A central figure in pop art, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was one of the most significant and influential artists of the later twentieth century. In the 1960s he began to explore the growing interplay between mass culture and the visual arts, and his constant experimentation with new processes for the dissemination of art played a pivotal role in redefining access to culture and art as we know it today.

At the height of his fame, Warhol claimed he was "abandoning" painting, shifting his practice towards a commitment to the theoretically limitless channels ofpublishing, film, fashion, music, and broadcasting. It was this "transmission" of art and radical ideas that embodied his ethical conviction that "art should be for everyone".

Stephanie Straine is Assistant Curator at Tate Liverpool, and specialises in American art of the 1960s. Her lively yet authoritative text provides the perfect introduction to the life and work of a pioneering artist whose legacy extends into the digital age.

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