Jun
15
2009
New York’s Andy Warhol
Author: SamFor the perfect five-star hotel, New York City can deliver. With the most sophisticated accommodations on the planet, New York is the trend-setter before all others. Considered by many to be the epicenter of cultural activity in recent years, it is home to artists, designers, writers, poets, and musicians. The most famous people pass through here at one time or another, and often, they don’t leave. One of New York’s most fascinating residents is pop icon of pop icons Andy Warhol.
Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928 to a Slovenian-American family, Andy Warhol went to art school at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Although he spent more years in New York, Pittsburghers still claim him as their own, and have an amazing museum dedicated to his works in the downtown section. After art school, he left one city for another, and in New York found some success as a graphic designer. It wasn’t until the sixties, however, when his mark on the world was indelibly made. When he created his famous print of the Campbell’s Tomato Soup Can, the art world was suddenly changed. An everyday object with some very minimal graphic appeal, the can-turned-art-object was simultaneously an art work and a comment on works of art. But whenever asked about the hidden meanings in the soup can, Warhol would reply that he always liked the soup.
The Marilyn series, along with other mass-produced prints, would round out his entrance into the art world, and secure it. He became an icon himself, and his expertise in turning the table on interviewers would earn him the admiration of art connoisseurs looking for a smart joke. He had the New York sophistication to make his own celebrity status a certainty. He produced the Velvet Underground’s first album, “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” and helped design the iconic pink-banana cover. He also made a number of fascinating films that are some of the most referenced in art cinema today. Although he apparently had his share of enemies, Andy Warhol is undoubtedly an American original.