Andy Warhol, Manifesto originale della mostra Karl Ströher, 1968

Andy Warhol : American artist of Slovak origins, he was born in Pittsburgh in 1928. Warhol is a key figure of the American avant-garde, leader of The Pop Art movement since 1960's. He graduated from Fine-Arts in 1949, and settled in New York to begin a career in advertising, using his draughtsman and illustrator's skills. Also creator of theater costumes, he chose an androgynous look and wore a platinum blonde wig and picked his name after his birth name: Andrew Warhola. He realized his first works drawing inspiration from comics (Popeye, 1961) or labels of common consummation products (Del Monte Peach Halves, Coca-Cola, Campbell's Soup). In 1962, Warhol took part in the « nouveaux réalistes » exhibition in New York, with Roy Lichtenstein and Yves Klein, which introduced Pop Art as an artistic movement. Through silkscreen printing, he elaborated series about celebrities (Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy or Elvis). He also used them to revisit Mona Lisa's myth and proceeded to a study about flowers. Warhol's art is close to cinema, in which he worked starting from 1963. He considerably inspired cinematographic avant-garde. Appearing often in magazines, he was considered as an marginal icon. He opened his workshop-studio The « Factory » in 1963, which became one of the trendiest places of New York's life. The band The Velvet Underground, settled in it in its early stages. Warhol shot several experimental films there. He met Keith Haring in 1983, became his mentor, and was then joined Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1986 to contribute to the renewal of expressionist figuration. The artist died in New York in 1987.