Ponti Art Gallery is interested in buying and selling works
of art by this artist.
Andy Warhol Biography
Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola Jr. on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a visual artist, film director, and producer who became a leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, spanning a variety of media including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Warhol's early life in Pittsburgh was marked by his Slovakian immigrant parents, Andrej and Julia Warhola, who were devout Byzantine Catholics. The youngest of three sons, Warhol faced a challenging childhood, including a bout with Chorea—also known as St. Vitus's Dance—a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system that left him bedridden for several months. This period of illness played a significant role in developing his interest in art, as his mother, a skillful artist herself, gave him his first drawing lessons.
Warhol's fascination with art continued to grow, leading him to take free art classes offered at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. His talent was recognized early on, and after graduating from Schenley High School in 1945, he enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) to study pictorial design. Upon graduating in 1949 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Warhol moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist. His success in the commercial art world was immediate, winning several awards for his distinctive advertising designs and becoming the most successful and highly paid commercial illustrator in New York even before he began to make art destined for galleries.
Warhol's transition from commercial to gallery artist was marked by his innovative use of media and his fascination with American popular culture. In the early 1960s, his paintings of dollar bills, soup cans, and movie stars established his status as the founder of pop art. Repetition was a key to Warhol's work, as evidenced by his many recurrent series which included flowers, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Chairman Mao, among others. He deliberately infused his work with a mechanical and impersonal character that intensified when he adopted silkscreen printing techniques to increase his production. This practice brilliantly reflected the commercial, industrial economy of the mechanical reproduction age.
Warhol's New York studio, The Factory, became a famous gathering place for intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons. It was here that he promoted a collection of personalities known as Warhol superstars and produced experimental films such as Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966). Warhol's influence extended beyond the art world; he managed and produced the experimental rock band the Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine. He also authored several books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties.
Despite facing a near-fatal shooting by radical feminist Valerie Solanas in 1968, Warhol's prolific output continued until his death. After gallbladder surgery, he died of cardiac arrhythmia on February 22, 1987, at the age of 58 in New York City. Warhol's legacy is immense, with his works commanding high prices at auction and his influence still felt across the art world. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist, holds an extensive permanent collection of his art and archives, ensuring that his groundbreaking contributions to visual culture and the art market are remembered and celebrated.
Andy Warhol Quotes and Sales
of Works
Ponti Art Gallery selects and deals with paintings by the
artist. Upon request, we provide free estimates and
evaluations, communicate prices, quotations, and current
market values.
If you are interested in BUYING or SELLING works by the
artist, contact us immediately.
If you wish to sell or receive an evaluation of the
works:
Send us a frontal photo of the painting, one of the back,
and one of the signature. Also, indicate the dimensions of
the work. Inform us about the purchase origin of the work
and any kind of available documentation (purchase
receipts, certificates of authenticity, publications). One
of our operators will respond to you on the same day. We
guarantee maximum confidentiality and extreme
professionalism.
If you wish to purchase works by the painter: Contact us
and let us know your request. We will inform you about the
available works. We also offer the possibility to
subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, through which you will be
informed at the beginning of each month about the latest
acquisitions of the art gallery.
You can send us pictures of the work: