• Occupation: Artist, Painter, Sculptor
• Born: August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Died: February 22, 1987 in New York City, New York
• Famous works: Campbell's Soup Cans, Moonwalk, Marilyn Monroe, Che, Eight Elvises, Flowers
• Style/Period: Pop Art, Modern Art

Where did Andy Warhol grow up?
Andy grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the son of a construction worker. His birth name was Andrew Warhola. When he was 8 years old he caught a liver disease that caused his limbs to sometimes spasm uncontrollably. While recovering his mother, an embroiderer and artist, taught him to draw. He was a quiet and shy child, but loved drawing, photography, and movies.

New York City

After graduating from college, Andy moved to New York in 1959 to make his name as an artist. Andy became a very successful commercial artist. On one of his first jobs his name in the credits was misspelled "Warhol" instead of "Warhola". Andy liked the name and decided to keep it. Over the next ten years Andy did quite well working as a commercial artist. He won prizes for his work and was known for his unique style. However, Andy wanted to do more with his art. He wanted to do something new and different.

POP Art

In 1961 Andy came up with the concept of using mass-produced commercial goods in his art. He called it Pop Art. He would use commercial images and reproduce them over and over. One early example of this was a series on Campbell's Soup cans. In one painting he had two hundred Campbell's soup cans repeated over and over. Andy often used silkscreen and lithography to create his pictures.

Interesting Facts about Andy Warhol

• His birth date was never recorded at a hospital. Andy liked to change his birthday and make up stories about his youth when doing interviews with the press.
• He once said that "good business is the best art."
• He was also interested in film and music. He produced around 60 films and supported a band called the Velvet Underground. One of his movies was a 6 hour film of his friend sleeping called Sleep.
• Andy was shot three times in the chest by feminist Valerie Solanis and nearly died on June 3, 1968.
• He died in the hospital after surgery on his gall bladder.

Flowers by Andy Warhol

Warhol turned to the flower for inspiration time and again. In the 1950s, he made drawings of flowers in the tradition of representational still life. Blotted-line daisies, roses, and gold-foiled irises appeared in early commissioned artworks and book illustrations. He returned to the floral still life in 1974, with a series of screenprints based on Japanese ikebana.

Andy Warhol’s Flowers from 1964 is the icon of an era. The broad swath of electric green ground, overlaid with the black screen of grass and other brush, all punctuated by four large, non-specific flowers is at once representational and abstract, sunny and dark, uplifting and sombre. First executed in the summer of 1964, the Flowers came during a transitional period within the artist’s life and career.