Andy Warhol ( ) Pioneer of pop art

Andy Warhol was an American artist who created work known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, a film maker, a record producer and an author. He also liked to socialise with Hollywood celebrities. He is generally acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

The name pop art refers to the use of popular culture images. Popular culture simply means objects, images, artefacts, literature, music, and so on of "ordinary" people – people just like you and me. Andy Warhol took ordinary things and made them into works of art.

This is a very famous piece of art by Warhol – a tin of soup!

Do you recognise this character?

Marilyn Monroe was a huge film star in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Warhol painted this picture of her.

As with the Mickey Mouse picture, Warhol liked to take an image and repeat it.

Other children have looked at examples of Pop Art in class, including some of Andy Warhol's work. The children made their own 'Pop Art' pictures. This time the subjects were 'The Simpsons' and 'The Muppets’

Your job today is to create a picture using the style of pop art. You will need to choose a character from The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants or another character that represents what children watch on television today. Fold a piece of A4 paper into quarters. Draw your picture in one quarter. Using tracing paper, copy the image into the other 3 quarters. Colour in each picture using only 4 colours. Make sure each of the images is a different colour. Use the handout of the children’s work to help you.