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The Life and Art of Andy Warhol


On June 3rd 1968 Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol in the abdomen at his studio. Declared dead upon arrival at the hospital he was then saved after five hours of surgery. The only bullet to actually hit Warhol damaged his lungs, oesophagus, spleen, lover and stomach. During the 1970's after his recovery he started creating celebrity portraits which developed into a significant aspect of his career and became his main source of income. During the 80's his fame and fortunes increased mainly due to his friendships with a number of prolific young artists. It was during this time Warhol received a large amount of criticism regarding his art becoming merely "business art". On February 22nd 1987 Warhol died. He had been making a good recovery after a gallbladder surgery in New York after sudden post-operative cardiac arrhythmia which caused him to die in his sleep. .
             Warhol was a heavily influenced artist which lead him to expand on the entirely new genre of Pop Art. Some things he was influenced by soon became an almost mandatory way of painting, many of his ideas created from his culture became the backbone of Pop Art itself. Warhol's homosexuality and the gay underground of New York City shaped his relationship world and is an issue that is frequently addressed in his interviews, conversations and publications. Byzantine Catholicism, especially iconography was a major cultural influence of Warhol's which helped him create almost "modern" religious icons with famous peoples faces and household objects. For the most part his work as a commercial illustrator was a heavy influence due to the commercials and advertising industry which soon was a reason for his painting of Campbell's soup cans. In terms of artists an influence of his was Roy Liechtenstein who was one of the first Pop artists, another was Ben Shahn who tackled social realism and political views of his time.


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