15 minutes of fame

Andy Warhol&

Pop art

Andy WarholAugust 6, 1928-

February 22, 1987 (aged 58)

Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art.

Andy Warhol and Pop ArtAs a child, Warhol caught

St. Vitus' disease, which damaged his nerves and left him with a permanently odd appearance.

His mother nursed him back to health with Campbell's condensed soup. He was later to use paintings of the soup tins he loved in his first major exhibition.

Already admired for his ink drawings of shoes, he concentrated on creating artistic representations of everyday objects in American culture.

Warhol aimed to break down the barriers between commercial art & fine art.

"Paintings are too hard. The things I want to show are mechanical. Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine, wouldn't you?"Andy Warhol, 1963

Warhol was fascinated by Hollywood, fashion and style. He transferred this interest to his artwork.

Warhol did not see the difference between a museum and a department store. Blurring the distinction between art and life.

He believed art could be fashion, decoration, politics.

The cartons are non-functional. Some are made from wooden boxes.

They comment on the way that commercial packaging transforms a mundane, household product into a glamorous, desirable commodity.

Warhol also focuses our attention on the significance of these objects as representatives of the impersonal, commercialized consumer society in which we live.

The work of Andy Warhol has been read as a critical assault on the pretensions and traditional concepts of high culture. Warhol, however, was deliberately unclear as to the meaning of his work and always gave the appearance of indifference and ambivalence. With a wry, deadpan delivery, he denied any link to socio-political commentary.