Andy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director, producer, and leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture.

Warhol was born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of eight he contracted Chorea, a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system that left him bedridden for several months. It was during this time, while Warhol was sick in bed, that his mother gave him his first drawing lessons. He was also an avid fan of movies, and when his mother bought him a camera at the age of nine, he took up photography as well, developing film in a makeshift darkroom he set up in their basement.

In 1945, Warhol enrolled at the Carnegie Institute for Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) to study pictorial design.  After graduation, Warhol moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist working for brands such magazines as Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar and retailers Bonwit Teller and Tiffany & Co. He went on to become one of the most successful commercial artists of the 1950s. Andy won frequent awards for his uniquely whimsical style, using his own blotted line technique and rubber stamps to create his drawings.

In the late 1950s, Warhol began devoting more attention to painting, and in 1961, he debuted the concept of "pop art"—paintings that focused on mass-produced commercial goods. In 1962, he exhibited the now-iconic paintings of Campbell's soup cans. These small canvas works of everyday consumer products created a major stir in the art world, bringing both Warhol and pop art into the national spotlight for the first time.

He also painted celebrity portraits in vivid and garish colors; his most famous subjects include Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger and Mao Tse-tung. As these portraits gained fame and notoriety, Warhol began to receive hundreds of commissions for portraits from socialites and celebrities.  Warhol’s 1964 Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, a 40” x" 40” silkscreen portrait of Marilyn Monroe, sold for $195 million at an auction held by Christie’s. The figure achieved by Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is the highest attained by any twentieth-century work at auction and the highest for any American artist at auction.

In 1964, Warhol opened his own art studio, a large silver-painted warehouse known simply as "The Factory." The Factory quickly became one of New York City's premier cultural hotspots, a scene of lavish parties attended by the city's wealthiest socialites and celebrities, including musician Lou Reed, who paid tribute to the Warhol Superstars he'd met at The Factory with his hit song "Walk on the Wild Side", the verses of which contain descriptions of individuals who were fixtures at the legendary studio/warehouse in the '60s.  Warhol was a friend of Reed's and managed Reed's band, the Velvet Underground.

Warhol, who clearly relished his celebrity, became a fixture at infamous New York City nightclubs like Studio 54. Commenting on celebrity fixation—his own and that of the public at large—Warhol observed, "more than anything people just want stars." He also branched out in new directions, publishing his first book, Andy Warhol's Index, in 1967.

In 1968, Warhol's thriving career almost ended. He was shot by Valerie Solanas, an aspiring writer and radical feminist. Warhol was seriously wounded in this attack.  As a result of the injuries he sustained, he had to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life.

Warhol also worked in sculpture and photography, and in the 1980s, he moved into television, hosting Andy Warhol's TV and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes on MTV.

Death

In his later life, Warhol suffered from chronic issues with his gallbladder. On February 20, 1987, he was admitted to New York Hospital where his gallbladder was successfully removed and he seemed to be recovering. However, days later he suffered complications that resulted in sudden cardiac arrest and he died on February 22, 1987, at the age of 58. Thousands of people attended a memorial for the artist at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.