The reason I’m painting this way is because I want to be a machine. Whatever I do, and do machine-like, is because it is what I want to do. – Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol is, without doubt, the most significant figure in Pop Art and responsible for its rise. He took the post 50s obsession with commercialism, Hollywood and consumer products, and, with a satirical hint of its shallowness, turned everyday objects and people from America’s popular culture then into today’s most recognisable Pop Art pieces. Warhol’s personal understanding of fame, celebrity culture and the rise of the media allowed him to adopt an artistic approach towards people and objects that manifested the time’s post-war socio-cultural reality and objectify them to an extreme on his canvases. Warhol’s edgy, straight forward, colourful interpretations of common objects and Hollywood stars changed the art world forever. Such examples are the Brillo box, Campbell’s soup can and the Marilyn Diptych from 1962.

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