ANDY WARHOL

American artist Andy Warhol was a legendary figure of 20th century art and with a lasting influence on generations of artists, is widely considered to be the father of pop art. Engaging with themes including mass consumerism and the cult of celebrity through the subversive politics of his signature medium, the silk screen print, Warhol was known as much for his iconic public persona as his prolific artistic output. Immortalising subjects from the stars of the day, in his famous works Marilyn Diptych (1962) or Double Elvis (1963) to mundane items like soup cans, Warhol’s unique vision pervaded all aspects of contemporary American society and came to define visual culture for decades to follow.

Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, USA, Andy Warhol was a child of Slovakian emigrants. He pursued his studies in commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology before graduating in 1949 with a BA in Pictorial Design and settling in New York. He worked as a commercial illustrator for fashion magazines, experimenting with different methods of printmaking. It was not until the late 1950s when he was introduced to his trademark method of silk screen printing, allowing him to replicate images in different colours. Discovering silk screen printing led him to produce his first noteworthy works.

ANDY WARHOL

LIZ (F&S II.7), 1964

Offset Lithograph in Colours on Wove Paper

60 x 60 cm

Edition of 300