”They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
Andy Warhol, the controversial pop artist who rose to an iconic status during the 1960s, challenged the definition of art with his silkscreen paintings of celebrities, advertisements and utilitarian objects, such as his famous cans of Campbell’s Soup. Both in his subject matter and artistic process Warhol gained devoted fans and vitriolic critics. His position as a controversial character helped turn the fabric of American consumer culture into art and has cemented his position as one of the most popular artists of the twentieth century.
Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928. A sickly child, Warhol often spent long periods of time home from school in bed, which he later described as the fundamental foundation in the development of his personality and interest in art. Warhol moved to New York City in 1949 where he worked as a magazine illustrator and advertisement designer. After his artistic career took off during the 1960s, Warhol began to make paintings of famous American products and celebrities, artistically commercializing the products so comfortably implanted in the American household media stream. His switch to silkscreen prints, produced serially, helped Warhol re-emphasize his artistic goal to not only make art of mass produced items, but the mass produce the art itself. His intention of creating art like “a machine” was heightened by minimizing the role of his own hand in the production of his work. This truly sparked a revolution in art and made his work not only controversial but extremely popular at the same time.