By Christine Snyder
We’re featuring another fascinating and inspiring artist for back-to-school week. Students will love to learn about this week’s artist, Andy Warhol!
Most people know this artist by name, but not many people know much about his life. He was born in 1928 in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA to Slovakian immigrants. As a child, Warhol suffered from a serious illness that left him confined to bed for months. During this time, his artist mother encouraged him to take up drawing and photography to pass the time.
He studied art at what is now known as Carnegie Mellon University before moving to New York City to pursue his career. Throughout the 1950s, he was an award winning commercial artist, and by the 1960s, he had debuted his iconic pop art style. His soup cans and celebrity portraits made him famous nationwide and one of the most recognizable artists to this day. Also, he had gone from a lonely child drawing in his room to a fixture at celebrity hotspots frequented by the rich and famous.
Sadly, Warhol passed away at a young age from complications to a routine surgery. Today, his work can be viewed at museums world wide, and if you’re lucky enough to live near Pittsburgh, you can visit a museum solely dedicated to Andy Warhol and his work. The Andy Warhol Museum is the largest museum in North America devoted to one artist and has the largest collection of his work in the world.
His subject matter and whimsical style are intended to satirize and adulate fame and consumerism. Even without knowing his intent, I believe his compositions and bright colors will brighten your day. I hope you take this opportunity to delve even more into the meaning of his life and work!
