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Andy Warhol

Before he was famous, Andy Warhol worked as a commercial artist, drawing pictures of things to help stores sell them. When Andy decided to make his own art, he still painted the same sorts of things, like soup cans and soda bottles. This was called “Pop Art,” art inspired by advertising, TV, and comic books. Andy painted these things over and over and over again.

Andy’s prints and paintings became very popular in the 1960s. Everybody wanted one of his works, and they were selling faster than he could make them. So Andy got some other artists to help him, and they worked together in a large studio called The Factory. They also made music at The Factory, and very long movies. One movie shows a man sleeping. Another is just one long shot of the Empire State building that goes on for eight hours. Not many people have ever watched the whole thing!

Andy started meeting lots of famous people and making portraits of them. These prints made people look strange—with pink eyes or blue lips—but they were a big hit. Andy became very rich, and one thing he used his money for was collecting. When Andy found something he liked, such as a cookie jar, he would buy as many of them as he could. Like Andy’s art, collections are the same thing over and over again.

Even in the New York art world, at the center of a whole scene that he created, Andy remained the same shy, quiet person he had always been. He lived with his mother and basically kept to himself. There are lots of pictures of Andy at fancy New York parties. But when you look at his face in these pictures, it’s hard to tell whether he’s having a good time or whether he’d rather be back at home making art.

Andy is still interesting today because he was many things at once. He was a shy, quiet person but had lots of friends and went to parties. He didn’t like to be interviewed but started a magazine called Interview. His art was funny and sad and deep and empty, all at the same time. Even his friends felt they didn’t know him well. Andy once said that in the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes. That may be true for other people, but Andy Warhol will be famous for a long, long time.