American artist of the sixties famous for his experimental use of colour and mass produced images based on popular culture and icons of his time.
Although he was a successful illustrator, Warhol wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. Inspired by the new wave of art he saw in New York galleries, in 1960 he started making hand-painted pictures combining advertising imagery with creative painting. This soon gave way to a clean graphic style now known as Pop Art. His images of consumer items such as Campbell’s soup cans are rooted in his experience of an emerging consumer culture, selling a dream of economic and social progress.