| The American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol | | | | photographic image is transferred to a silk screen |
| was born Andrew Warhola in 1928. There has for | | | | that is then placed on a canvas and inked from |
| years been quite a bit of confusion to where and | | | | the back. It was this technique that enabled him |
| when Andy Warhol was born, but according to | | | | to produce the series of mass media images |
| Andy's two older brothers and the birth certificate | | | | repetitive, yet with slight variations that he began |
| that was filed in Pittsburgh in 1945, he was born | | | | in 1962. These, incorporating such items as |
| on August 6th in Pittsburgh. Whether or not this is | | | | Campbell's Soup cans, dollar bills, CocaCola bottles, |
| the day he was born hasn't been proved, but it | | | | and the faces of celebrities, can be taken as |
| was on this date he would celebrate his birthday. | | | | comments on the banality, harshness, and |
| Andy Warhol is considered a founder and major | | | | ambiguity of American culture. |
| figure of the POP ART movement. A graduate of | | | | Later in the 1960s, Warhol made a series of |
| the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949, he | | | | experimental films dealing with such ideas as time, |
| moved to New York City and gained success as | | | | boredom, and repetition; they include Sleep (1963), |
| a commercial artist. He got his first break in | | | | Empire (1964), and The Chelsea Girls (1966). In |
| August 1949, when Glamour Magazine wanted | | | | 1965 he started working with a rockband called |
| him to illustrate a feature entitled "Success is a | | | | "The Velvet Underground" formed by Lou Reed |
| Job in New York". He continued doing ads and | | | | and John Cale. Andy Warhol introduced them to |
| illustrations and by 1955 he was the most | | | | the model and moviestar Nico and she sang on |
| successful and imitated commercial artist in New | | | | their debut album from 1967 "The Velvet |
| York. In 1960 he produced the first of his | | | | Underground and Nico". Andy would travel around |
| paintings depicting enlarged comic strip images | | | | the country, not only with The Velvets, but also |
| such as Popeye and Superman initially for use in a | | | | with superstar of the year Edie Sedgwick and the |
| window display. Warhol pioneered the | | | | lightshow "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable". |
| development of the process whereby an enlarged | | | | |