Andy Warhol’s influence
Andy Warhol is America’s best-known artist and arguably one of the most well-known artists of the twentieth century, he exists in the same zone as Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Warhol is considered one of most influential artists, other being Pablo Picasso, of the 20th century. Andy Warhol epitomized Pop Art more than any other artist. This movement emerged from a revolt against Abstract Expressionists, which the Pop Art artists considered as over-intense and pretentious.
Warhol was a leading figure in ‘pop art’, which was a visual art moment. His expertise explored the relationship between advertising, celebrity culture, and artistic expression, spanning into a variety of media, including film, silkscreening, sculpture, painting, and photography.
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, a book Andy wrote in 1975, states his thoughts about business and art. “During the hippie era people put down the idea of business”, he wrote “ — they’d say ‘Money is bad,’ and ‘Working is bad,’ but making money is art and working are art and good business is the best art.” Though this was a controversial thing to say at the time, the controversy had been Warhol’s fashion of operation since the 1960’s.
Warhol is credited to have coined the term- ’15 minutes of fame’, which were inspired by his words “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”, which showed a natural understanding of our relish of stars, and also of the way the media would become ubiquitous, proving to be a befitting prophecy in today’s world of social media, YouTube and reality TV.
Warhol’s view of fame has predicted the 21st-century culture. Warhol turned people like Santa Barbara’s heiress Edie Sedgwick into celebrities, intuitively understanding decades before reality TV or YouTube that people do not have to be famous for singing, acting or doing anything other than playing themselves.
“Marilyn”, being one of Warhol’s well-known artworks reflects Warhol’s thoughts towards celebrity icons. The silk-screen reproductions reciprocate his thoughts to the social frenzy ensuing Marilyn Monroe’s death. Warhol believed that the media had grown preoccupied with the glamour of celebrity icon rather than the actual being. More of his works can be found at BlouinArtinfo.com and Atrsy.net.
Warhol’s other famous artwork portrayed Campbell soup containers, vacuum cleaners and Coca-cola bottles. He also painted celebrity portraits; his most famous subjects, apart from Marilyn,being Elizabeth Taylor and Mick Jagger. His portrait, titled “Eight Elvises”, sold for $100 million in 2008, making it one of the most precious paintings in art history.
After his death, the artist’s estate was changed to The Andy Warhol Foundation, and in 1994 a museum dedicated to him opened in Pittsburgh.
