In a previous article we talked about five of Andy Warhol's most famous portraits, now it's time to talk about his life and the artist's oddities, as it gives you a better understanding of his artwork and worldview.
Andy Warhol created a lot of various graphic artworks during his life, but they were not always made by him personally. At the factory - that was the name of Andy Warhol's studio - he, together with other artists per day managed to create up to 50 identical paintings, that is, in fact, it was a mass, conveyor production. Of course, the value of each individual artwork in this case greatly reduced, and it was not always possible to prove Warhol's authorship. But the paintings were still quite well distributed, thanks to the loud name of their creator and settled in private collections of various bigwigs, and even in museums.
When creating paintings Warhol often turned on the TV and the receiver at the same time, that is, he had to be constantly in the information flow. He was very fond of technology, almost never parted with his dictaphone, video camera or Polaroid. He filmed and recorded often quite insignificant moments that nobody but Warhol was interested in.
Andy also liked to tell all sorts of legends about himself, and when it came to the beginning of his creative path, he openly pampered himself. However, there is some truth in it, when after graduating from Carnegie University of Technology in 1949 Andy Warhol worked part-time drawing postcards, advertising and decorating store windows, he initially had to live in difficult conditions, rent a room in the dormitories, where, except for him, there were a dozen people and a lot of cockroaches.
On Sunday he, like many other Americans, went to church. This habit appeared in his childhood, then he was attracted by church icons, he thought that someday he would create his own images on which people would admire and pray. And in Warhol's case, his childhood dream came true.
After visiting the church Warhol would go for a walk around the flea market. He was interested in every little thing sold there, he dreamed that he would buy a rare priceless thing, a real relic and get rich. He visited the flea market almost throughout his entire conscious life, even when he became rich and began to sell his silkscreens and paintings for huge sums of money. His apartment was like a real warehouse of all sorts of junk, some of the things he bought at the flea market, sometimes used in his creative ideas, but most of them just dusted in boxes.
Warhol loved his mother very much and was endlessly attached to her. Even after he became rich and famous, firmly settled in New York and bought his own apartment, he invited his mom to live in it with him. His mother Julia was a very simple woman, even did not speak English, because she was from Austria-Hungary, friends and artists who visited Warhol, perceived her as a servant. But nevertheless, she was intelligent and endowed with a certain creative talent - in her spare time from household chores and childcare, she created beautiful bouquets from ordinary garbage, could embroider and even draw well. Julia loved her late - she gave birth to her son Andy at the age of 36, constantly throughout her life took care of him and helped him to discover his talent for creativity. Throughout his life, she fed him Campbell's can soup, which became the basis for some of Warhol's most memorable artwork.
Warhol was very complex about his appearance - by and large he only thanks to the artwork of plastic surgeons created his image. In childhood he had serious problems with his facial skin - it was covered with spots, and the number of youthful pimples was off the scale. Andy tried his best to correct the situation - he was a frequent visitor to cosmetic salons, bought all kinds of remedies for acne, but all in vain. Only with age the situation improved, but not much, so his first serious fee Warhol spent on plastic surgery. He began to go bald early, had to buy a blond wig, which is how Andy appears in most of his photos in adulthood.
However, he was very afraid that the wig would someday move off his head and his baldness would be visible to all onlookers, which did not add to his peace of mind when communicating in public and with friends. By the way, Warhol himself was photographed several times in a female image, with a lot of makeup on his face. A whole series of such self-portraits is known, where he tried to find the line between male and female.
As a child he was a real "ugly duckling", a very sickly boy suffering from "St. Witt's Dance". His peers openly mocked him, and for the self-loving and vulnerable Andy this attitude to his person brought a lot of offense and real suffering. He felt like a real outcast in class, and hated school. This attitude to himself led to alienation in communication with others. At the height of his fame, he was surrounded by enthusiastic female fans, was a member of the high society, could have started a serious relationship with almost any girl he liked - the one would probably not refuse, but he did not do it. He was never married, there is no evidence of his constant mistresses.
Loneliness was more familiar to Warhol, and he began to frankly avoid people and parties after several of his acquaintances died of AIDS in 1982. Andy was panic-stricken about AIDS, even more so than he was afraid of not wearing a wig on the street. At that time it was unknown, it was considered a disease of homosexuals and drug addicts, and those who got sick were not even treated. Perhaps, if the causes of AIDS were known at the time Warhol and came out of his recluse, although everyone who knew him, claimed that he liked technology and art much more than people. However, he himself stated that "he has a relationship with the tape recorder".
Because of his loneliness and his habit of eating canned soup, hamburgers and Coca-Cola, Warhol almost never dined in restaurants. He, by the way, owns the idea of public catering for lonely people, that is, a person should eat there exclusively alone, not in a common room. Even when meeting with friends there, he gave all the food he ordered to the homeless. He was a philanthropist in general, donated large sums to the needy, although he always treated people with complete indifference.
They say that genius and mental health things are incompatible, and Warhol was a real genius of pop art. Perhaps without all these oddities, there would be no graphic portraits of Andy Warhol, any artist to create goes through his own experience and often trials that are inseparable from his artwork.
Buy handmade goods or modern art you can on artAlebrio - is an international marketplace for people who want to create, sell, buy and collect unique items and art - buy the best with us artAlebrio.com.
By confirming your order you unconditionally accept these General Conditions of Sale
