One of the most famous post-war artists of all, Andy Warhol produced some of music’s most iconic album covers. Teri Saccone discusses his lasting legacy with Warhol expert Paul Marechal

COVER STAR

He’s known for creating some of the most recognisable album artwork of all time, not least his groundbreaking Sticky Fingers and The Velvet Underground & Nico sleeves, yet Andy Warhol designed a catalogue of more than 50 album covers for everyone from Artie Shaw to Diana Ross and dozens of others.

Provocative and prolific, Warhol’s art was deceptively clever, while also unashamedly commercial. His prophecy that “Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” endures.

Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928 into an impoverished Czech immigrant family, Warhol would become a celebrated artist, publisher, filmmaker and cultural icon. He started out as a commercial illustrator, but his burning desire was to become a legitimate artist.

His mid-50s art contemporaries were abstract expressionists such as Rothko and Pollock, but Warhol was the antithesis of these tormented souls; his work was accessible, non-elitist and ubiquitous.

After a childhood during the Great Depression, Warhol embraced 50s American consumerism. His takes on the humble Coke bottle and Brillo soap pad box, everyday objects re-imagined as art, were novel and fresh and helped to forge the pop art movement. He was obsessed with celebrityhood and became a giant one himself, immortalised in song and on screen before his death in 1987.