ANDY WARHOL AND POP ART

“Art is what you can get away with.”

 - Andry Warhol

Andy Warhol was the most successful and highly paid commercial illustrator in New York even before he began to make art destined for galleries. Nevertheless, his screenprinted images of Marilyn Monroe, soup cans, and sensational newspaper stories, quickly became synonymous with Pop art. Incredibly prolific in various endeavors, Warhol is recognized as one of the most influential avantgarde filmmakers of his generation, founded Interview Magazine in 1969, produced and managed The Velvet Underground, authored numerous books, was an avid photographer, directed music videos and even hosted his own talk-show on MTV.

In the 1960s Andy began making paintings of iconic American objects like dollar bills, Campbell’s Soup Cans, Coca Cola bottles, electric chairs etc. He painted famous celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Muhammad Ali, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. It was during these years that Warhol founded his studio, ‘The Factory’ and gathered about him a wide range of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities. His studio became a social hub in New York City. Andy Warhol worked as a commercial artist and later as a fine artist. His works display a casual approach to image making. Warhol’s style allows chance to play a role and unintentional marks and mistakes are often tolerated. This is apparent in his imagery which is full of imperfections. Warhol once said, “… when you do something exactly wrong, you always turn up something.”

Let's enjoy works of this extraordinary artist.

Four Marlonsbrought in $69.6 million at Christie's auction. Total sales that evening was the highest among the auctions.

Warhol photographed the boxer, Muhammad Ali, in 1977 as part of his 'Athletes' series. Ali was not an easy subject but Warhol managed to capture a powerful shot with the boxer’s fists poised, ready to punch.

Andy Warhol only got a dachshund puppy because his boyfriend wanted one, so they got Archie.
The breed's influence on Andy's work was still evident: he painted one of his famous colorful portraits of Maurice, an art collector's dachshund.

Reflecting on own career, Warhol claimed that the Campbell’s Soup Can was his favourite work and that, "I should have just done the Campbell’s Soups and kept on doing them ... because everybody only does one painting anyway.

"Everybody owns a piece of Coke. What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest."

Eight Elvises (1963)  -  was sold in a private sale via French art consultant Philippe Ségalot for a price of $100 million, a record for Warhol’s work.

Starting in the early 1970s, the Pop artist made hundreds of images of Mao, using a portrait of the leader from the Little Red Book, a propaganda collection of Mao’s speeches and quotations from the Cultural Revolution, as his template.

Turquoise Marilyn (1964)  -  one of Warhol’s several portraits of Marilyn Monroe, was purchased by art collector Stephen A. Cohen in a private sale from Dtefan Edlis via Larry Gagosian for a price believed to be $80 million.

Poster to "Chelsea Girls" (1966) is an experimental underground film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde art films (both feature length and short).

Self-Portrait was painted in 1986 just a year before his death, was sold in a Sotheby’s sale in New York for $32.56 million. ‘If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface: of my paintings and films and me, and there I am’, he famously said. ‘There’s nothing behind it.’