole. "Green Car Crash"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 6. “Four Marlons” (1966).
The painting was sold in November 2014 at Christie's for $69.6 million. The work was paired with “Triple Elvis” at the auction.
Andy Warhole. "The Four Marlons"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 7. “Men In Her Life” (1962).
A black-and-white portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, depicting her with her third husband Mike Todd and future husband Eddie Fisher, was sold to an anonymous buyer in New York at a Philipps de Pury & Co auction for $63.4 million. The work was sent to a certain Mugrabi family.
Andy Warhole. "The Men in Her Life"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 8. “Race Riot” (in four parts) 1964.
The painting was sold in May 2014 at Christie's auction for $62.8 million to one buyer, who made it into a complete work.
Andy Warhol "Race Riots"
10 most expensive paintings by Andy Warhol. 9. “200 One Dollar Bills” from 1962.
In November 2009, the painting was sold at Sotheby's to an anonymous buyer for $43.8 million. The purchase was made in London through the collector Pauline Karpidas, who bought the work in 1986 for only $385 thousand.
city of Springfield in Missouri.
If you ever see pictures of this amazing artist Andy Warhol, you will never forget them. Somewhere in the depths of your memory there will definitely remain memories of his unusual, but very bright paintings. But not everyone who is familiar with his paintings knows about the artist’s very personality. Andy Warhol is a very mysterious figure, one of the most famous, but at the same time the most controversial. The works of this master became a bright triumph and commercial success of American pop art. He was everything he was: an artist, sculptor, designer, director, producer, writer, collector. Even from my life this unusual artist made a work of art, creating new myths about his legendary person.
About the parents of the future artist
A talented personality, known today throughout the world, was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), in a large family of immigrants who moved to America from of Eastern Europe. Warhol Andy, and his real name is Andrey Warhola, was the youngest, fourth child. He had two older brothers and a sister who died before his parents moved to the United States. The most reliable data indicates that the birthplace of the Warhol family is Slovakia. Although three countries consider this extraordinary artist theirs - besides Slovakia, these are the USA and Ukraine. But one thing is unmistakably clear - his legacy belongs to the whole world, and not to a single country. Andy Warhol's parents had nothing to do with art. My father was a coal mine worker, my mother, not knowing English, was forced to earn extra money by cleaning and also selling paper flowers she made with her own hands.
Andy Warhol's childhood
While still very young, Andy began to get sick often. From 4 to 8 years old, he suffered more than one serious illness, among them the most terrible disease was Sydenham's chorea, or "St. Vitus's dance." The boy suffered from seizures and was literally bedridden. At school he becomes an outcast. The child also became too suspicious and began to be afraid of hospitals and doctors. This fear did not let him go until his death. During this difficult time, Andy Warhol played with cut-out dolls and listened to the radio. The mother then drew different pictures for her son, and gradually he himself began to draw all sorts of objects surrounding him, as well as make collages from old newspapers. So back in early childhood Andy first developed an interest and then a love for drawing. Somewhat later, Warhol’s mother, having earned some money, bought her son a small film projector, through which he watched stories in pictures on the wall of the room. Thus, in childhood it begins to gradually develop creative potential future artist. When Andy turned 9 years old, he began attending art courses, which were taught free of charge. At the age of 13, the boy loses his father, who dies in a mine.
Warhol's education
While still in school, the young man planned to enter the University of Pittsburgh, and having received there art education, teach drawing. But after graduating from school, plans change; Andy Warhol enters the Carnegie Institute of Technology. His plans include a career as a commercial illustrator. In 1949, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Graphic Design department. The future artist studied well, was even the best in the course, but did not always find mutual language both with fellow students and with teachers. He always had an active life position. At this time, Andy attends parties, concerts of symphony orchestras, and is interested in ballet.
Beginning of your career
After graduating from college and receiving a diploma, young Warhol moved to New York. He, like other pop art artists, began his working career as an artist of conventional advertising. The young man began decorating shop windows, making advertising posters, drawing holiday cards, and also decorated stands. A little later, he begins a fruitful collaboration with such popular glossy magazines as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and other lesser-known publications. Thanks to these magazines, their illustrator, Andy Warhol, also becomes famous. The biography of his life at this stage is marked by great upswing financially, but Warhol dreams of “high art.”
Andy Warhole. Creation. First success
The beginning of the 50s is marked in the biography of the extraordinary artist with the first noticeable success. It all happened after he came up with a shoe advertisement for the I. Miller company. Everyone liked Warhol's eccentric style of painting. He depicted specially made blots on shoes drawn in ink. It was a revolution in the world of advertising, and for Andy it was the first creative success, which brought him new lucrative contracts. Soon the artist Andy Warhol begins to earn more than 100 thousand dollars a year. And 1952 is the year when the first exhibition took place at which his works were presented. The exhibition took place in New York, and four years later Warhol was accepted into the “Art Editors Club.” Very soon he begins to create his own paintings, which he builds using an unusual method - screen printing. So he also became interested in photography, but Andy gave a special place in his life to fine art.
Andy Warhol is an extraordinary artist. His calling card
An incident that became fateful helped Warhol to establish himself as an artist who sees art in a very unusual way. Putting his own spin on an art dealer's idea, Andy creates a series of paintings of tomato soup cans and dollar bills.
An exhibition of these paintings in one of the galleries in New York created a real sensation, and the image of Campbell's canned food would later become his calling card. The artist's imagination has no limits. What else will this strange young man Andy Warhol come up with? He begins to create his paintings using silk-screen printing techniques. It allows you to repeat the same thing many times, the same images, the same strokes. This monotonous repetition is what Warhol strove for. This is what will happen characteristic his creativity.
Creating your own factory
In 1963, Andy Warhol and his friends decided to create their own studio or workshop. To do this, he acquires an abandoned old building in the very center of New York, it will become his creative studio. Andy comes up with a simple, unpretentious name for it: Factory. It was a springboard of sorts, on which famous master created and presented his works. Warhol Andy hires a team of young creative artists. Their task is to stream the works of a recognized master. The factory became real commercial enterprise, about 80 silk-screen prints were produced per day, and this number amounted to thousands of works per year. Having established mass production, Andy Warhol made paintings and portraits of celebrities a symbol of pop art and artistic culture America of the twentieth century, but purely commercial. This studio operated for over twenty years and was considered the craziest place on earth. Permissiveness reigned there, where they not only painted, made films, and produced mass silk-screen prints, but also where his creative team lived and held parties.
About the artist's personal life
What was this eccentric, unconventional and even strange Andy Warhol really like? His work was distinguished by its boldness and shockingness; it was underground, three-dimensional, created like a film. This image of him as a superstar was open to the public, in contrast to his personal life, which Andy tried to keep secret. It is not surprising that his personality was of great interest to the public. Warhol was at the center of the New York art scene for several decades. However, in reality Andy was a great eccentric, modest, even a closed person, and by the end of life even deeply religious. Many researchers of the artist’s life and work consider him a homosexual, finding confirmation not only in his behavior, but even in his work: a series of paintings and several films. Warhol is credited with such boyfriends as John Giorno, Billy Name, John Gould, and Jed Johnson. But Andy Warhol still had a real muse.
This is Edie Sedgwick, a model and actress who once came to see him at the Factory and completely enchanted him. There were rumors that they were having an affair. They were like two halves of one whole. But Edie abused drugs, which is why her life was cut short at the age of 28. Whether Andy Warhol, whose personal life was so closely connected with this queen of Manhattan, regretted this is unknown. But there is no doubt that she was his muse.
The last days of Warhol's life. His work today
Andy Warhol was assassinated in 1968 by his former Factory model Valerie Solan. He had clinical death, but he survived, although he changed a lot after that. He died in a New York hospital on February 22, 1987, in his sleep. Today he is considered the main artist of the late twentieth century. Films are made about him, books are written, and exhibitions are organized. Warhol's fortune, estimated at one hundred million, was bequeathed by him own fund, which supports arts organizations. Today, Pittsburgh houses the Andy Warhol Museum, which opened in 1994. His collection includes 4258 exhibits: 900 works of painting, a series of silk-screen prints, graphic works, photographs, sculptures, video works and films.
If you have ever seen Andy Warhol's paintings, you will never forget them. Somewhere in the deep shelves of your subconscious memory there will remain memories of these unusual, very vivid paintings. But not everyone who has seen his paintings knows who Andy Warhol is.
So, let's try to dive into amazing world The artist and even, if not to unravel his personality, then at least feel the disturbing membranes of his soul.
It is banal to talk about where he was born, studied, and lived. But at least brief information necessary. Three countries consider the extraordinary artist theirs - America, Slovakia, Ukraine. But, probably, one thing can be said without fail - the creative legacy of Andy Warhol belongs not to a specific country, but to the world.
Andy (Andrey Vargola) was born in Pistburg into a family of Rusyns from the Carpathians. His mother Yulia Vargola was then 36 years old. The father of the future artist worked in construction company. Andy was youngest child, the family also had two older sons. From the age of 4 to 8, Andy suffered a number of serious illnesses, among which the most severe was the disease "Dance of St. Vitus." Because of this, suffering from attacks more often in the summer, Andy was forced to spend his days in bed, playing with cut-out dolls and listening to the radio. His mother drew various pictures for Andy, which instilled in her son a taste for drawing. A little later, from her own earnings, Julia bought her son a small film projector, with which he could watch stories in pictures right on the wall of his room.
That's how Andy's creativity slowly began to develop as a child. From the age of nine the boy began to attend free courses artistic skill. After graduating from school, the young man entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology to study drawing and design. There the student had an active life position- attended parties symphony orchestras, was interested in ballet.
The artist's creativity is postmodern, unrestrained, free.
"The Naked King", fashion and film
What is the secret of Warhol's creativity? Why are these supposedly still simple paintings known all over the world? His work: bold, shocking, seizes the moment, contains layers, underground, three-dimensional, created in the style of film. There is such a theory: draw something crazy, incomprehensible and you will become famous. This is the “naked king” principle, when no one understands the subtext, the “message” that is embedded in the work. And because of misunderstanding, it is considered lofty, incredible, a masterpiece. This is typical for Malevich’s “Black Square”. But this principle does not apply to Warhol’s work.
Andy lived for fashion, pop culture and film. Even in his youth, the artist created sketches of futuristic, very bright shoes with heels. These were design ideas. The main highlight was curved lines, by which connoisseurs actually recognized the “Warhol style” in design. Fashion was his passion. Perhaps the artist even perceived the reality around him through the subconscious glasses of fashionable glasses. He was a homosexual and did not hide it. Therefore, understand fashion trends it was even easier. It was embedded in his chromosomes, in his soul.
Cinematography also constituted an important facet of his essence. Film has become a means of understanding the world, understanding reality. Andy had his finger on the pulse of life. This is evidenced by his paintings: “The Electric Chair”, “Racist Riots”, “Kens Soup” and many other paintings that reflected the current reality. He presented events in photographs with an unusual combination of colors and blurred lines. Not the way everyone saw it. The artist, as it were, captures our attention, makes us think about everyday phenomena, and try to understand them differently. And perhaps be horrified. The electric chair, racial intolerance, processed foods - everything was typical for the then American society. AND simple people they didn’t pay much attention to this anymore, they were worried own life, own problems. Andy appealed to everyone's heart and it was not difficult to recognize his “message”. He created a massive elite art simultaneously.
Honest and “colored” pop stars
But still the most famous paintings Andy's portraits are of pop stars, made using his usual “photo colorization” technique. The most famous from this series are images of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. The artist seems to look into the soul of the people he depicts. And if you look closely, you can feel the tragedy of Marilyn Monroe’s personality. Brightly colored and pink-faced, she looks miserable. The truth is hidden in the eyes. They look out from under their eyelashes, somehow embarrassed and confused. Perhaps Merlin never found the meaning of life. And this powder, excessive paint on the face is just a mask behind which the true essence of the star is hidden, which no one wanted to see. Same thing with the picture of Elvis. It is made in darker tones, in grey. Often the image is half erased. The singer pointed a gun at the viewer, his face distorted. Perhaps Elvis wants to defend himself?
15 frames of a “live” portrait
It is not surprising that with such a perception of the world the artist also created films. And this movie also amazed the world! For example, portraits of people. Andy filmed a motionless person for three minutes, and then edited it so that there were 15 frames per second. The image turned out slow, somehow surreal. In this way, the person can be understood; these were “living” portraits. Or a monotonous shot for 8 hours. Everything was here: color, the movement of clouds, space, even a plane flying by. But the camera didn't move. We simply watched a piece of the world, how exactly in this place the morning begins, the day passes, and twilight falls. These were the spells of reality. Not everyone managed to understand this movie; it is a real art house. But now, Andy is being compared to the Impressionists. When Monet also “played with color” when he painted the façade of Rouen Cathedral. He wrote the structure in different periods day. And each time the picture came out different.
Andy Warhol is not just an artist, he is art himself. He was not afraid of experiments, crazy ideas, and was not afraid to show himself to the world. The artist is not just the embodiment of postmodernism, he has done a lot for the development of this direction. And let someone say that his work is abnormal, immoral, uninteresting. But those who are not afraid to break stereotypes and lay a new foundation for art usually remain in the memory of generations. Standard, stereotyped, correct is not art, it’s just a surrogate that socialist realism imposed on us. There are no limits to human potential, because we all draw inspiration from the vast depths of space, with which we are actually connected. The “collective unconscious” exists in each of us, but not everyone can fully hear this voice.
