Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dead
1987
New York

1949
BFA Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh

While working as a successful commercial artist in New York, Warhol had his first solo show at the Hugo Gallery, New York in 1952 exhibiting Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote. His work was exhibited in several other venues during the 1950s including a group show at the Museum of Modern Art, NY.

The year 1962 had witnessed the birth of iconic images of Pop art such as Campbell´s Soup cans, Coke Bottles and Marilyn Monroe. During the 1960s, Warhol created numerous silkscreen paintings showing the images of celebrities and contemporary news of disasters, such as Liz (1963), Death and Disaster series (1962-63) and Jackie series (1966). The artist also produced the 16mm films such as Sleep, Empire, Blow Job (all in 1963), Kiss(1964) and Chelsea Girls(1966).

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Warhol continued to produce both silkscreen paintings and edition prints including Mao (1972), Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980), Myths series (1981), Ads series (1985) and Camouflage series (1987). He also produced small-scale canvas paintings such as Moon Explorer Robot (1983) and Campbell’s Soup Box-Chicken Noodle (1986).

The significance of Warhol’s art lies beyond its reaffirmation of mass culture. His art directly challenged not only the traditional notion of the artist as a dexterous individual with the lofty vision of the world and the truth, but also that of the artwork as an absolutely original object that could be never repeated in the same state.