Dear Discolovers today we remember an artist who was a symbol, an icon, a myth of art and the 70s: Andy Warhol. Yesterday was in fact the 25th anniversary of the death of this great artist who died in New York on February 22, 1987 following a gallbladder surgery.
The father of Pop Art is one of the most popular artists of the 1900s, and the market around his works increases from year to year, confirming the extent of his creative genius, capable of leaving an indelible mark on an entire era. Andrew Warhola (this is his real name) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 1928, from a Ruthenian family who emigrated from Slovakia to the USA. Aware of her talent, after graduation she enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, where she attended painting and design courses. After graduating in 1949, he moved to New York. There, in a short time, he established himself in the world of advertising working for magazines such as `Vogue´ and` Glamor´. But his career in the art world only began around 1960, when he began to make the first paintings, which were based on comics and advertising images. Warhol’s work immediately entered the trend of Pop Art, which was being born in those years in England and the USA, however, still mixing with the informal and abstraction. Elements that Warhol swept away when, in `62, he began to use the screen printing technique and turned his attention to the ´icon symbols’ of his time. The success was overwhelming. Warhol also dealt with themes of strong impact and drama, as in the `Car Crash´ and the Electric Chair series, but the portraits of celebrities standing on the canvas with the expressionless gaze of saints and madonnas are also disturbing. Sensing the multiple suggestions of underground culture, the artist founded the legendary `Factory´, which in the 1980s became a meeting place for the new generations, from Keith Haring to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Alive by a miracle, after the attack carried out by Valery Solanas, Warhol founded the magazine ´Interview ‘, dedicated to the world of cinema with the formula of the famous interviewing famous. From the 1970s until his death, Warhol made between 50 and 100 portraits a year, and his images of Campbell’s and Brillo were exhibited in museums around the world. His last destination was Europe, Paris and Milan, where, between 18 and 24 January 1987, he presented one of his obsessions, the series dedicated to Leonardo’s “Last Supper”. Back in the US, on February 17 he was struck by biliary colic. He had a gallbladder surgery at New York Hospital on February 21, and died the next morning. On this twenty-fifth anniversary, Italy pays homage to him with many initiatives. His presence is a must in the numerous exhibitions currently underway on the American avant-gardes (at Palazzo delle Esposizioni which presents a work from the `Elecrtic Chair´ series or in San Marino, where instead there is a beautiful Jackie). And entirely dedicated to Warhol is ‘From Appearance to Transcendence’, until 11 March at the Saint-Benin Center in Aosta, for an overview of his most famous works. Waiting for `Andy Warhol Haedlines´ (` Andy Warhol and the media´), in Rome from 12 June in the spaces of the National Gallery of Modern Art, which (thanks to the collaboration of the major American museums) for the first time brings together the works centered around on linguistic symbols and not on icons.
And do you Discolovers have any memories related to this icon of the last century? Have you ever seen some of his works? … I did and I found them incredible, shocking … wonderful !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaf6zF-FJBk