Obsessed with celebrities, consumer culture and mechanical reproduction, Andy Warhol created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. In his most famous works: his 32 Campbell's soup cans, his Brillo box sculptures, and portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, he drew widely from popular culture and everyday themes. Rejecting the dominant painting and sculptural modes of his time, Warhol used, among other things, screen printing to achieve his signature hard edges and flat areas of color, while at the same time challenging traditional perceptions of art. Warhol has been the subject of exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern and the Center Pompidou, among others. His works have been sold at auction for more than 100 million dollars.
Sources of photographs: Wikipedia, MFA, Britannica
1928
Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA on August 6, 1928.
1942-1949
He attended Holmes School and attended Tam O'Shanter's free art classes at the Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museum of Art) taught by Joseph Fitzpatrick before attending Schenley High School in 1942. He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University).
1949
His work first appeared in a 1949 issue of Glamor magazine, in which he illustrated a story titled "What Is Success?" An award-winning illustrator in the 1950s, his clients included Tiffany & Co., I. Miller Shoes, Fleming-Joffe, Bonwit Teller, Columbia Records and Vogue.
1961
Warhol created his first pop paintings based on comics and advertisements. Warhol's Coca-Cola from 1961 is a key part of his career.
1962
Warhol turned to perhaps his most notable style - photographic screen printing.
1963-1968
During these years he produced a series of films, starting with his first feature Sleep (1963), the five hours and twenty-one minutes of sleep of the poet John Giorn.
1984
In 1984, Warhol was commissioned by Alexander Iolas - who also gave Warhol his first solo exhibition in 1952 - to create a series of paintings to be installed opposite the monastery that houses Leonardo da Vinci's famous Last Supper. This commission led to one of Warhol's greatest oeuvres, consisting of approximately one hundred works depicting da Vinci's The Last Supper.
1987
On February 22, 1987, Warhol died at a New York hospital in Manhattan from complications following surgery to remove his gallbladder.
