A fascination with celebrity, consumerism and pop-culture propelled Andy Warhol to American icon status. Obsessed with fame, glamour and tragedy, Warhol created a vast body of works including paintings and screenprints, unified by his use of repeated imagery and exploitation of commercial, colorful, flat surfaces.

At the age of 8, Warhol contracted Chorea—also known as St. Vitus's Dance—a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system that left him bedridden for several months. It was during these months, while Warhol was sick in bed, that his mother, herself a skillful artist, gave him his first drawing lessons.

Andy Warhol (/ˈwɔːrhɒl/; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer.

Other early subjects drew upon Warhol's life-long fascination with Hollywood and sensationalism; in 1962 he began a large series of celebrity portraits, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor.