Andy Warhol earned his BFA from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949. Early in his career, he was a successful commercial artist and illustrator, and his work was published in magazines and a variety of print media. In the 1960s, he helped launch the Pop movement with his silkscreened paintings of soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, celebrities, and comic strips, as well as his prints and sculptures of common objects and household products. His studio, known as the Factory, became a magnet for extreme personalities, and he began shooting films there ca. 1963. In 1965 he announced that he would give up painting for filmmaking, though he continued to produce paintings and prints. His films tested the notion of endurance, 'Sleep' and 'Empire' lasting 5 and 8 hours, respectively. His filmed portraits were often static images of a single subject prolonged over the length of a single reel of film. Warhol embraced media of all kinds, producing experimental books, video works, and multiples. In 1966 and 1967 together with the Velvet Underground he produced the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a series of multimedia events, as well as an album. He survived an assassination attempt in 1968. During the 1970s he focussed on commissioned portraits, and also founded the magazine 'Interview,' which continues to be published. He is considered by many to be one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century.
