Andy Warhol Pictures

by Ethan Cole
 
 

The art world has produced many celebrities over the years, but not many artists have achieved success in their lifetime until recently. Andy Warhol was an expert in self promotion, and made himself into a brand. He became a household name in the 1960s, and Andy Warhol pictures are always snapped up quickly by collectors and auction houses. Since his death in 1987, the price of originals has rocketed. Most fans have to be content with a print or a poster. Many of the images in Andy Warhol pictures are familiar to the public. They have transcended art and become part of our culture.

Along with artists such as Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg, Andy was part of the movement known as Pop Art. This had been earlier referred to as the Soup Can school, a term which was coined after the famous series of Campbell's Soup Cans which appeared in Andy Warhol pictures. Pop Art took everyday images from the world of advertising and stylized them. In fact, Andy started his career as a commercial artist drawing women's shoes.
 

Nothing was considered too mundane for Andy's attention. Andy Warhol pictures depicted coke bottles and brillo pad boxes. The initial reaction to this was snobbish. Defenders of Pop Art pointed out that a coke bottle was no different than Cézanne painting a wine bottle. Andy also liked to paint iconic symbols of America such as the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. He also painted huge dollar signs, American sports cars, revolvers, Mickey Mouse, and macabre electric chairs.

Beautiful and charismatic women are another theme in Andy Warhol pictures. There was a particular obsession with Marilyn Monroe, whom he reproduced over and over. He also depicted Princess Diana, Jackie Kennedy, Greta Garbo, and Ingrid Bergman. Male stars were a subject too sometimes, when he painted Elvis drawing a gun, and Muhammad Ali.

Andy liked to think of himself as someone providing a product, even calling his studio The Factory. He liked to keep a distance from his art and to manufacture it as efficiently and quickly as possible. He wasn't interested in the process of painting, only the slick execution of the end result. Andy Warhol pictures were often created by the method of silk screening. This involves transferring the image onto the silk screen stencil and then multicolored inks are sent thru the screen to the canvas below.

Many people considered Andy to be an eccentric member of the counter culture. It's a bit more complicated than that. Andy was a traditionalist in many ways. A devout Catholic, he attended Mass every week. The less well known Andy Warhol pictures are sometimes surprising in their subject matter. He painted Beethoven and the German writer, Goethe. He also did his own colorful take on da Vinci's Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

The personal image may have been manufactured with Andy always striving to be cool and enigmatic. Some people don't like his art because it appears too clinical. Whether you're a fan or not, it must be said that Andy Warhol pictures were a major influence on other artists and on the commercial world they had themselves sprung from.