Andy Warhol graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1949 and moved to NYC to pursue a career as a commercial artist. Working with Glamour magazine, Warhol became one of the most renowned commercial artists in the 1950s. By 1961 Warhol’s career focus shifted to painting, where he carried on some of his commercial techniques to create the first American “Pop Art.”[1]
Pop art: “focused on mass-produced commercial goods.”[2] Warhol’s first creation that grabbed the eyes of Americans was his Campbell soup cans. For the work of art Warhol screen-printed soup cans on canvas. Warhol used the same print 32 times and stenciled in the different flavors for each can. This work of art depicts mass production in a literal way by using a mass production technique in order to create a product that is mass-produced. His creations typically included celebrities, or products and ultimately further expanded what art was in America.
Andy Warhol was inspired by his work as a commercial artist to continue depicting commercialized America. Along with the soup cans, Warhol gained fame through paintings of coke bottles, vacuums, and celebrities including Marilyn Monroe and an Elvis portrait that is considered one of the most valuable paintings in world history after selling for 100 million dollars in 2008. [3] These creations helped Warhol gain fame of his own.
Warhol’s depiction of celebrity on canvas and his own acquired fame showed how America was commercially shifting. We began to gain an obsession with stardom and Warhol’s paintings of celebrity depicted how these people were being commercialized and regarded in a similar fashion as products like Coke bottles and Campbell soup cans. Warhol displayed these early images of Pop Art in Los Angeles. He sold the Campbell soup can canvases for $1,000 in 1962, now they are valued at $15 million.
Pop art: “focused on mass-produced commercial goods.”[2] Warhol’s first creation that grabbed the eyes of Americans was his Campbell soup cans. For the work of art Warhol screen-printed soup cans on canvas. Warhol used the same print 32 times and stenciled in the different flavors for each can. This work of art depicts mass production in a literal way by using a mass production technique in order to create a product that is mass-produced. His creations typically included celebrities, or products and ultimately further expanded what art was in America.
Andy Warhol was inspired by his work as a commercial artist to continue depicting commercialized America. Along with the soup cans, Warhol gained fame through paintings of coke bottles, vacuums, and celebrities including Marilyn Monroe and an Elvis portrait that is considered one of the most valuable paintings in world history after selling for 100 million dollars in 2008. [3] These creations helped Warhol gain fame of his own.
Warhol’s depiction of celebrity on canvas and his own acquired fame showed how America was commercially shifting. We began to gain an obsession with stardom and Warhol’s paintings of celebrity depicted how these people were being commercialized and regarded in a similar fashion as products like Coke bottles and Campbell soup cans. Warhol displayed these early images of Pop Art in Los Angeles. He sold the Campbell soup can canvases for $1,000 in 1962, now they are valued at $15 million.
Warhol’s depiction of commercialized America celebrated the culture of the time. Mass production and obsession over celebrity status rapidly expanded in the 1960’s and this encouraged Warhol to represent this through art. His time as a commercial painter also influenced his personal art career. One of Warhol’s inspirations was that people among every social class purchase the same commercial goods and follow the same celebrities. He found beauty in this unity of commercialization and it inspired his career.
[1] Andrew Warhola. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:15, Nov 10, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875.
[2] Pop art pioneer andy warhol dies. (1987, Feb 23). The Windsor Star Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/253614637?accountid=14244
[3] Andrew Warhola. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:15, Nov 10, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875.
[1] Andrew Warhola. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:15, Nov 10, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875.
[2] Pop art pioneer andy warhol dies. (1987, Feb 23). The Windsor Star Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/253614637?accountid=14244
[3] Andrew Warhola. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:15, Nov 10, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875.