Posted by Edward Kurstak on
Andy Warhol was a leading figure in the postmodernist visual art movement called pop art (also inclusive of Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, Jasper Johns and others) who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most successful and famous artists of his generation. Born to working-class immigrant parents in Pittsburgh, PA, he suffered from Sydenham’s chorea as a child and was bedridden for an extended time. It was during this period that Warhol began drawing and collecting cutout clips of celebrities, which he taped to the walls around his bed. He eventually recovered and would go on to study commercial art at Carnegie Mellon. In 1949, he moved to New York City to kickstart a career in advertising and editorial for fashion magazines such as Glamour and Vogue.
Over the next decade, Warhol fused together his love for drawing, consumerism, fashion and celebrity with his training in commercial art and advertising. He became an early adopter of the silk screen printing process which enables relatively easy and quick duplication of paintings, and which thereby allowed him to create work using a mass production process that reflected the subjects he put onto his canvases.
Warhol soon began exhibiting his work in New York galleries, as well as on the West Coast, and quickly became an international star of the art world. His most famous early works include silkscreen prints, many times duplicated with multiple color variations, of cultural figures such as Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Mouse, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, as well as iconic American consumerist objects including Campbell’s Soup cans and more. He also expanded his artistic skillset to include filmmaking—producing the iconic and racy art films Sleep, Blowjob and Eat, among others, featuring porn stars, drag queens and members from groups on society’s fringes—photography and writing.
With his newfound success and celebrity, Warhol opened The Factory in New York, a communal creative space where he produced his artwork and films, and where he employed production artists he called “art-workers” to help him create the many versions of his pieces that would trickle into market for sale. He maintained high prominence in both pop culture and the art world until his tragic death in 1987 due to surgery complications. Since, his work has remained in high demand on the art market, bringing in as much as $103 million for a single piece at auction.
Edward Kurstak’s portfolio of Andy Warhol art for sale includes posters, offset lithographs, drawings on paper, silkscreens and other pieces—all in very good condition and many of which are signed. Visit our online gallery to see which artifacts from our extensive collection of Andy Warhol’s art are available for sale.