Andy Warhol is credited as being one of the most prominent artists associated with American pop art. The pop art movement began in Britain in the 1950s and later moved to America in the early 1960s. Pop art drew inspiration from mass media images such as advertising, consumer products and even comic books. This type of art was accessible and easily understood by everyone and thus was appealing to a wide audience.
Early in his career, Andy Warhol was interested in using celebrities in his work. Hollywood idols such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor were popular models for his silkscreens. However, Warhol did not start using Monroe as a model until after her death. Warhol's use of the commercial technique of silkscreening gave the work an artificial look, which could have revealed Monroe's image as a carefully structured illusion, according to the Museum of Modern Art website.
Besides celebrities, Warhol was also interested in using advertising and consumer images that appealed to mass audiences in his work. His most iconic image is that of the Campbell Soup can. In 1962, Warhol exhibited "Campbell's Soup Cans," a work comprised of 32 canvases, each with a different variety of Campbell's soup. When first exhibited, the canvasses hung uniformly on the gallery wall in rows, like grocery shelves. Warhol also used commercial images of Coke bottle tops, Brillo soap pads and Heinz ketchup bottles.
To mass produce his work, Warhol opened "The Factory" in 1962. "The Factory" was an art studio where Warhol employed workers to produce his work as prints and posters, mostly using the silkscreen technique. His art became a mass production, just like the many images he used within his work. "The Factory" was originally located on East 47th Street in New York City and later moved to 860 Broadway in 1974. At "The Factory," Warhol and his workers also created over 300 bizarre underground films. The first film, called "Sleep," simply featured a man sleeping for over 6 hours.
Following a murder attempt by a Factory worker named Valerie Solanis, Warhol's work changed dramatically in the 1970s. Instead of mass producing his art, he started doing individual portraits of people he found to be influential, such as Mick Jagger, Brigitte Bardot and Michael Jackson. Besides his art, Warhol started a magazine called "Interview" as well as a nightclub. Even though Warhol died in 1987, his work continues to be quite valuable. According to the World Collector's Net website, a silkscreen print called "Little Electric Chair" sold at Christie's Contemporary Art Auction for $2.3 million in 2001.