Andy Warhol is the artist most identified with Pop Art. In fact, the media through the years have referred to Andy Warhol as the Prince of Pop. Warhol actually was born of a working class family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was born in 1928 and was the child of Slovak immigrants. His actual name was Andrew Warhola. A construction worker, his father died when Andy was 13. Early in his life, Andy showed a talent for drawing and painting. When he graduated from high school, Andy studied commercial art at the Carnegie Institute, in Pittsburgh. When he graduated in 1949, Andy went to New York City. He became an illustrator for magazines such as Harpar's Bazaar and Vogue. In time, he became the most sought after commercial illustrator in New York City. Andy Warhol was featured in his first one man show in 1952 at the Hudo Gallery. Some years later, in 1956, he was part of an important group exhibition that was held at the Museum of Modern Art. During the 1960s, Warhol began painting daily objects that were mass produced - like Campbell Soup cans and Coke bottles. He eventually did become a very famous person on the social scene in Manhattan. Beginning in 1962, Andy made silkscreen prints of some of the most famous people in the world, including such icons as Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol worked to remove the line that divided fine art and the commercial art. Andy summed up his feelings about art when he said that department stores are just another form of museums.
In 1968 Warhol's first novel, consisting of fragments of telephone conversations at a factory was published. In 1969, Andy Warhol founded the magazine “Interview”. In 1975, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again) appeared and Popism: The Warhol Sixties was published in 1980. The Andy Warhol Diaries was published in 1989, already after his death.
Throughout his entire life, Warhol collected paintings, furniture, and jewelry, items of decorative and applied arts. Having been satiated with pop culture, Andy Warhol started buying antiques and decorated his house with classical art masterpieces in 1980. In due course, his 27 room private residence on East 33rd Street in Manhattan burst with furniture in the Art Deco and empire styles, Navajo blankets and creations of American folklore. After his death, his collections were auctioned by Corbis.
Andy Warhol died in New York on February 12, 1987. Around 2000 people attended the memorial service in St. Patrick's cathedral. He was buried in Pittsburgh and according to Warhol’s will his wealth, estimated at a hundred million dollars, was handed over to the Andy Warhol Foundation for visual arts, to help the art organizations.
Warhol's name practically became a synonym of pop-art. In 1989, the Museum of Modern Art in New York devoted a full-scale retrospective exhibition to Andy Warhol. In 1994, the Andy Warhol Museum was opened in Pittsburgh and the museum houses 4258 stock-keeping units including 800 picturesque works, created during the period from 1940 to 1987, a number of silk-screen paintings, graphic works, photos and sculptures, film and video works.
The so-called “Time capsules” are stored in an archive. The “Time capsules” consists of 610 cardboard boxes, in which Warhol stored countless number of things and materials, which were part of his daily life: photos, newspapers and magazines, letters, books – all were put into box, which stood next to his working table, and at the month end, the box was sealed and a date was inscribed on it. Warhol wanted to sell these boxes for 100 dollars each in the beginning and then for 5000 dollars.
The “Time capsules” contain an original, sometimes, coded chronicle of his daily life, the world of art, fashion, society and the New York underground. Their content is varied, plentiful, and combines ordinary and unique. The mummified foot and drawings of a 1950’s, dress, belonging to actress Jean Harlow or the boots of Clark Gable can be found in the “Time Capsules”.
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