Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) could be the most influential artist of the 20th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently contributed to the argument for this point of view with their 2012 exhibition Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, which juxtaposed Warhol’s work with work by artists from Cindy Sherman to Christopher Wool that have followed in his footsteps in style or method. In the early 60s Warhol helped usher in an era of Pop art using culturally iconic images in his work from the popular media, like Campbell’s soup cans and celebrity figures including Marilyn, Elvis and Jackie O. But his élan for experimentation and innovation did not end there. He problematized authorship making unique works from silkscreens in series, and called his studio The Factory where he allowed assistants to make art in his stead. His practice was truly multimedia before anyone really took anything but his paintings seriously. As early as 1963 he began making films, and from 1965-67 he managed the band The Velvet Underground. In 1968 he announced an end to his painting career and founded Interview Magazine instead. He of course did return to painting in 1972 with his famous Mao series and continued to introduce new ideas with bodies of work as diverse as the abstract leaning Shadow paintings and the last series he completed before his death based on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.