Andy Warhol’s America episode 1: Documentary looking at the history of 20th-century America through the life and career of Andy Warhol. Episode one examines the artist’s childhood in Pittsburgh and his rise from poverty to wealth and fame in New York City in the 1950s. Warhol establishes his name by making everyday foodstuff the subject of his work, and in turn creates a sensation which propels him to the A-list of American society
He was a pioneering artist and cultural icon – and his work is a history of 20th-century America. A country reinventing itself – as seen through an artist’s eye. In 1956, Andy Warhol was working as a commercial artist in “bright and shiny” New York, making about $100k a year (a very big salary then). But it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to be fabulous and famous – to be a brand himself. This three-part series, richly supplemented with archive footage and talking heads, starts by taking us back to his immigrant beginnings in Pittsburgh and his early screen prints which perfectly reflected the instant, mass-produced culture of America and its obsession with celebrity. Among those describing how the enigmatic artist evolved and the impact of his work are his friend Bianca Jagger and his nephew James Warhola.
Andy Warhol’s America episode 1
Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator. After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist. His New York studio, The Factory, became a well-known gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons.
He promoted a collection of personalities known as Warhol superstars, and is credited with inspiring the widely used expression “15 minutes of fame”. In the late 1960s he managed and produced the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine. He authored numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties. He lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement. In June 1968, he was almost killed by radical feminist Valerie Solanas, who shot him inside his studio. After gallbladder surgery, Warhol died of cardiac arrhythmia in February 1987 at the age of 58 in New York.
