Andy Warhol American, 1928-1987

American artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. Like his contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg, Warhol’s work explores the relationship between artistic expression, advertising and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s. His work spanned a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film and sculpture. This body of work depicting cultural and consumer icons—including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Campbell’s Soup Cans, and Brillo Boxes made him one of the most famous artists of his generation.

Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator working for magazines such as Vogue and Glamour. After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist. His New York studio on East 47th street in Midtown Manhattan would later be known as The Factory and became a well-known gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons.

The artist died tragically following complications from routine surgery at the age of 58, in New York, 1987. After his death, the artist’s estate became The Andy Warhol Foundation. Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city of Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist.