From Little Andrew Warhola to the "Prince of Pop"

Andy Warhol was born in 1928 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to Czechoslovakian emigrant's Ondrej and Julia Warhola. His parents originally named him Andrew Warhola but he later changed his name to Andy Warhol when he graduated college. Warhol came from a working class family. His father worked as a construction worker until he tragically died when Andy was thirteen years old. At a young age Andy showed a strong talent with his art abilities. As a child Andy was obsessed with childhood star Shirley Temple and modeled most of his work off her image. He loved how she could portray someone grown up but at the same time had attributes of a young child. After completing high school Andy went to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh where he further studied his passion for the arts. He studied Commercial Art and later went on to work for Publications like Vouge and Harpar’s Bazaar. Andy did not want to be known only for his commercial art; though that is the career he led for a long period of time.
In 1956 Andy finally broke out into the art world. In the 60’s he began his commonly know silkscreen paintings. Andy showed a lot of interest in celebrities which led him to creating one of his most famous silkscreen designs of Marilyn Monroe. From that point on everything changed for Andy Warhol and he became very famous very fast. In 1962 at the age of thirty-four, Andy had around 46 illustrations known to the public. From 1962 -1966 Andy Warhol went from having 46 illustrations known to the public to 69 illustrations known to the public. His silkscreen paintings became so famous that celebrities began paying Warhol to paint silkscreen paintings of them because they loved them so much. Besides silkscreen paintings, Andy had a knack for taking items that seemed to have nothing interesting about them and made them spectacular. He took things that were commercial art and transformed them into masterpieces. One of his most famous designs known, using this technique, is his Campbell’s soup design. His use of the soup cans made huge additions to his so successful career. Andy Warhol was an unfinished masterpiece that continued to amaze people even to his death in 1987. He gained the title from the media as the “Prince of Pop” because of the everlasting imprint he made on the art world.


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Image Source:

Room, By. "Elvis, 1963 (triple Elvis) by Andy Warhol Art Print - WorldGallery.co.uk." Art Prints & Posters - WorldGallery.co.uk for Modern & Classic Prints & Framing. Web. 06 Dec. 2010.