By the end of World War II in 1945, America’s relationship with the Soviet Union had grown strained. The Communist Party, which controlled the Soviet Union, was a threat to America’s economic prosperity and position as the world leader. A period of East/West competition and conflict with hostile intention ensued (https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/sovi.html). In that tension between Soviet and American powers, the Cold War was born, and a heightened level of fear began in America due to the potential Soviet expansion of communism. During this time, “postwar politics and art were inextricably intertwined,” yet artistic expression was suppressed by the world's superpowers (http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazines/cold-war-cool-art/). …show more content…
His family consisted of his mother Julia, father Andrew, and two brothers John and Pavol Warhola. Warhol was a different child, perhaps being mildly autistic, though he showed a natural talent for drawing at a young age. Warhol was unusual, small and sickly, and at the age of 6, he incurred Sydenham's chorea provoking spontaneous movement in his hands and feet; consequently, Warhol became bedridden. Throughout his months of recovery, his father spent most of the time working in the coal mines so Andy's mother and brothers would occupy and interest him endlessly by showing him how to trace, print images and draw. After his recovery, he attended Schenley high school and graduated at the juvenile age of 16, finishing 51st in his graduating class of 278 students. On his 17th birthday, a nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and instantly killed 80,000 people. “For the rest of his life, Warhol shared his own birthday with the birth of the nuclear age.” (https://blog.oup.com/2017/08/andy-warhol-nuclear-apocalypse/) Whereas most of his paintings are subtler in their message, the painting of Red Explosion 1963 provides direct reference to the atomic …show more content…
Soon after, he moved to New York where he would be able to launch his career. In the 1950’s Warhol became increasingly engaged in painting and screenwriting and soon became one of the most successful commercial artists of the time. During this timeframe, Andy Warhola dropped the A from his name and became Andy Warhol. In the 60’s his interest in commercialism and celebrities was manifest in the introduction of pop art into the states with his paintings of Coke, Campbell's soup or of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe or political figures such as Jackie Kennedy. Warhol wanted to paint art that avoided any display of feeling and is often cold and