American Artist And Filmmaker Andy Warhol example essay topic

Andy Warhol Biography The American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhol in 1928. There has for years been quite a bit of confusion to the exact place and time he was born, but according to Andy's two older brothers and the birth certificate that was filed in Pittsburgh in 1945, he was born on August 6th in Pittsburgh. Whether or not this is the day he was born hasn t been proved, but it was on this date which he celebrated his birthday. He is considered a founder and major figure of the pop art movement. A graduate of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949, he moved to New York City and gained success as a commercial artist.

He received his first break in August 1949, when Glamour Magazine wanted him to illustrate a feature entitled Success is a Job in New York. Somehow by accident the credits read Drawings by Andy Warhol and that's how Andy dropped the a in his last name. He continued doing ads and illustrations and by 1955 he was the most successful and imitated commercial artist in New York. In 1960 he produced the first of his paintings depicting enlarged comic strip images – such as Popeye and Superman – initially for use in a window display. Warhol pioneered the development of the process whereby an enlarged photographic image is transferred to a silk screen that is then placed on a canvas and inked from the back. It was this technique that enabled him to produce the series of mass-media images – repetitive, yet with slight variations – that he began in 1962.

These, incorporating such items as Campbell's Soup cans, dollar bills, Coca-Cola bottles, and the faces of celebrities, can be taken as comments on the banality, harshness, and vagueness of American culture. Later in the 1960's, Warhol made a series of experimental films dealing with such ideas as time, boredom, and repetition: they include Sleep (1963), Empire (1964), and The Chelsea Girls (1966). In 1965 he started working with a rock band called The Velvet Underground formed by Lou Reed and John Cale. Andy introduced them to the model and movie star Nico and she sang on their debut album. From 1967 they were know as The Velvet Underground and Nico. Andy would travel around the country, not only with The Velvets, but also with superstar of the year Edie Sedgwick and the lights how The Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

On June 3rd, 1968, Valerie Solanis, a rejected superstar, came into The Factory and shot Andy three times in the chest. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, but after having his chest cut open and given a heart massage he survived. Valerie Solanis turned herself in that night and was put in a mental institution. She was later given a three-year prison sentence. After recovering Andy Warhol continued to work. He founded inter / VIEW magazine in 1969 (they changed the name to Interview in 1971), and published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again in 1975 and continued to paint portraits until he died at 6: 31 a.m. on Sunday, February 22nd, 1987 at the New York Hospital after a gallbladder operation.