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Andy Warhol: 1928 – 1987

August 6, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Andy Warhol Self Portrait 1986Born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol was a painter, printmaker, and filmmaker and a pivotal figure in the formation of the Pop Art movement.

Warhol was the son of working-class Slovakian immigrants. His frequent illnesses in childhood often kept him bedridden and at home. During this time, he formed a strong bond with his mother.  It was what he described as an important period in the formation of his personality and skill set.

Warhol studied at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon University), majoring in pictorial design. In 1949, he moved to New York City where he quickly became successful in magazine illustration and advertising, producing work for publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the The New Yorker.

Much of Warhol’s work in the 1950s was commissioned by fashion houses and he became known for his whimsical ink drawings of I. Miller shoes. In 1952, Warhol’s illustrations for Truman Capote’s writings were exhibited by the Hugo Gallery in New York and he exhibited at several other venues in the 1950s including a 1956 group show at the Museum of Modern Art. Warhol received several awards during this decade from the Art Directors Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Warhol was enthralled with Hollywood celebrity, fashion, and style and by the early 1960s these interests were reflected in his artwork. Borrowing images from popular culture, Warhol’s “Pop Art” paintings were characterized by repetition of everyday objects such as soup cans, Coca Cola bottles, and 100 dollar bills.  He also began painting celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Most of Warhol’s paintings were produced in his studio,  he called “The Factory”, with the help of assistants. Photographic images were screen-printed on to painted backgrounds and mechanically repeated – a process that mimicked the manufacturing industry and parodied mass consumption. During the Factory years, Warhol associated with and “groomed” a variety of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities including Edie Sedgwick, Viva, writer John Giorno, and filmmaker Jack Smith.

Warhol worked prolifically in a range of media including painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, and film. Between 1963 and 1968 he produced more than 60 films and about 500 short “screen test” portraits of his studio visitors. His most popular and successful film was Chelsea Girls, made in 1966.

On June 3, 1968, Warhol and art critic/curator Mario Amaya, were shot by Valerie Solanas after she was turned away from the Factory studio. Warhol’s wound was almost fatal and would affect him physically and mentally for the rest of his life. (Amaya was released after treatment for bullet grazes across his back.)

The 1970s was a quieter decade for Warhol who concentrated more on portrait commissions for celebrities such as Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, and others. He founded Interview Magazine and in 1975 published “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol” which expressed the idea that “Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.” During the 1970s Warhol was also involved in a number collaborations with young artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente and Keith Haring.

In general, Andy Warhol was consistently ambiguous on the meaning of his work and appeared indifferent and ambivalent. He denied that his artwork carried any social or political commentary.

Warhol died in New York City on February 22, 1987 of a cardiac arrhythmia while recovering from routine gallbladder surgery. In his will, almost his entire estate was dedicated to the “advancement of the visual arts”. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was founded in that same year and it remains one of the largest grant-giving organizations for the visual arts in the United States today.

Andy-Warhol - Marilyn - 1967
Self-Portrait - Andy Warhol - 1986
Andy Warhol-Brillo Boxes-1964
Andy Warhol, Kiss, 1964 - film still
Andy Warhol - 100 Soup Cans - 1962
Andy Warhol - 200-One-Dollar Bills-1962
Andy Warhol - We kill for peace - 1985-86
Andy-Warhol-Flowers-1970
Andy-Warhol - Michael-Jackson - 1984
Andy Warhol - Boy with Flowers - 1955-57
Andy Warhol - Triple Elvis -1964
Andy Warhol-Gold Marilyn Monroe-1962
Andy-Warhol-The-Last-Supper-1986
Andy Warhol-Mick Jagger - 1975
Andy Warhol - Men in Her Life 1962
Andy Warhol-Mao Tse Tung-1972
Andy Warhol - Hot Dog - 1957-58
Andy Warhol-Goethe-1982
Andy-Warhol-Bottles-of-Coca-Cola-1962

Sources: MOMA, Guggenheim, National Gallery of Canada, Andy Warhol Foundation, Wikipedia

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Drawing, Illustration, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography Tagged With: American Art, Andy Warhol, Pop Art, The Factory

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts – XXIII

March 29, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

cover-of-Der-Blaue-Reiter-almanac,-c.19121. Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) art movement lasting from 1911 to 1914, fundamental to Expressionism, along with Die Brücke. The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter. The name Blaue Reiter (“blue rider”) refers to a key motif in Kandinsky’s work: the horse and rider, which was for him a symbol for moving beyond realistic representation. The horse was also a prominent subject in Marc’s work, which centered on animals as symbols of rebirth.   An extensive collection of paintings by Der Blaue Reiter is exhibited in the Städtische Galerie in the Lenbachhaus in Munich. Der Blaue Reiter dissolved with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. Kandinsky, a Russian citizen, was forced to return to his homeland, and Marc and another Blaue Reiter artist, August Macke, were killed in action.  (Moma)

Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters---David-Hockney2. The Hockney–Falco thesis is a theory of art history, advanced by artist David Hockney and physicist Charles M. Falco. Both claimed that advances in realism and accuracy in the history of Western art since the Renaissance were primarily the result of optical instruments such as the camera obscura, camera lucida, and curved mirrors, rather than solely due to the development of artistic technique and skill. Nineteenth-century artists’ use of photography had been well documented.  In a 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney analyzed the work of the Old Masters and argued that the level of accuracy represented in their work is impossible to create by “eyeballing it”.  Since then, Hockney and Falco have produced a number of publications on positive evidence of the use of optical aids, and the historical plausibility of such methods. The hypothesis led to a variety of conferences and heated discussions.

The hypothesis that technology was used in the production of Renaissance Art was not much in dispute in early studies and literature. The 1929 Encyclopedia Britannica contained an extensive article on the camera obscura and cited Leon Battista Alberti as the first documented user of the device as early as 1437.  Art historians and others have criticized the argument on the grounds that the use of optical aids, though well-established in individual cases, has little value for explaining the overall development of Western art, and that historical records and paintings and photographs of art studios (without optical devices), as well as present-day realist artists, demonstrate that high levels of realism are possible without optical aids. (Wikipedia)

3. The Ugly Duchess (also known as A Grotesque Old Woman) is a satirical portrait painted by the Flemish artist Quentin Matsys around 1513. The painting is in oil on an oak panel, and measures 62.4 by 45.5 cm. It shows a grotesque old woman with wrinkled skin and withered breasts wearing the aristocratic horned headdress of her youth, out of fashion by the time of the painting. She holds in her right hand a red flower, then a symbol of engagement, indicating that she is trying to attract a suitor.  The work is Matsys’ best-known painting.

The painting was long thought to have been derived from a putative lost work by Leonardo da Vinci, on the basis of its striking resemblance to two caricature drawings of heads commonly attributed to the Italian artist. However the caricatures are now thought to be based on the work of Matsys, who is known to have exchanged drawings with Leonardo. (Wikipedia, National Gallery)

fragment-of-the-shroud-in-which-the-Emperor-Charlemagne-was-buried-in-814.-It-was-made-of-gold-and-Tyrian-purple-from-Constantinople4. Tyrian Purple:In ancient Rome, purple was the color of royalty, a designator of status. And while purple is flashy and pretty, it was more important at the time that purple was expensive. Purple was expensive, because purple dye came from snails. The pigment got its name from the best of the marine shellfish used to make the pigment being found off the shore of Phoenicia’s Tyre.  The snail-made purple remained in use until chemists learned to make synthetic dyes. Perkin’s purple, otherwise known as aniline purple, or mauveine, was the first synthetic dye and was created by accident by an eighteen year old chemist named William Perkin in 1856. (Smithsonian)

Andy Warhol - Time Capsule no. 262 - Andy Warhol Museum5. Andy Warhol Time Capsules: During his lifetime, Andy Warhol consigned 300,000 of his everyday possessions to 610 sealed cardboard boxes or “Time Capsules”. The boxes contain everything from gallery flyers, junk-mail, fan-letters, gallery-invitation cards, unopened letters, solicitations for work, freebie LPs, a lump of concrete, eccentric pornographic assemblages, used postage stamps, packets of sweets and unopened Campbell’s soup tins. In some capsules, toenail clippings, dead ants, a mummified foot and used condoms were found.

Warhol began the project when he was moving the Factory, as his studio was called. But “the artist didn’t hire a moving company”, says Warhol Museum’s chief archivist, Matt Wrbican. Warhol asked his staff to clean up the mess, and one of his assistants suggested that they start putting everything in these boxes, and they could call them ‘time capsules’.  Warhol intended for the Time Capsules to eventually be sold as art, but they never went on the market. (NPR, BBC)

 

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Art-e-Facts, Painting, Video Tagged With: Andy Warhol, Der Blaue Reiter, Hockney-Falco Thesis, The Blue Rider, The Ugly Dutchess, Tyrian Purple

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts – XXI

August 18, 2011 By Wendy Campbell

1. Considered a pioneer in modernism, Romanian artist Constantin Brâncuşi‘s sculpture “Bird in Space” was the cause of a court battle in 1926-27 when US customs officials refused to believe that bronze piece was art. They imposed the tariff for manufactured metal objects, 40% of the sale price or about $230 dollars.  Marcel Duchamp (who brought the sculptures from Europe), American photographer Edward Steichen (who was to take possession of Bird in Space), and Brâncuşi were furious. Under pressure from the press and artists, U.S. customs agreed to rethink their classification of the items, but until then released the sculptures on bond under “Kitchen Utensils and Hospital Supplies.” (Wikipedia)

2. In the movie Inception, The “Penrose Stairs” (with a woman perpetually picking up papers) is a reference to a lithograph print by the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. First printed in 1960, the drawing is usually called “Ascending and Descending” or “The Infinite Staircase”.  Escher is well-known for his drawings exploring optical illusions and real architectural, mathematical, and philosophical principles rendered in fantastical ways. (IMDB)

3. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci may contain hidden code. Art historians are investigating a real life “Da Vinci Code” style mystery after discovering tiny numbers and letters painted into the eyes of the Mona Lisa. Members of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa’s eyes letters and numbers can be seen. Silvano Vinceti, president of the Committee said, “You have to remember the ­picture is almost 500 years old so it is not as sharp and clear as when first painted….From the preliminary investigations we have carried out we are confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist.” (Daily Mail UK)

4. The well known saying “15 Minutes of Fame” was coined by Andy Warhol. The expression is a paraphrase of a line in Warhol’s exhibition catalog for an exhibit at the Moderna Museet, in Stockholm from 1968. The catalog read, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” In 1979 Warhol stated his claim, “…my prediction from the sixties finally came true: In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” Becoming bored with constantly being asked about this particular statement, Warhol attempted to confuse interviewers by changing the statement variously to “In the future 15 people will be famous” and “In 15 minutes everybody will be famous.” As it turns out, with the rise of celebrity culture, reality TV, YouTube, and the internet, Warhol’s statement has been quite prophetic. (Wikipedia)

5. Paul Cézanne rarely considered his paintings finished. His friend and dealer Ambroise Vollard observed that “when Cézanne laid a canvas aside, it was almost always with the intention of taking it up again, in the hope of bringing it to perfection.” One consequence of this was that Cézanne rarely signed his or dated his works making it difficult to determine the chronology of his works. (Princeton)

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Art-e-Facts, Drawing, Sculpture Tagged With: Andy Warhol, Constantin Brancusi, Inception Movie, Leonardo da Vinci, MC Escher, Paul Cézanne, Penrose Stairs

Top Ten Art Sales of 2010

December 31, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust
£68 million  ($106.5 million US)

One of a series of highly prized, intimate portraits Picasso painted in 1932 of his lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter  With a  $70m to $90m (£44-£57m) estimate, this one sold to an anonymous buyer and set a record for any work of art at auction.

2. Giacometti, Walking Man 1
£65 million ($1.3 million US)

Estimated at £12m to £18m, this was the work sparked a lengthy bidding battle before selling to a telephone bidder, later identified as the Brazilian billionaire Lily Safra.

3. Chinese Vase
£51.6 million ($79.5 million US)

Discovered in Pinner, north-west London, this rare, flashy decorated porcelain vase, probably made for a palace of the Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century,  attracted Chinese dealers who drove the price to a record for any Chinese work of art.

4. Andy Warhol, Men in Her Life
£39 million ($60 million US)

Experts are puzzling how this painting, the most expensive in New York’s recent contemporary art sales, made more than Warhol’s trademark soup can paintings in the same week of sales.

5. J M W Turner, Modern Rome — Campo Vecchio
£29.7 million ($45.8 million US)

The flow of artwork from Britain’s stately homes continued when this painting, from the collection of the Earl of Rosebery, sold for an artist’s record to the J Paul Getty Museum.

6. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Finding of Moses
£22 million (34 million US)

Highly prized when painted in 1904 but rejected when offered for nothing to British museums in the Sixties, this painting bounced back to fetch an astonishing record, 10 times its estimate, selling to a Middle Eastern buyer.

7. John Robert Cozens, The Lake of Albano and Castel Gandolfo
£2.4 million ($3.7 million US)

The star lot from a collection formed by fertility doctor, Prof Ian Craft, this moody panorama saw Canadian media tycoon, David Thomson, pay a quadruple estimate, record price to see off the competition.

8.Frank Auerbach, Mornington Crescent — Summer Morning
£2.3 million ($3.5 million US)

Auerbach, who will be 80 next year, has been enjoying a price boom and this was his highest price to date.

9. Sir Peter Paul Rubens (suspected), Portrait of a Bearded Man
£692,000 ($1 million US)

Catalogued as a 19th-century painting in the “manner of Rubens” with a £1,500 estimate, this sold to dealer Philip Mould, who believed it to be a genuine Rubens but has yet to exhibit it as such.

10.  Ged Quinn – Jonestown Radio
£187,250 ($289,000 US)

White Cube gallery’s Jay Jopling, bought this for about £20,000 in 2005. This was only the third painting by the 47-year-old Briton to appear at auction. It sold to an Asian buyer whom Sotheby’s said had never heard of Quinn before this sale.

Pablo Picasso - Nude Green Leaves and Bust - 1932

ndy Warhol - Men in Her Life 1962

Pablo Picasso - Nude Green Leaves and Bust - 1932


Source: The Telegraph (UK)

Filed Under: ART, Painting, Photography, Sculpture Tagged With: Andy Warhol, Chinese Vase 51.6 million, Frank Auerbach, Ged Quinn - Jonestown Radio, Giacometti, Green Leaves and Bust, J M W Turner, John Robert Cozens, Men in Her Life, Nude, Picasso, Portrait of a Bearded Man, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Finding of Moses, The Lake of Albano and Castel Gandolfo, Top Ten Art Sales of 2010, Walking Man 1

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts VI

August 11, 2009 By Wendy Campbell

Escaping Criticism - Pere Borrell del Caso - 18741. The term Trompe-l’œil, (French for “that which deceives the eye”), is an art technique where the artist reproduces realistic images that fools the viewers’ eye into perceiving an image as three-dimensional. Artists have been creating Trompe l’oeil art since the discovery of perspective techniques dating as far back as 400 B. C. and it was part of the culture of the Greek and Roman Empires.

Les Saisons - Alsphonse Mucha2. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha was one of the first to be arrested by the Gestapo.  He was questioned and eventually released, but having suffered from pneumonia shortly beforehand, his health was weakened by the ordeal.  He died not long after on July 14, 1939.  Over 100,000 Czechs attended the funeral despite a Nazi ban on the event.

The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors-The Large Glass - Marcel Duchamp3. Marcel Duchamp spent more than eight years creating his masterpiece “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors( aka The Large Glass)”. After an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1926, the glass was shattered in transit. Duchamp thought of the accident as another part of its design that was determined by chance.  He spent weeks carefully reassembling the pieces.

Omo Tribes Ethiopia Body Painting4. Body painting is considered by many to be the most ancient form of art. The discovery of coloured pigments about 75 thousand years ago (many believe even further back) indicates that long before people covered their bodies with clothing, they decorated themselves with paint.

Andy Warhol - Self Portrait - 19865. On June 3, 1968, Andy Warhol and art critic/curator Mario Amaya, were shot by Valerie Solanas after she was turned away from Warhol’s Factory studio. Warhol’s wound was almost fatal and would affect him physically and mentally for the rest of his life.

Related Books:
The Art Lover’s Almanac : Serious Trivia for the Novice and the Connoisseur

Facts On File Encyclopedia Of Art ( 5 vol. set)

Sources: Springville Museum of Art, MoMA,  MoMA, Skin, Wikipedia
Related Posts on DAF: Alphonse Mucha, Marcel Duchamp, Body Painting, Andy Warhol

Filed Under: ART, Art-e-Facts, Body Art, Sculpture Tagged With: Alphonse Mucha, Andy Warhol, Body Painting, Marcel Duchamp, Trompe-l'œil

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