Andy Warhol was an American artist, producer, and film director who later became famous for his contribution to a new, avant-garde form of art: pop art. He used this bold style to express emotions and ideas, and his legacy has left him as the most prominent figure in the genre.
It was the 1960's, and a new phenomenon known as "pop art" was taking the art world by storm. Paintings of this particular style starkly contrasted what was generally considered "art". There were no dramatic landscapes or elegant portraits. Only bold paintings of widely marketed and produced goods as well as pop culture icons. Then, in 1962, a man named Andrew Warhola, now known as Andy Warhol, created his first piece of pop art. It was a painting of Campbell's soup cans. He continued making paintings of the same variety, painting more soup cans, a Coca-Cola bottle, Brillo soap pads, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presely, and the list goes on. These paintings made Andy Warhol famous, and pop art bacame his signature style of painting.
As a child, Andy Warhol had a disease called Sydenham's Chorea, also known as St. Vitus Dance, which gave him involuntary muscle spasms and facial contortions. While stuck at home during his recovery, Warhol collected pictures of celebrities and drew, sparking his passion for a specific style of art that would define his career later in life. When he got older, Andy Warhol attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, and majored in pictoral design. His first job was as an advertisement designer. He soon became unhappy as a commercial artist, so he decided to try his hand at paintings based on the comic strips and advertisements he was so used to drawing. He presented his first painting, Campbell's Soup Cans, at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1962. In the same year, he created a painting of Marilyn Monroe shortly after her death. His new style of artwork proved to be popular, and continued to make and more paintings of the same variety. In 1963, Andy Warhol bought a camera and created his first films, marking the beginning of his filmmaking career. The rest is history. Andy Warhol created more films throughout the years, but was better known for his contribution to pop art.