How Did Andy Warhol Contribute To Pop Art

Andy Warhol is quite possibly the most famous pop artist known to man. He is best known for his work “100 Cans” which shows numerous Campbell’s Soup cans, which leads to the question, how can something so simple be so captivating? This is a perfect example of what pop art was and still is today. Warhol took something so simple that people see every day and turned it into the most famous art piece of the era. This style is what Andy Warhol was known for, turning simple everyday items into powerful and mesmerizing pieces of art. Warhol was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was submerged into the world of art almost immediately. His mother Julia gave Andy his first drawing lessons after he contracted Chorea, a disease
Andy was loved by the art community for his originality and unique technique of blotted lines and rubber stamps in his drawings. These techniques earned him numerous awards over the years at Glamour Magazine. After his spell in the magazine industry, he shifted his focus to painting and this is when his career and publicity skyrocketed. Warhol opened an art studio in New York called “The Factory” which quickly became one of the hottest spots in the city. Celebrities and other wealthy individuals from all over the globe visited “The Factory” to meet the founder of pop art himself. Andy Warhol single handedly changed the way people then and now view
The painting of Elvis is worth over 100 million dollars. This painting is actually one of the most valuable paintings of all time alongside the works of renowned artists such as Vincent Van Gough and Pablo Picasso. The work of “8 Elvises” is made up of Elvis Presley wearing cowboy attire from the movie Flaming Star. The painting originally had 16 copies of Elvis that overlapped one another and measure 37 feet long. However, when the gallery closed down the remaining 8 “Elvises” became iconic to the piece. What I really enjoy about this piece is that he took someone who was already famous and made them even bigger in the public eye. I think the reason for the value on a piece such as this one is mainly because this painting went against everything the art was supposed to be. People back then did not necessarily consider an overlapping photograph of a movie star art. It was simply a picture. Andy Warhol however, had the skillset to change that by incorporating his own technique into the work. He took a silkscreen on canvas and copied all 8 “Elvises” by hand and overlapped each one. I believe his technique along with the message it sent to the art world gave this work such an incredibly high