Andy Warhol, explained

Andy Warhol wasn't just an artist—he was a cultural force. From his early days working as a New York illustrator to managing The Velvet Underground and creating experimental films, Warhol blurred the line between art and commerce, leaving a legacy that changed pop culture forever.

Andy Warhol's presence continues to persist in pop culture

Warhol produced iconic album art for The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground. He also inspired rappers Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator. Warhol’s immense influence on art and pop culture elevated him to celebrity status, and his identity and style continue to be referenced in sometimes unexpected corners of cultural consciousness.

Andy Warhol’s famous works employed a 'machine-like' technique

Warhol’s silk-screen printing style—rough, noticeably imperfect, and painterly—was the result of a refined technique in service of a grainy tabloid aesthetic.

Learn how to make a print like pop artist Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol’s 'Exploding Plastic Inevitable' shows were multimedia performance art

If you wandered into one of Andy Warhol’s "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" events in the 1960s, you might have encountered a Velvet Underground performance, go-go dancers, strobe lights, guerrilla filmmakers asking very personal questions, and mimes. Warhol was on the cutting edge of many art forms, and performance art was no exception.

Basquiat and Warhol were friends and collaborators before a bitter falling out

The two men were tight, but they also offered what the other lacked in the art world: Basquiat inspired Warhol, and Warhol gave Basquiat art-world credibility. They began working together, producing 160 collaborative works between 1983 and 1985. A 1985 exhibition of their joint works was a massive flop, though, and the friendship never recovered.

Pop art brought 'low culture' to the fine art world

Pop art’s embrace of kitsch American pop culture furthered a centuries-long tradition of the visual arts during the second half of the 20th century. Its most famous exemplars, including Andy Warhol, were heirs to a vast tradition they sought to transcend and upend.

Pop art explored the concepts of mass production and consumerism

Consumerism emerged from industrial capitalism, promoting the idea that consuming goods was linked to personal success and happiness. Artists, especially pop artists, approached this cultural phenomenon through various perspectives, some supportive of consumerism and others against. Figures like Andy Warhol embraced mass media imagery and mimicked its style, while many artists rejected the “commodification” of things by creating art that couldn’t be sold or focusing on experiences rather than objects.

Basquiat impressed Warhol by quickly painting a picture of the two men

After Jean-Michel Basquiat was introduced to Andy Warhol in 1982, Warhol took a Polaroid photo of the two of them, and Basquiat ran home (about a mile and a half) to paint it. Two hours later, he returned with Doz Cabezas. The act impressed Warhol, who mentored the young artist.

Reactions to Abramovic’s work range from adoration to religious scorn

Abramović’s willingness to mainstream transgressive and symbolic work has inspired many, but some have also interpreted that same work as ridiculous, pretentious, or even Satanic.

Painter Wayne Thiebaud's portraits of 20th-century Americana are often called 'pop art,' the kitschy movement associated with Andy Warhol that focused on commercialism and everyday objects, but Thiebaud disliked the term and the movement.

MoMA hosted 1962's 'Symposium on Pop Art,' which made the term 'pop art' official

MoMA's history with pop art and its conceptual roots extends to its early origins, and its collection of works includes iconic works like Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" and Lichtenstein's "Drowning Girl."

He also influenced contemporary artist George Condo

The scale and reach of Picasso and cubism inspired artists and art movements throughout the early to mid-20th century. In fact, his influence can still be seen in artists today. One such artist, George Condo (known for painting the album cover of Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” pictured below), heavily references Picasso’s visual language, transmuting the legendary artist’s geometric shapes and perspectives for a more contemporary audience.

Indigenous art's influence on pop art often goes uncredited

Keith Haring’s iconic imagery, often known for its accessibility, was deeply inspired by the artwork of the Indigenous people of Australia. Their artwork influenced aspects of Haring's paintings, such as flat block colors and symmetrical compositions. While some critics find Haring to have appropriated their culture, others find his work to be pushing a message of unity and togetherness.

Rockwell's 'Rosie the Riveter' alludes to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting was intended to show the strength of female contributions to the American war effort and used the character of Rosie the Riveter, popularized in a 1942 song, to represent that. Although Rockwell used a model for the portrait, he made the woman larger on the canvas to parallel Michelangelo's painting of the Prophet Isaiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Picasso’s legacy is often intertwined with his personal relationships

Family revelations and quotes show the legendary artist as both tender and cruel, and his fame and romantic advances sometimes had disastrous effects on those around him.

Explore works by essential female pop artists

Like so many art movements, the pantheon of pop art was mostly men, despite the contributions of several important women artists to its aesthetics and history. See paintings from British pop founder Pauline Boty and several artists who worked with, or exhibited alongside, the likes of Warhol and Haring.

Rockwell based many of his paintings on staged photographs

Rockwell’s work was often noted for its realism. His paintings' near-photographic precision was no accident. Early in his career, he painted from live models. Later, he’d conceived a scene, staged it, photographed it, and then used the photos as the foundation for his paintings.

Rockwell left high school to become an artist

He began taking art classes at 14, while still in high school, but by 1910, he left traditional schooling to focus on his training at the National Academy of Design. He transferred to the Art Students League soon after to study under Thomas Fogarty, who taught him the particulars of commercial illustration, and George Bridgman, who was known for anatomically precise portraits.

The Easter story in paintings from the National Gallery

Walk through the entire narrative of Holy Week, painting by painting, from the "Agony in the Garden" to the "Supper at Emmaus" from masters like Titian and Caravaggio.

The Guggenheim houses works from some of pop art’s biggest names

British writer and curator Lawrence Alloway was an early champion of pop art—some claim he coined the term in 1958. He organized the 1963 “Six Painters and the Object” exhibition at the Guggenheim, featuring heavy hitters including Johns, Lichtenstein, and Warhol.

Pope Francis and his distinctive approach to leading the Catholic Church

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was known for promoting social and economic justice rather than just traditional moral teachings while he led the Catholic Church. During his papacy, he exhibited a more open point of view towards historically controversial matters related to marriage, sexuality, the priesthood, and celibacy—and not without criticism. Reflect on his legacy and how he changed the church in this video.

A collage sparked the pop art movement

Richard Hamilton’s "Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?"—originally an illustration for a 1956 exhibition on modern living and collaborative art practices—would later become the nascent symbol of pop art.

See a massive collection of Norman Rockwell's paintings

Rockwell's works sought to capture authentic scenes from American life and, in the process, came to define the American ideal. This collection includes 244 of his paintings, from his early days at the Saturday Evening Post through his more socially minded work for Look, to the end of his career. Below is 1951's "Saying Grace."

A close look at the figures in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

The ceiling of the chapel—the site at the Vatican in Rome where the Roman Catholic Church selects the pope—was painted between 1508 and 1512. There are dozens of figures depicted on the ceiling and walls pulled from the Bible's Old Testament, with the centerpiece the nine center panels covering the Creation, Noah's Ark, and more. Explore a rich interpretation of the piece in this video.

View Jean-Michel Basquiat's artwork

The iconic artist had a short career, but he produced a massive body of work and changed the style of American art by bringing together pop art, graffiti, hip-hop, and punk. His work still hangs in galleries across the world. View scans of the most famous ones here.

Many critics dismissed Norman Rockwell as overly sentimental

The painter’s portraits of American life were often dismissed as commercially minded, banal, or kitschy, especially when compared with the more abstract art of the time. Rockwell, however, was undeterred, commenting that he wanted to produce work that would make viewers “want to sigh and smile at the same time.”

Keith Haring was inspired by graffiti's accessibility

The visual artist—known for his vibrant pop art—loved how graffiti was a democratic form, available to everyday people who wouldn't otherwise visit museums or galleries. He began drawing chalk murals in New York subway stations, remarking that it was an ideal venue because it attracted a diverse audience.

The 1980s neo-pop movement put pop art back in the zeitgeist

Pop art’s legacy is perhaps best exemplified in its longevity. Long after the end of pop art’s classical phase, a neo-pop revival ushered in a new cohort of artists like Murakami, Hirst, and Koons who brought pop once again to the top. To this day, contemporary pop artists—young and seasoned—command high prices on the open market.

Picasso was a major influence on Jean-Michel Basquiat

Both Picasso and Basquiat are major figures of 20th-century art, with distinctive styles that flew in the face of the formalized standards of their respective times. Below is one of Basquiat's portraits of Picasso, who influenced the younger artist’s approach to form, from 1984.

Norman Rockwell had a 21st-century resurgence

For decades, he was written off by the art world as a simplistic commercial artist, but critics began to reconsider Rockwell's work many years after his death. Arguably, the height of that resurgence came in 2011, when President Barack Obama hung "The Problem We All Live With" (on loan from the Norman Rockwell Museum) in the White House to mark the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges' desegregation walk.

Some argue that appropriation in pop art is simply plagiarism

Some of pop art’s most recognizable works rely on the art of appropriation, lifting advertisements, product images, and—in Roy Lichtenstein’s case—comic book panels drawn by other artists. Artnet dives into a 2023 documentary exploring the complicated legacy of appropriation and high versus low art through interviews with comic artists whose work Lichtenstein copied into million-dollar masterpieces.

One Martin Wong painting contains a secret homage to graffiti culture

After the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired painter Martin Wong's "Houston Street," they discovered there was another work on the back of the canvas that featured contributions from some of the luminaries of the 1980s New York graffiti scene.

Looting art is often a byproduct of war

During WWII, Hitler orchestrated the theft of many masterpieces to eventually create his own museum. While many of these were recovered, iconic works such as Raphael's "[Portrait of a Young Man](https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-story-of-the-lost-raphaels-portrait-of-a-young-man/)" and Vincent van Gogh's "Painter on His Way to Work" remain missing or were destroyed by the Nazis.

Basquiat's crown appears throughout several works

The artist first used the crown in 1981’s "Red Kings," which placed crowns over two heads. He’d continue using the motif throughout his career, often to highlight important figures, many of them Black, whom he believed had been overlooked.

Music was a profound inspiration for Basquiat

The prolific artist loved music, obsessing over David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, and numerous jazz figures. Many of his favorites appeared in his paintings, creating a body of work that also acts as a glossary of influences. Below is a 1984 portrait of Max Roach, the jazz drummer. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

In 1932, Mexican artist Diego Rivera painted a series of murals in Detroit depicting the city's automotive workers and criticizing the Ford Motor Company, leading to weeks of controversy.

The widespread violence of World War I birthed surrealism

Following World War I, artists used unconventional forms of expression to make sense of the death and destruction they'd witnessed for years. Life as they knew it had ended, and movements like Surrealism, founded by André Breton, rebelled against tradition.

Banksy turned graffiti into high art

The anonymous artist is renowned for his puckish, often stenciled street art. He's also known for the eye-popping sales those works command once they're up for auction. This podcast dives into the history of the singular artist, exploring how a British graffiti artist became a cultural icon.