Andrew Warhola

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Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and died February 22, 1987 in New York, is an American artist, one of the leading representatives of pop art.

Warhol is known around the world for his work as a painter, musical producer, author, avant-garde film, and links to intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities or wealthy aristocrats. Although Warhol's work remains controversial, he has been the subject of multiple exhibitions, books, and films since his death. Warhol is generally recognized as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.

History

Andy Warhol was born of Ruthenian parents living in the village of Miková in the north-east of present-day Slovakia then part of Austria-Hungary. He is the fourth son of the family. His father, Ondrej Varhola, Americanized in Andrew Warhola, Sr., emigrated to the United States in 1914, while his mother, Julia, did not arrive until 1921, after the death of her parents.

Andrew Warhol then works as a coal miner. Family in a locality near Pittsburgh. Andy's poor childhood was shaped by the polluted environment of this suburb, the privations of his family suffering from the Great Depression, but also by the Byzantine iconography in which bathes the very practicing Christian Warhol family. In 1933 he began his schooling at the primary school where he felt unloved.

With Sydenham's Chorea (an infectious disease of the central nervous system, occurring after a Group A beta-haemolytic streptococcal infection, with fever, characterized by involuntary movements and contractions of the trunk and extremity muscles from 7 at 14 years of age following streptococcal contamination Streptococcal antigens resemble those found in nervous tissues, resulting in rheumatic fever, which cures naturally) In 1937, he often remains bedridden; cared for by his mother, he draws, listens to the radio and collects pictures of movie stars.

Warhol will describe later the importance of this period for his personal development and that of his tastes. In May 1942, Andrew father died after three years of illness, his son was only 14 years old. Andy's schooling ends in 1945 with the graduation from high school.

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Between 1945 and 1949, Andy studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh where he earned the title of Bachelor of Fine Arts. It was during his studies that he adopted the technique of stamped drawing. In the summer of 1949, he moved to New York, and that same year, began to work as a cartoonist for Glamor magazine, on this occasion appears for the first time his simplified name in Andy Warhol.

He then worked for Vogue and for Harper's Bazaar and created his first sketches for shoe manufacturer I. Miller; he also decorates shop windows for the Bronwit Teller department store. Dreaming of becoming an artist, he often hangs out in the Serendipity bar and restaurant frequented by artists like Marilyn Monroe, he is noticed by the boss who agrees to hang his first drawings.

It was in 1952 that his first exhibition was held at the Hugo Gallery in New York. Between 1953 and 1955, Andy became a costume designer in a theater troupe, then he waved the platinum wig that will characterize him.

In 1954, his first exhibition at the Loft Gallery in New York took place. In 1955 he made a number of commercials, even making Christmas cards for various stores, such as Tiffany's. Some of these Christmas cards are available in Greetings from Andy's (Warhol) Christmas at Tiffany's book.

In 1956, an exclusive exhibition takes place at the Bodley Gallery, and he also exhibits on Madison Avenue. During this same year, he goes around the world. His publicity for Miller wins the Thirty Fifth Annual Art Director's Club Award.

In 1957 he won another prize for his commercials, the Art Director's Club Medal. In the same year, he founded a company managing advertising orders. He will be the advertising spokesman of the brand Vidal Sassoon, posing for an advertisement for lacquer in 1985.

In February-May 1961, he produced his first five comic-inspired paintings, most of which he exhibited in the week of April 11 or 18, 1961 at the storefront of the Bonwit Teller store, which used it for commercial illustrations.

At the end of 1961, Irving Blum of the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, who probably saw the works of Lichtenstein at the September 1961 collective exhibition at Castelli, visited Warhol's studio on the advice of David Herbert, who worked for Betty Parsons, among others. and the Sidney Janis Gallery.

Then after another visit to Castelli and Warhol's studio in May 1962, during which he presented his new series Campbell's Soup Can initiated in February 1962, Blum immediately decided to expose it on the West Coast. Blum later stated that he was also at Castelli just before the personal exhibition which he later devoted to Lichtenstein on February 10, 1962 and had his first meeting with Warhol six months earlier, which would place the first visit of his studio at the time even from the collective exhibition at Castelli in September 1961.

A letter from Blum to Warhol dated June 9, 1962 set the dates for his first collective exhibition as a painter, presenting 32 Campbell's Soup can, at the Ferus Gallery, the July 9 to August 1, 1962, after several of them were returned in June to the artist by the Martha Jackson Gallery of New York.

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The same year, Warhol, who exhibits again Campbell's Soup Can, participates with Roy Lichtenstein and French artists (Yves Klein died 5 months earlier, Niki de Saint Phalle, etc.), Italian, English and Swedish at the first event Major Pop Art in the United States, jointly organized with the New Realism and entitled The New Realists, held from October 31 to December 1, 1962 at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York.

This exhibition echoed in particular the exhibition "Motion in Vision - Vision in Motion" bringing together the European avant-garde ZERO Group, organized by Tinguely in the spring of 1959 in Antwerp, followed by that held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in March 1962.

As in 1960, during the exhibition "New forms - New Media", works by Klein are presented at the exhibition The New Realists, following his own stay in New York in April 1961 for his exhibition Yves Klein the Monochrome held from April 11 to 29, 1961 at the Gallery Leo Castelli, but where it will be brought, in front of the hostile reception not only of the criticism but also of the American artists, to justify its approach by the Manifesto of the hotel Chelsea , exhibition taken from May 29 to June 24, 1961 at the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles, where Irvin Blum probably saw it.

In March 1962, Warhol painted his first Dollars using serigraphy and also composed his first series on American stars, such as Marilyn Monroe in August 1962, at the time of his death, Elvis Presley in October 1962, etc. Her first solo exhibition took place at the Eleanor Ward Stable Gallery in New York from November 6 to 24, 1962.

Following an order from Harper's Bazaar magazine, he undertakes a series of portraits of actors, celebrities, musicians and characters from the art world by having them pose in a Photomaton. In January 1964, Warhol opened the Factory in a loft on 47th Street. It is a kind of artistic workshop that serves at the same time as a recording studio for his cinematographic works and as a meeting place for his entourage.

This is where he turns several experimental films, largely improvised, without subject or scenario. In the manner of his paintings, these films proceed by duplicating the same motif.
From May to June 1963, American authorities present for the first time in Europe, at the American Center in Paris, the exhibition "From A to Z" gathering 31 artists of the young American Pop art scene, including Warhol, Lichtenstein etc.

In 1964 takes place his first solo show in Europe. For the New York World's Fair, Warhol creates the Thirteen Most Wanted Men wall panel, a work that will have to be covered with a black cloth because this canvas, representing criminals, is shocking at the time. He begins his screen printing in 3D by reproducing boxes of Heinz ketchup or Brillo scouring pads.

In 1969, immersed in both the underground and VIP milieu of the time, Warhol published the first copies of his interview magazine, created with Gerard Malanga, with illustrated articles on celebrities of the moment, which will significantly influence the world of photography. press and whose first quarterly version of the Inrockuptibles will take over the concept. During the years 1969 and 1972, he realized some works on order, for friends or directors of gallery.

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In 1972, he made a return to painting with silkscreened portraits, like those of Mao Zedong, paintings retouched in a very gestural way while producing abstract works of art and using oxidation paint. Warhol is then overwhelmed by the commands.

Among them, he painted a work in 1975 representing the face of the owner of the wine estate Mouton Rothschild by highlighting certain features of his face with colors. This work was entitled to its place on a wine label sold to over 250,000 bottles.

During the year 1980, Warhol produces video clips and opens the cable TV channel Andy Warhol TV. He also released the book POPsim, The Warhol's 60s.
Between 1982 and 1986, he produced the latest series featuring famous paintings, such as the Birth of Venus Botticelli or The Last Supper. In 1986 come the last Selfportraits and the series of portraits of Lenin.

During his last years, he also does not hesitate to use his notoriety to highlight young New York artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat or Keith Haring.
After long repelling a gallbladder operation that had been responsible for his father's death, Andy Warhol underwent this mundane surgery at New York Hospital on February 21, 1987.

He seems to be recovering, but he is dying in his sleep of a heart attack on February 22, 1987 in New York, probably victim of his excesses as the regular intake of anorexigenic products to lose weight but also amphetamines like obetrol to reduce sleep.

Attempted assassination

On June 3, 1968, he narrowly escaped death when Valerie Solanas, a feminist activist, had entrusted Warhol with the manuscript of a play without the latter paying any attention to it, emptying the magazine of a pistol on him in the hall of the Factory.

The shots pierce his lung, spleen, stomach, liver and esophagus. It also draws on Andy's art critic and mate, Mario Amaya, and also tries to kill his impresario, Fred Hughes, before the gun goes off. Declared during a clinically dead time, Warhol gets away from it, but he will never really recover and will have to wear a corset until the end of his days.

Solanas pleads guilty to his trial and is only three years in prison. Warhol refused to testify against her.

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