Andy Warhol
In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.
Andrew Warhola (Andy Warhol), was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child he suffered from a neurological disrder commonly known as St. Vitus dance, which caused involuntary movements. At times when he was stuck in bed, he drew, listened to the radio and collected pictures. Warhol feels that this stage in his life was very important in developing his personality and skill-set. Warhol began his career doing graphic design and advertisement in NYC and dropped the final “a” in Warhola. His work first appeared in a 1949 issue of Glamour magazine, in which he illustrated a story called “What is Success?”, this lead to him becoming the most successful and highly paid commercial illustrator in NYC. Growing up a gay man in America in the 1950s when homosexuality was criminalised, Warhol had trouble getting work accepted to galleries due to its certain subject matter. He enjoyed drawing the male figure and did not hide his sexuality. As the 1960s approached and the Pop Art movement influenced the world, Warhol produced his first comic and ad based pop art paintings in 1961. This was the beginning of Warhol, as he soon became the leading figure of the Pop Art Movement.
As the leading figure of the Pop Art Movement, Warhol’s controversial designs and art explore the relationship between celebrity culture, advertisement and artistic expression. Warhol’s work was cold and simple, with the public often controversial about whether his work really counted as art. People often felt that Warhol made a mockery of the art world by creating consumer illustrations as art. While Seeking to expand his factory empire into rock and roll, Warhol began to play a part in the artwork and making of The Verve’s new record. Warhol introduced a German model, Nico, into the band as a featured vocalist (where the album got part of its name from) as he feared the band lacked the necessary look/style to become famous. The song in the album, ‘I’ll be your mirror’, is in a sense a portrait of Warhol and the way he reflects the world in his art. The record artwork displays ‘Warhols’ strong artistic and individual style, printing commercial objects as art. The interactive aspect added to the design, allows the consumer to peel away the top layer. For Warhol this is the ultimate symbol of american consumer democracy. The album was not a hit immediately, but gained reputation when the band’s influence grew and the record design acquired a following of it’s own, turning a banana into a world recognizable symbol. Warhol’s incredible creativity and design made The Verve’s Album and its banana cover inseperable.
The main inspiration behind Warhol’s fame, Pop Art, emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and the late 1950s in America. It was the art movement that characterized a feeling of optimism during the post war consumer boom. It began as a revolt against the traditional approaches and views of what art should be. Young artists felt that what they were taught at art school and what they saw in museums and galleries had nothing to do with what was going on in their lives. Thus turning them to look at Hollywood, celebrities, pop music and comic books. The pop art movement started with artists including Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Although it drew inspiration from different cultures and countries during the 1960s and 70s, they all had a common interest in mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture. A key idea of Pop Art was to blur the boundaries between “high” art and “low” culture, whilst the leading characteristic of the movement was the development of the idea that artists can borrow inspiration from any source. The display of mass culture objects and media stars in the artworks helped to evolve a key idea of the movement-“There is no hierarchy of culture, art may borrow from any source”. Many art critics were disgusted by the movements use of low subject matter. This was the most influential aspect of the movement. In 1957, Richard Hamilton described Pop Art movement as “Pop Art is: Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business”.
“ In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes”- Warhol, 1968. He was able to see something about the developed world and culture that no one else was able to see. Warhol saw the need for people to be important. In a life of reality TV, youtube and blogging, his prediction for the western world has come true. We all desire to be everywhere and to be everything. He was able to predict that we will all be so globally connected that everyone will have the chance to be famous for atleast 15 minutes. It could also suggest that we all have capability of doing something that could make us famous for a short amount of time. His odd suggestion of “15 Minutes” emphasises the shortness of the time as 15 minutes is nothing in relation to the amount of time we live over our entire lives. Warhol had a huge influence on the world and the design culture. He created work which developed the Pop Art movement and challenged the public in displaying work which was contoversial in the art world. His creation of the world famous saying “In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes” is still talked about to this day and shows the impact that he had on the world and the future.
