Andy Warhol Studio. Andy Warhol's Factory: A Shooting Story. Between name and body

In 1964, the Upper East Side Gallery hosted an exhibition that marked a turning point in Warhol's career. It was called "American Supermarket": the gallery was designed like a typical supermarket in America, where all the products on the shelves (cans, packaging, posters on the walls) were made especially for this exhibition by six artists of the then emerging pop art, including Warhol. A painting of a can of Campbell's soup cost $1500, and the cans themselves, placed on the shelves, could be bought for $6 - they were distinguished from ordinary cans by the fact that they had Andy Warhol's autographs on them.

The main project and brainchild of Warhol was, of course, his Factory - a studio that was originally rented to work on paintings and films, but gradually turned into a hangout place for all the fashion bohemia of New York: models, amphetamine makers and art characters for whom the idol pop -Artha coined the now common term "superstars". Warhol, guided by the idea of ​​mass-producing art in the same way that factories produce products for supermarkets on assembly lines, included his "superstars" in the process of work - that is why the studio got the name of the factory.
The factory has changed 3 places for 20 years of its existence. The first small studio was located at the intersection of 231 East and 47th Streets and the rent for it was only $100 a year.
In 1968, the Factory moved to Union Square in the high-rise Decker Building. Most of Warhol's films were filmed in this studio. The famous attempt on Warhol's life also took place there: the feminist Valerie Solanas, who passionately desired to be one of the factory "superstars", shot the artist, after which he was forced to wear a corset for the rest of his life. The studio was on the 6th floor of the Decker Building, which can now be viewed from Union Square.

Studio 54 was a legend from 1977 to 1980. All the most fashionable, stylish and famous people of New York in the 1970s hung out there - Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Richard Gere and others. what happened inside was legendary: cocaine was allegedly sprayed from the ceiling of the club, the bar was decorated with diamonds, and orgies took place on the dark balconies left from the time when the club was a theater during parties - HIV had not yet been discovered. But in 1980, the expanse ended: the club was closed by the police, and its owners were in prison.
In our time, the building at the intersection of Broadway and 54th Street has again been turned into a theater where you can go to some popular musical.

Another legendary club in New York in the 1960s and 70s. Unlike Studio 54, this club - no less bohemian - was less riotous. Max Kansas City was a gathering place for musicians, poets, painters, and sculptors in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The club was the center of the then fashionable glam rock scene: David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground played there every week. In 1970, Andy Warhol rented a private room in the club, where he often came with the stars of his Factory. In 1973, the club's star went down - the art party stopped visiting it as often as before. Since 1975, the club experienced a second wave of popularity, this time due to the fact that The Ramones, Patti Smith and Blondie performed there.
Now the building of the former club houses a good Korean restaurant called Green Cafe.

Andy Warhol's home was a five-story Madison Avenue mansion - a classic New York brownstone. In it, the artist lived with her boyfriend Jed Johnson, two dachshunds and two maids. The interior of the house was a mixture of 19th-century imperial furniture, Navajo rugs, and Art Deco decorations. The house was in the very center of Manhattan life: from it Warhol could get to dinner in a matter of minutes with, say, Phyllis Cerf, whose publisher husband eventually released Andy Warhol's Index Book.

Andy Warhol came from a family of Lemkos - a small Ukrainian ethnic group. His father and mother emigrated to America from Slovakia, and the real name of the famous artist was Vargola. Andy Warhol went to the Orthodox Church in Pittsburgh from childhood and did not leave this habit even in his adult years, already living in New York. The artist regularly visited the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan - and although it is a Catholic church, the priests confirmed that they repeatedly saw him baptized in the Orthodox manner from right to left. Warhol never attended communion or went to confession, but he regularly came to sit in the back rows of the church.
Most likely St. Vincent Ferrer was chosen because of its location in Manhattan and the fact that it is one of the most beautiful churches in the area.Metropolitan Museum of Art

As a Vogue illustrator at the beginning of his career, Andy Warhol never stood aside from fashion. It is not surprising that with its literal multi-station, the artist, director and sculptor tried himself as a designer. One of the rare dresses created by Warhol is known: the fabric on it is covered with a print of the symbol of New York - the pretzel. Now the dress, like the famous painting of Campbell's soup can, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And the steps of the museum itself were Warhol's favorite place for photography.

"I am exactly what my collection of newspaper clippings says about me." Andy Warhole

Andy Warhole, is probably the most famous and controversial figure in art in the second half of the twentieth century.

He was one of the founders of pop art and proved that art can be financially profitable. Throughout his life, he created many stories around his person. Warhol was engaged in various types of art, he was a collector, and a magazine publisher, and a designer, and a film director, and a sculptor, and a writer, as well as an artist and producer.

According to critics, these paintings reflected the facelessness and vulgarity of the culture of mass consumption, the mentality of Western civilization. After this exhibition, Warhol was ranked among the representatives pop art and concept art.

In 1963, Warhol bought a building in Manhattan, where he put on stream a work of modern art. The building was named "Factory". At the "Factory" an atmosphere of permissiveness reigned, parties were held. "Factory" and its owner began to appear frequently in gossip reports, they began to write about them in magazines and the media.
The "factory" was an organized production that produced up to 80 printed works per day, that is, several thousand prints per year. A team of workers was hired to mass-produce commercialized reproductions of celebrity portraits.In this way, Andy Warhol turned art into "business art" by directing performers who technically reproduced his own work.
Warhol was of the opinion that celebrities in portraits had to look perfect and flawless. He retouched wrinkles and facial skin defects, removed excess chins, painted brighter eyes and lips, giving faces idealized features.

June 3, 1968 radical feminist Valerie Solanas , who previously starred in Warhol films, entered the Factory and shot Andy three times in the stomach. Then she went outside, went up to the policeman and said: “I shot Andy Warhol.” The victim suffered a state of clinical death and a 5-hour operation, which ended successfully.
After the assassination attempthis works begin to dominate themes related to violent death. However, this topic occupied Warhol even before the assassination attempt, disasters worried him with their attractiveness. Warhol expressed his fear of death and mutilation through images of electric chairs, suicides, accidents, funerals, nuclear explosions, mourning Jacqueline Kennedy, posthumous portraits of Monroe and the sick Elizabeth Taylor. One of the clearest illustrations of this Warhol phobia is the painting 1963 "The Tuna Disaster", which reproduced newspaper clippings and photos of two women poisoned by canned A&P tuna, which also appears in the image.

Warhol died in his sleep of cardiac arrest at Cornwell Medical Center in Manhattan, where he underwent minor gallbladder surgery in 1987 . Buried in his native Pittsburgh. Was present at the funeral Yoko Ono.

Despite the fact that Andy Warhol was a public figure, a key figure in the second half of the 20th century, the details of his personal life are unknown. He considered the closest person to his mother, with whom he lived in the same apartment in Manhattan for 20 years. He never openly declared his homosexuality, but contributed to the development of the gay theme of American cinema. According to Andy Warhol's diary entries, he had no close relationship with either a woman or a man. It is known about his attraction to Truman Capote, to whom he wrote love letters.
In life, Warhol used makeup, dyed his hair straw-colored, wore wigs with black strands. Being the owner of an androgynous appearance, he was sometimes photographed in women's dresses.

“Love in fantasy is much better than love in reality. The most exciting thing is if you fall in love with someone and never have sex with him. The craziest attraction is between two opposites that never meet.”

Of course, the twentieth century was rich in events. And perhaps the brightest and most commercially profitable enterprise of the 20th century in the field of art is Andy Warhol's legendary "Factory". What was originally conceived as an ordinary creative studio of a New York artist eventually turned into a haven for all the urban bohemians of that time.

there were artists, musicians, poets, playwrights and actors Warhol literally attracted artists. Not only attracted but also knew how to benefit from it. At that time, avant-garde art was developing rapidly and attracted more and more interest from an advanced public, as well as bewilderment from conservatives. Warhol became one of the most famous and significant figures in the art of the 20th century, thanks to his works in the style of pop art, as well as numerous projects, including films, music production and stage performances.

Warhol was born in Pennsylvania to a family of Slovak immigrants. He was the fourth child in the family. His family emigrated to America in 1914. As a child, Andy Warhol suffered a serious illness known as Sydenham's chorea. During this period, he enjoys drawing and making collages from photographs of movie stars. Thanks to the incredible painstaking perseverance and immersion in their work.

Andy eventually achieves successes unthinkable for an artist. He is recognized as a genius during his lifetime, and any things or paintings signed with his name fly like hot cakes. At its best, the factory produces 1000 silkscreens a day, plus movies are constantly being shot and music is being written. Andy knew how to turn the elite picturesque market into a cash cow and successfully applied this knowledge in practice. He collaborated with many prominent rock stars of the time, in particular he produced and drew the cover of the first album "Velvet undeground", which was warmly received by both critics and listeners and is still included in all significant tops related to rock music.

Interesting facts about Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol's works are among the most expensive in the world.

Warhol was a deeply religious man, despite all his activities.

Andy was by nature a loner. And he even ate always alone, not letting anyone deep into his inner world.

One of the participants in the factory tried to shoot the master, but she only managed to seriously injure Warhol.

In one of the artist's films, a no less eccentric genius, Salvador Dali, appeared.

By site| December 29, 2011

Ekaterina Degot
LONELY FACTORY

Ekaterina Degot talks about the famous pop artist and pop artist who changed the consciousness of mankind.

During his life, Andy Warhol invented many excellent things. The right TV show of the president, in which he would report to the people every day - but how much he blabbed on the phone and how it turned out with sex. The right restaurant for those who like to eat alone, where everyone would have a separate booth with a TV. The perfect on-the-go sandwich that has one layer of food and another layer of drink. And the correct, eminently American death - a ray machine in which a person would disappear without a trace in due time: after all, there is no worse embarrassment, Warhol believed, than to die and impose on someone the duty to mess with your body, with the make-up of a corpse, with which there are veins. Especially if you have earned enough all your life so as not to annoy anyone with your problems.

But Andy Warhol's most cherished dream was. Levi's is best, with a little pointless pocket. Or, at least, something equally massive and easy to wash, and in such a way that after washing it does not get old, but only improves. Eternal, in a word. And, to his credit, he did it: Andy Warhol invented Pop.

Sometimes it is called pop art, and Andy Warhol is an artist. Indeed, during his life he more or less carefully copied comic book characters, soup cans and photographs of celebrities many times. Pictures were received. He also imprinted a lot of silkscreens with the same subjects. All these bright, funny and somewhat idiotic images are now considered works of art and cost a lot of money. However, they are worth them only because Andy's main invention, the principle of their creation, was a success. Philosophy, psychology and even morality Pop.

Pop is a boundless acceptance of complacency, self-sufficiency, loneliness, superficiality, lack of meaning in life, irrepressible communication, vampiric devouring of someone else's energy, indifference and lack of time. Warhol teaches how to live among signs, ignoring real people and making yourself comfortable. First of all, it means not to go too far: that is why his main book is called "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and back)". Pop is the art of adaptation and economy of forces. At twenty-three, Warhol put on a gray tow-like wig so that, looking at a very old man, everyone would be surprised how relatively young he was, despite lethargy at his age.

"Once you've entered Pop, you can no longer see the signs like you used to," Warhol said. More precisely, you can no longer see anything but signs: the so-called real life is over for you. "And once you start thinking pop, you can't see America the way you used to." More precisely, you can't see anything but America. After all, America is a country of consumption. Here, shopping is a national sport, but few seek to resell: old or even new things are simply thrown away. A pop artist who only does what he copies, also takes, buys, and does not invent - and immediately throws it away. Pop is a philosophy of prosperous passivity, a morality of consumption, in contrast to the morality of production, which was the Protestant morality of the 19th century and the humanistic creative morality of the 20th century. "Consume and let others consume" is the highest principle of ethics, in which the sympathetic indifference of people to each other is taken for granted.

NO PROBLEM

In his youth, the son of poor Czech emigrants, the timid and shy Andy Warhola (the last letter of his surname was lost later), suffered from unpopularity - his comrades did not share their problems with him. Then he went to a psychoanalyst who listened to him and promised to call back later, which he never did. The patient, however, no longer cared, because on the way back he went to a department store and bought his first television in his life, after which he forgot about unpopularity.

Soon the aspiring artist Warhol turned into a successful graphic designer, began working for New York glossy magazines, he had his own studio called "Factory", subordinates and - since the studio was located on a busy place on the corner of 47th Street and Third Avenue - numerous guests. And it was then that they all had big problems, especially love ones, which they immediately began to share with Andy, so much so that he began to seriously fear picking up these problems from them by airborne droplets. He had already had such an experience once: he earned his abnormally white skin color by looking in childhood at one girl whose face was covered in some kind of white spots. Doctors could not explain this phenomenon. Apparently, he could not get close to people at all.

From the story of problems, Andy concluded: what you want, you get only at the moment when the desire dries up. Here it would be sad to give up. But for Andy, who liked to save effort, it was just a blessing: it means you should only want what you don’t need. And better - what no one needs, since there is quite a bit of everything left in the world, and otherwise your chances are close to zero. In New York, for example, it is impossible to walk alone if you do not like to walk at eight in the morning on a cold rainy Sunday. But if you managed to make this particular time your favorite, then you hit the jackpot.

In accordance with this philosophy, which he called "the right thing in the wrong place" (and sometimes vice versa), Warhol began to make his art. He took what everyone needed - for example, a dollar. Then he made from it what no one needed - a picture with the image of a dollar. And it turned out that this picture again became necessary for everyone, only not everyone could already afford it: it turned out to be too expensive. Warhol himself made exactly the same dizzying loop when he became the most successful commercial designer in New York in the 50s, abandoned design in the 60s to become the most radical non-commercial avant-garde artist and filmmaker, and in the 70s became what since then simply did not exist in nature: the commercial avant-garde. Thus, he did not lose anything - everything went into business. After that, in the 80s, he could already be just a secular lion - or, as the journalists were angry, a dog.

In the 60s, Warhol almost never left his "Factory", where paintings and films were produced during the day, and in the evening a variety of characters appeared - always unexpectedly, from a huge wrought-iron elevator in which one of the inhabitants of the "Factory" liked to sleep. Warhol had many such inhabitants - female, male and intermediate sexes.

Their names were: Ingrid Superstar, Viva, Baby Jane Holzer, Ultra Violet, Candy Darling, International Velvet (not to be confused with the rock band Velvet Underground, which also worked here) ... Their fame did not go beyond Warhol's films and workshop.

In the 70s and 80s, everything changed: Warhol continued to work at the Factory during the day, but in the evening restaurants and clubs became his stage, and in particular, the famous Studio 54. The place, according to Warhol, is so mandatory ("everything happens there most importantly"), that if there was an earthquake in New York, it would only be there. Now he was surrounded by Liz Taylor, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Iman, Greek billionaires, ex-wife Soreya, Imelda Markos, Liza Minnelli, Jackie Onassis, Diana Ross, Diana Keaton and many others, beautiful, rich and famous. True, their beauty did not bother Andy much - he believed that modern culture makes everyone handsome: he envied only the main, from his point of view, skill of the rich - the ability to eat and speak at the same time.

In his creative evolution, Warhol reached the pinnacle of energy saving: in the 60s he created the stars himself (it is no coincidence that the walls of his "Factory" were covered with silver foil), and in the 70s and 80s he began to cold-bloodedly use ready-made ones. He did not manage to paint a portrait of all of them, but they all became characters in his oral project called Andy Warhol's Diary, which he dictated by phone to his secretary every morning since 1976. There, in particular, there was a mention of how a poet who came from the USSR was once introduced into the cherished circle: as the secretary recorded from the words of Warhol, his name, it seems, was Andre Boszynakshinsky.

THE ART OF BEING FAMOUS

Perhaps Andy Warhol is best known for his prophecy: "Soon everyone can be famous for fifteen minutes." One day, the TV presenter got a little confused and quoted as follows: "As Andy Warhol promised, soon everyone will be famous - in 15 minutes." Warhol was delighted. However, it would be even better to say - everyone is already famous, calm down. Of the pop artists of the 60s, Warhol said: "You just had to know that you are already in the future and that it is this knowledge that sends you there. The mystery was over, but the amazement was just beginning."

Pop is really the absence of mystery: everything is only in sight, only on the outside. And there is also an exclamation of amazement, a cheerful and at the same time yawning "Wow!" It was Andy's favorite, and in the last years of his life, almost the only statement of Andy, for which he generally opened his mouth, and this is how he reacted to absolutely everything. The differences between anything seemed insignificant to him. By the way, Warhol went to the polls only once, in his early youth, and he put a tick in the wrong place, because he didn’t understand how it was done. And on the night of the 1984 presidential election, when journalists on a TV show asked him who he had voted for the day before, Warhol, without hesitation, answered: "To the winner", ignoring the bewildered looks of the TV presenters. Later, he expressed the hope that journalists would someday read all of his interviews, understand that he was mentally retarded, and stop asking him such questions.

However, Andy was not at all mentally retarded and understood that such immense indifference gives the indifferent tremendous freedom - and power. One of Warhol's avant-garde films of the 1960s, Empire, begins as a Hitchcock film might have begun: the camera through the window is fixed on the skyscraper opposite. But, unlike Rear Window, Warhol's film continues in the same way - for six hours. True, towards the end, in the swaying window sash, the reflection of Warhol himself flickers once. This was discovered by a lady who wrote her dissertation about this film - twenty years after it was shot: it turns out that before not a single person had found the strength to watch the picture to this point. So Warhol could well put some bloody scene at the fifth hour and giggle to himself - we would have missed it for sure. However, he was too lazy to do so. "The coolest thing is not doing 'that'," Warhol said, referring to sex. It seems that he really did not do "this" - such facts are unknown, but such was his life principle. True, this did not apply to work: he wanted to work like a machine. But the desire to work was dictated by the laziness of just living.

BETWEEN NAME AND BODY

When, in 1969, several American artists were supposed to put their drawings on a computer chip that was going with Apollo 12 to the moon, Warhol, after some thought, decided on his own initials: “In case there are people there, you should immediately start PR project. Warhol - as he saw himself - is first and foremost a name; the pinnacle of a career is to become a Name in General. "I always wanted nothing to be written on my gravestone. No epitaph, no last name. Well, okay - in general, I would like it to say "fiction"". Even Warhol considered himself - where to go - a body, a combination of "chemical elements" that (and not childhood trauma) shaped his character. “If you asked me:“ What are your problems with? ”, I would answer:“ With the skin. Terrible acne ", - said Warhol.

He never complained about mental suffering, but he liked to emphasize his physical weakness. “I never fall apart because I never come together. I just sit and repeat: “I’m going to faint now. I'll faint. I know I'm about to faint. Have I fainted yet? So I'm about to fall.

One day, Andy Warhol did not faint, but simply died. On June 3, 1968, a regular visitor to the Factory, feminist Valerie Solanas, who was offended by Warhol for ignoring her (naive! he had never done anything else in his life!), shot him and killed him. In the hospital, he was given a direct heart massage, and he suddenly "wound up" and came to life, proving that he really became, as he always wanted, a machine. So Warhol managed something unique: to become a cult figure (which happens, as you know, only after a romantic death, best of all murder) and not die at the same time. When he finally died in 1987, it happened in the most unromantic way: from complications after a banal successful operation.

Warhol liked to point out that he was not entirely human. About the ointment of the so-called "corporeal" shade, with which he covered his numerous acne, he said that its color did not remind him of the color of any human bodies, but, however, ideally suited his own. He considered nonexistence to be a normal state: "Being born is the same as being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery." Life, therefore, is hard work. And the most difficult and tedious work in life is sex. However, even if "not to do this", it is hard even just to have a sex, to "be" a man or a woman, a homosexual or a heterosexual. Being generally hard. If it is not yet possible not to be at all, then the best thing is to be Nobody. "Nothing is always stylish. Always in good taste. Nothing is perfect - in the end, absolutely nothing contradicts it. Nothing is fatiguing, Nothing is sexually repulsive, Nothing is upsetting. The only time I want to be Something , is when I'm not at the party yet to go there."

This painful desire to exist a little, and not at a certain party, but rather at all at once, Warhol called the Secular Disease. It manifested itself in him in the 70s, when he began to visit daily for two dinners, several cocktails, at the opening of an exhibition in Soho, at the opening of the season on Broadway, at the opening of a boutique, at the opening of a restaurant - "whatever opens, I go "When it's closed, I go too. Just go. It's a social disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay at home for one night, I start gossiping with my dogs. Once I stayed at home for a week, and they had a nervous breakdown." ". It is easy to catch the Social Disease: it is enough to kiss someone on both cheeks. "The habit of kissing people on the cheeks comes from France, like most diseases in general. Secular people never shake hands. It hurts too much."

However, as Warhol admitted, he would be happy not to go anywhere if he knew exactly what was happening where he did not go. A youthful affair with the TV put an end to Warhol's problems: he ended his emotional life when, as he himself announced,. He never parted with him, and when he said "we" he meant himself and him. Many imagine the ideal wife as a device for recording (and occasionally reproducing) her husband's speech; Warhol, as in everything, was against metaphors: a tape recorder is a tape recorder. And another thing - a camera (maybe it was Warhol's mistress?).

"The only point of resting powerfully is to work powerfully, not the other way around as most people think. That's why I take a tape recorder wherever I can. And I always take a camera. Having to develop a couple of films is a great excuse to get up the next morning."

During his life, Warhol himself took about a hundred thousand Polaroid pictures of himself and those around him, ordered photographers to shoot at his "Factory" twenty-four hours a day, documented himself in films. "If you look at emotions at least once from a certain angle, you will never again be able to treat them as something real." Six hundred "time capsules" were found in his archives - cardboard boxes with photographs, invoices, unopened chocolates and newspaper clippings marking every, even the smallest segment of his time - let's not call it life. It was the recording, the documentation, that made it possible not to live, but to be fixed, immediately turn into a sign, which has the advantage over life that it is more like a dollar.

Pop is opposed to all modern humanistic psychology, which has infiltrated consciousness through magazines and television and requires people to be sincere, feel connected to life, make conscious choices, analyze their past, communicate with people, and even treat everything creatively - to be, one in a word, real, active subjects of life. "Bad Boy" Warhol teaches otherwise. The position of an independent subject is completely unfavorable. Don't get too carried away with individual love and individual existence in general. It is best to be a passive object of someone else's attention ("It would be just great to turn into a huge ring on Pauline Rothschild's finger as a result of reincarnation!"). And eat more sweets: for example, put a bar of chocolate between two slices of white bread and chew it like a sandwich. There is nothing genuine at all, all this is sheer self-deception, democracy leads to the complete attenuation of ties between people, but, by the way, that's fine. The most correct reaction to life is "Think about it!". "My mother didn't love me." - "Think about it!". "I'm famous, but still lonely." - "Think about it!". I have no idea, writes Warhol, how I managed to last until I came up with this.

Looks like we can't survive without it. We hear the echoes of Andy Warhol's decisions today from everywhere. It is pointless to recall childhood traumas, it is better to be treated with pills - now even some psychoanalysts admit this in a whisper. There is no need to choose - now the hero of the cult film "Trainspotting" screams like that. You need to communicate with people as little as possible - these days this is the point of view of the fashionable French novelist Michel Ouellebecq.

In general, the Pop masters the elite - he mastered the masses a long time ago. That's why he's Pop.

Andy Warhol, one of the founders of pop art, has successfully turned his name into a brand. A multifaceted and versatile personality, he reliably inscribed himself in the history of the development of culture in the second half of the 20th century. What brought him such a resounding success?

Childhood

On August 6, 1928, a fourth child was born in a family of immigrants from Czechoslovakia Varhola, they named him Andrei. Andy Warhol is the pseudonym of Andrey Varhola. At the time of his birth, the family had already lived in the city of Pittsburgh for several years, so he rightfully took an American name for himself. The family had nothing to do with the creative environment. His father worked all his life in a coal mine, and his mother was a housewife.

In the 3rd grade, little Andrei fell ill with Sydenham's chorea. This disease causes involuntary jerky body movements. As a result, the boy had to spend a whole year at home. It was during this period that he became interested in drawing in order to somehow distract himself from the painful state. The plot did not have to hiccup for a long time, he simply drew what was before his eyes: light bulbs, empty packs of cigarettes. Then he first began to make collages from newspaper clippings.

The beginning of the way

The young and ambitious Andy Warhol decided to start his creative path by enrolling at the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Technology. He easily passed all the exams and began to study commercial illustration and graphic drawing. He turned out to be the best student on the course, but at the same time he could not find contact with teachers and classmates.

A young and talented American artist easily found work in New York. His first position was a window dresser. During these years, he painted posters, greeting cards, and was engaged in stand decor. There was not much success at first.

One friend advised him: if you want to be rich, draw money. Andy took this advice literally, and began to draw one-dollar bills. At the same time, discount coupons and the now-legendary images of Campbell's soup were completed. It was the first success. He was quickly noticed and offered cooperation with leading glossy publications. Andy worked as an illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines.

stairs up

One of the most successful people of his time, Andy Warhol, whose biography and work inspires even today, began his journey with advertising. The first successful project was advertising shoes "I. Miller. It was a real success, contracts fell like rain, and the amounts of fees were constantly growing.

Already in 1952, his first exhibition took place. She brought her author even greater success. Andy was accepted into the Art Editors Club. In the same period, he creates his own corporate identity based on screen printing. By this time, his earnings had already exceeded $ 100,000 a year, and he was recognized as one of the most successful people of our time. One of the most expensive commissions is the design of a Coca-Cola can.

Templates, templates, templates...

1962 was a landmark year. At this time, the artist's passion for stencils intensifies. He took newspaper clippings or photographs as a basis, the original version was multiplied into many copies. Each piece was painted differently. The American artist was a slice of realism. The selection of colors was based on their compatibility.

At one time, the artist was strongly fascinated by tragic photographs. He took plots of murders, catastrophes, fires. Numerous repetitions enhanced the impression, and unnatural colors only helped to focus on the plot.

Andy Warhol continues to work in this technique further. The photo of Marilyn Monroe inspired the artist for a long time. Marilyn in neon colors has become a kind of icon of pop art.

Factory

Andy Warhol brought the philosophy of technology to art. He said more than once that he would like to become a machine. Thinking the same and looking the same, like machines - that's what humanity must come to. Based on this idea, a creative workshop was created, which he called "Factory". To create the necessary surroundings, the entire room was covered with aluminum.

"Factory" Warhol began to gather like-minded people around him. The working team was replenished with several assistants. Although the general direction was the same, the assistants had some freedom. They independently selected images for new stencils and learned from the meter how to combine colors.

Director

All the same "Factory" became the place where cinema was born. Andy became almost the only known director of cinema in the underground style. His first works introduced the viewer into a hypnotic state. These are the paintings "Sleep" and "Empire". In the first, throughout the entire tape, just a sleeping person, the second offers a contemplation of the Empire State Building at night. The picture lasts several hours, while without any musical accompaniment.

In the future, a movie appears with a plot that is mostly erotic in nature. One of the first feature films - "Garbage". The very process of work and the plot of the picture is a parody and a mockery of commercial cinema.

Since 1966, Warhol has been working with the Velvet Underground. He makes films and produces several albums. Andy personally designs their first album. The cover features a graphic image of a banana on a clean background. Now it is one of the most recognizable works of the artist.

Magazine

This person is not only an artist, director and producer of a musical group, he is also a magazine publisher. Andy Warhol created the magazine Interview. The main goal of the publication is to bring modern culture to the masses.

The pages of the magazine published interviews of bright creative personalities of their time: musicians, artists, actors, directors. He was one of the first to open the veil of secrecy over the lives of famous personalities. Glory, sex outrageousness and delicacy perfectly coexist here. But the circle of people is not limited to pop art and the underground, the publication does not adhere to a certain style and works in all directions.

The magazine is still alive and is already published in several countries. He came to Russia in 2011. The new generation diligently observes the traditions laid down by the founder.

assassination attempt

On July 3, 1968, Warhol, as always, was working in his workshop. One of his actresses entered and fired three shots into the artist's stomach. After that, she calmly went out into the street, and confessed to the first patrol officer of her deed. However, she did not feel remorse, and made the attempt quite deliberately. Andy suffered clinical death, but as a result of a long and complicated operation, doctors managed to save his life. He flatly refused to give accusatory evidence, complacently forgiving his model. Solanas escaped with three years in prison and compulsory treatment.

Some believe that Valerie was an ardent feminist. But she herself claims that she was trying in this way to attract his attention to herself. Talking to him was like talking to furniture, she argued. The version with the unfortunate lover seems more plausible, all things considered.

Having been on the threshold of the worlds, the artist becomes more pious, and begins to attend church regularly. The theme of violent death is often seen in the works of this time.

Personal life

Andy Warhol, whose biography was carefully concealed, still failed to completely free himself from public discussion of his personal life.

He was constantly credited with a relationship with Edie Sedgwick. He met this sweet girl with a charming smile in 1995. A thin, fragile 17-year-old girl delighted the already eminent artist. He repeatedly called her his muse.

It is still not clear whether their romantic feelings connected or not, but one thing is a fact. They appeared everywhere together, as if the twins dressed the same. To please Andy, the girl even cut her luxurious hair and dyed it platinum blonde. But the idyll did not turn out to be eternal, for unknown reasons they quarreled right in the restaurant, they were never seen together again.

Many researchers of Andy Warhol's personal life claim that he was gay, and there simply could not be a relationship with Edie. Much about life and work can be learned from the diaries kept by Andy Warhol: biography, photos, hangouts and the creative process. Recordings were kept for 10 years, and after the death of the artist were published.

Artist, director, producer, publisher - Andy Warhol has been noted in almost all directions and left a bright neon brushstroke in the history of contemporary art. His work continues to inspire the younger generation and he raised many followers on his own at the "Factory" of art. An unusual personality with an unusual fate, a vivid example of a person who independently achieved everything he dreamed of.