Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was an American artist, filmmaker, and cultural provocateur who stood at the forefront of the Pop Art movement. Born to Rusyn immigrant working-class parents in Pittsburgh, he began his career as a wildly successful commercial advertising illustrator in Manhattan.

In the early 1960s, Warhol turned fine art on its head by employing commercial silkscreen printing to replicate mass consumer commodities and celebrity portraits—including Campbell's Soup Cans, Coca-Cola bottles, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley. His legendary Manhattan studio, 'The Factory,' became an epicentre of artists, musicians, and bohemians. Warhol foresaw modern celebrity culture, famously declaring that in the future, 'everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.'