Andy Warhol is
one of the most famous artists of the 20th century and a pillar
of contemporary art. He is one of the rare artists to achieve
legendary status during his own lifetime.
Born in 1928 in
the Uinted States, Andy Warhol's career took off in 1949 when
he started as a commercial artist in New York. He illustrated
articles and disigned ads for high- profile fashion magazines
such as Glamour, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. With his very
characteristic artistic style, he rapidly became the darling
of New York.
At the beginning
of the 50s the appearance of Pop Art changed the face of the
contemporary art world dramatically. This trend found its
critical inspiration in symbols of mass consumption, including
brand names, advertising slogans and comic strips as well
as famous cinema actors and pop stars.
Warhol began to
incorporate Pop Art into his work in the early 1960s. His
drawings and paintings depicted dollars, Campbell's soup cans,
bottles of Coca Cola and Heinz tomato ketchup, comic strips,
etc. His art, using images from the consumer market, made
him a popular figure and he soon became knwon as the "Prince
of pop Art".
In 1962, Andy
Warhol adopted a new technique which became his trademark,
marking the beginning of a new period in the history of art:
silk-screen printed photograph reproduced on canvas and painted
in very bright colours. He produced a series of celebrity
portraits, including Liz Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, James Dean,
Mick Jagger and Marlon Brondo, and also Marilyn Monroe ans
Elvis Presley, both whom personified the American dream.
This tribute to
famous people seems to reflect Warhol's need to own a tiny
part of the celebrity generated by these icons. His much-repeated
phrase "In the future everybody will be worldfamous for
fifteen minutes" reveals his desire to position himself
on the same level as his works, and to immortalise both his
art and the artist himself.
Warhol worked
with film from 1968 to 1972 before taking up pictorial art
once again, including Mao Tse portraits. In 1986, he produced
his last portraits and a series of self-portraits. He dies
in New York in 1987.
His art already
fetched incredible sums in the 1980s, with museums all over
the world fighting for his works. Some of Warhol's paintings
have been sold for over U.S. $4 million.
S.T. Dupont pays
tribute to the celebrated figure of pop art with a limited
edition made up of three Line 2 lighters, two mini Olympios,
two ballpoint pens and two Olympio fountain pens.
Elvis presley,
Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol, himself are featured on these
shiny platinum lighters while Andy Warhol's famous phrase
and his signature illustrate them to perfection. The pens
come in the same bright pop colours as the portrait: red for
Elvis and yellow for Marilyn and Andy Warhol, to match the
lighters.
Each Elvis and
Marilyn lighter is numbered from 1 to 1964, the year when
Warhol produced their portrait and which inspired this limited
edition. The pens are also numbered from 1 to 1964. The Andy
Warhol lighter is numbered from 1 to 1986, the year when Warhol
produced this self-portrait.
