Andy Warhol's Pop Art

Andy Warhol was an American artist who was the leading figure in an art movement known as “Pop Art”, and he became known as the ‘Pope of Pop’. His artworks comprised of many forms of media such as; hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and film-making. In my opinion, he is the ultimate outlier and source of endless fascination. Although Warhol is most known for his portraiture, photography and film-making, not many people know that he began his extensive art career as a fashion illustrator in the 1950’s this is due to the fact that he very seldom spoke about it. I was drawn to Andy Warhol’s fashion illustrations because of their

The hand-drawn illustrations possessed a charm which photography lacked at the time. As well as the charm, illustrations demonstrated the artist’s touch and personality which communicated with the spectators. As Warhol’s reputation in illustration grew he needed to speed up the process of drawing so he experimented with different techniques, such as rubber stamping. This technique allowed Warhol to cover a page quickly which he then developed into an aesthetic. He liked how the ink diminished on the stamp after each print and created different textures. The varied lines and depth of ink were quite similar to the drawings he created through ink blotting. By the late 1950’s Warhol began to move away from illustration and work towards fine art. Although I do like his later Pop Art work, I prefer his early illustrations as they possess a soft and innocent style compared to his later work that became cold and harsh virtual productions. Andy Warhol’s distinctive touch and style which served as a signature in his commercial work was replaced by virtual anonymity, which in respect became a style in itself. In the late 1950’s he intentionally detached himself from his exceptionally unique and successful work as a commercial illustrator and transitioned to fine art under the Pop Art movement. Warhol’s commercial era was a crucial stepping stone for his later art and is essential to understand his later art as an