Payden Keyes
Digital Technology in the Arts
Assignment 6
Andy Warhol was a big influence on the mindset of digital art for the last part of
the 20th century. His use of pop art, digital painting, and design ideas were some of the
first to ever to be done. In this way he was a pioneer of many types of digital art that
people do today.
Andy got his start when he was just a few years out of high school, he started a
career in magazine illustration and advertising by moving to New York City. The same
year he also earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in pictorial design. The most significant
thing about Warhol's artwork is that he accepted imperfections within his art. He had a
casual approach to painting where he would let mistakes and unintentional marks be
tolerated. Often with his works there are imperfections such as smudges and smears.
His work with pop art in the 1950's and 1960's became his signature design,
soon after becoming a publicly recognized figure Warhol collected as many modern art
designers he could find and brought them to "the factory" which was his studio in New
York. During this time he created multiple films, paintings, and other projects with the
assistance of these modern artists.
In 1968 Warhol was shot by a radical feminist who had previously participated in
one of his movies. After this event Warhol was changed and going into the 1970's he
was noticeably quieter with his work. For the most part he stopped making films, he also
began commercializing many of his works by rounding up the rich and famous for
portrait commissions. In 1975 he wrote a book called The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, in
it he says " Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art."
Many people criticized him for being in the art world only for the money during this time.
Andy Warhol was an abstract thinker for his time. He set the stage for many
future artists by thinking about the everyday objects that surround us and what they can
offer artists. Andy's film eating a hamburger is definitely strange, he films himself simply
eating a hamburger for 5 minutes. By doing projects like these he challenged the art
world to accept things that would not be normally presented as art. Just like his
paintings and digital art that had imperfections, he forced people to accept that it was
intentional and necessary.
In 1979 Warhol helped to found the New York Academy of Art which is still
operational today. It is a not-for-profit art school that offers classes in figurative arts and
art history. During the 1970's and early 1980's Warhol used his popularity to help
younger artists that were just emerging into the art collective.
Andy Warhol passed away in 1987 due to a complication during a routine
gallbladder operation. He was 58 years old at the time. Most people remember him as a
pioneer of artistic expression and through his wacky personal appearance and abstract
thought he helped to blaze the trail for future abstract artists in the digital age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejr9KBQzQPM
http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/3/82
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqUd8utr14&feature=player_embedded
http://www.warholfoundation.org/legacy/biography.html