Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was the American artist who blurred the line between fine art and commercial culture and became the face of Pop Art in the process. Born in Pittsburgh in 1928 to working class immigrant parents, he first made his name as a successful advertising illustrator before turning to the paintings that made him famous. He took the most ordinary things in American life, soup cans, dollar bills, celebrity photos, and presented them as art, often using silkscreen printing so his images looked mass produced.

His New York studio, the Factory, became a magnet for artists, musicians, and hangers on, and Warhol built a cool, deadpan public persona to match. He had plenty to say about fame, money, and repetition, and his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Chairman Mao are now cultural landmarks. Beyond painting he worked in film, publishing, and music, and his mixing of art and celebrity still shapes how we think about both.