ANDY WARHOL

Obsessed with celebrity, consumer culture and mechanical reproduction, pop artist Andy Warhol created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. He drew heavily on popular culture and everyday subjects in his most famous works: his 32 Campbell's Soup Cans, his Brillo stamp box sculptures, and his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, for example. Rejecting the dominant modes of painting and sculpting of his time, Warhol embraced screen printing to achieve his characteristic hard edges and flat tints of color. The artist mentored Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and continues to influence contemporary art worldwide: his provocative successors include Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons. Warhol has been the subject of exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Center Pompidou, among other institutions. His works have sold for over $100 million at auction.