1.
Kensington Gardens
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Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, the gardens cover an area of 270 acres. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round. Kensington Gardens has been regarded as smart because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 1800s, Hyde Park was considered fashionable, because of its location nearer to Park Lane. Kensington Gardens was originally the section of Hyde Park, which had been created by Henry VIII in 1536 to use as a hunting ground. Bridgeman created the Serpentine between 1726 and 1731 by damming the outflow of the River Westbourne from Hyde Park. The part of the Serpentine that lies within Kensington Gardens is known as The Long Water, at its north-western end in an area known as The Italian Garden, there are four fountains and a number of classical sculptures. At the foot of the Italian Gardens is a boundary marker. The land surrounding Kensington Gardens was predominantly rural and remained undeveloped until the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many of the original features survive along with the Palace, and now there are public buildings such as the Albert Memorial, the Serpentine Gallery. The park also contains the Elfin Oak, an elaborately carved 900-year-old tree stump, the park is the setting of J. M. Barries book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, a prelude to the characters famous adventures in Neverland. The fairies of the gardens are first described in Thomas Tickells 1722 poem Kensington Gardens, both the book and the character are honoured with the Peter Pan statue by George Frampton located in the park. Rodrigo Fresáns novel Kensington Gardens concerns in part the life of J. M. Barrie and of his creation Peter Pan, the Infocom interactive fiction game Trinity begins in the Kensington Gardens. The player can walk around many sections of the gardens, which are described in moderate detail, list of public art in Kensington Gardens Citations Bibliography Official website The Garden a poem by Ezra Pound set in Kensington Gardens
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
4.
Lancaster Gate tube station
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Lancaster Gate is a London Underground station located on the Central line near Lancaster Gate on Bayswater Road in Bayswater, to the north of Kensington Gardens. It is between Queensway and Marble Arch on the Central line and is in Travelcard Zone 1, Lancaster Gate station was opened on 30 July 1900 by the Central London Railway. The original station building was typical of the work of the original architect Harry Bell Measures. It was demolished and a new building constructed as part of the development above in 1968. The development was designed by T P Bennett & Son as an office block, in 2004–05 the lower floors of the hotel were re-clad in white stone to a design by Eric Parry Architects. The hotel received planning permission for the re-cladding to include the station façade, Lancaster Gate was closed from July to November 2006 so that the lifts and other parts of the station could be refurbished. The stations chronic lift failures were considered by Transport for London to be a safety hazard, patronage has increased over the years and as a result the stations small ticket hall area is often congested, especially at weekends. The station is closed from January to August 2017 while lift replacement work is being carried out, Lancaster Gate station is currently closed for renovation of the lifts. Due to the size of the station, it was not feasible to do one lift at a time. It is scheduled to reopen in mid-July 2017, despite its name, the station is close to the Marlborough Gate entrance to Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, about 300m to the east of the Lancaster Gate entrance. London Buses routes 46,274,94,148 and 390 and night route N207 serve the station
5.
Art museum
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An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
6.
Hyde Park, London
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Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London and one of its Royal Parks. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water, the park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which are often assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline divided them. To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, but Kensington Gardens closes at dusk, and Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 a. m. until midnight. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which the Crystal Palace, the park became a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there, many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is also a ward of the City of Westminster, the population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 12,462. Hyde Park was created for hunting by Henry Vlll in 1536, Charles I created the Ring, and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1652, during the Interregnum, Parliament ordered the then 620-acre park to be sold for ready money and it realised £17,000 with an additional £765 6s 2d for the resident deer. In 1689, when William III moved his residence to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, public transport entering London from the west runs parallel to the Kings private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides, the first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline, under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit. It was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of £20,000, the 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat. The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie, one of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the side of the park. The public did not want the building to remain after the closure of the exhibition and he had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London. At the age of twenty-five, Decimus Burton was commissioned by the Office of Woods and he laid out the paths and driveways and designed a series of lodges, the Screen/Gate at Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch. The Screen and the Arch originally formed a single composition, designed to provide a transition between Hyde Park and Green Park, although the arch was later moved. An early description reports, It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, the extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae, all these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession
7.
The Serpentine
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The Serpentine is a 40-acre recreational lake in Hyde Park, London, England, created in 1730 at the behest of Queen Caroline. Although it is common to refer to the body of water as the Serpentine. The Serpentine takes its name from its snakelike, curving shape, originally fed by the River Westbourne and Tyburn Brook in the 1730s, the lakes water was then pumped from the Thames in the 1830s. The water is now pumped from three boreholes within Hyde Park, the most recent being installed in May 2012 as part of the 2011–2012 restoration of the Lake. The Serpentine provided a point for The Great Exhibition of 1851. Since 1864 the Serpentine Swimming Club has organised a 100-yard race every Christmas morning for the Peter Pan Cup, inaugurated by J. M. Barrie, there are many recreational facilities around the Serpentine, as well as boating on the lake itself. In 1860 the Serpentine was to be modified into a pond with formal edges. Among the landmarks near the lake is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, originally the lake was fed by the River Westbourne entering at the Italian Garden at the north-western end of the Long Water. The Westbourne ceased to provide the water for the Serpentine in 1834, as the river had become polluted, the water is now supplied by three boreholes drilled into the Upper Chalk. The first borehole is located at the Italian Gardens, the second at the Diana Memorial, the Long Water runs south-east from this point to Serpentine Bridge, where the lake curves to the east, following the natural contours of the land. At the eastern end, water flows out of the lake via a sluice in the dam, the outflow has not historically maintained the waterfall, and re-circulation pumps were installed in the Dell, below the dam, to sustain this feature. The restoration work in 2012 restored the flows into the Serpentine, the lake has a maximum depth of 17 feet. The lake is reported to be deeper, but bathymetric surveys by the Royal Park in 2010 revealed the design of the lake. There are two restaurants and various recreational facilities on the lake shore. In 1730 Queen Caroline, wife of George II, ordered the damming of the River Westbourne in Hyde Park as part of a redevelopment of Hyde Park. Original monastic ponds may have existed in the location and these were modified as part of the 1730–1732 scheme to create a single lake, at that time, the Westbourne formed eleven natural ponds in the park. During the 1730s, the lake filled to its current size, at the time of construction, artificial lakes were typically long and straight. The Serpentine was one of the earliest artificial lakes designed to appear natural, shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin less than two weeks later
8.
Listed building
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A listed building or listed structure, in the United Kingdom, is one that has been placed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. The statutory bodies maintaining the list are Historic England in England, Cadw in Wales, Historic Scotland in Scotland, however, the preferred term in Ireland is protected structure. In England and Wales, an amenity society must be notified of any work to a listed building which involves any element of demolition. Owners of listed buildings are, in circumstances, compelled to repair and maintain them. When alterations are permitted, or when listed buildings are repaired or maintained, slightly different systems operate in each area of the United Kingdom, though the basic principles of the listing remain the same. It was the damage to caused by German bombing during World War II that prompted the first listing of buildings that were deemed to be of particular architectural merit. The listings were used as a means of determining whether a building should be rebuilt if it was damaged by bombing. Listing was first introduced into Northern Ireland under the Planning Order 1972, the listing process has since developed slightly differently in each part of the UK. In the UK, the process of protecting the historic environment is called ‘designation’. A heritage asset is a part of the environment that is valued because of its historic. Only some of these are judged to be important enough to have legal protection through designation. However, buildings that are not formally listed but still judged as being of heritage interest are still regarded as being a consideration in the planning process. Almost anything can be listed – it does not have to be a building, Buildings and structures of special historic interest come in a wide variety of forms and types, ranging from telephone boxes and road signs, to castles. Historic England has created twenty broad categories of structures, and published selection guides for each one to aid with assessing buildings and these include historical overviews and describe the special considerations for listing each category. Both Historic Scotland and Cadw produce guidance for owners, in England, to have a building considered for listing or delisting, the process is to apply to the secretary of state, this can be done by submitting an application form online to Historic England. The applicant does not need to be the owner of the building to apply for it to be listed, full information including application form guidance notes are on the Historic England website. Historic England assesses buildings put forward for listing or delisting and provides advice to the Secretary of State on the architectural, the Secretary of State, who may seek additional advice from others, then decides whether or not to list or delist the building. In England and Wales the authority for listing is granted to the Secretary of State by the Planning Act 1990, Listed buildings in danger of decay are listed on the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register
9.
Man Ray
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Man Ray was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements and he produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known for his photography, and he was a renowned fashion, Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called rayographs in reference to himself. During his career as an artist, Man Ray allowed few details of his life or family background to be known to the public. He even refused to acknowledge that he ever had an other than Man Ray. Man Ray was born as Emmanuel Radnitzky in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he was the eldest child of Russian Jewish immigrants. He had a brother and two sisters, the youngest born in 1897 shortly after settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. In early 1912, the Radnitzky family changed their surname to Ray, Man Rays brother chose the surname in reaction to the ethnic discrimination and antisemitism prevalent at the time. Emmanuel, who was called Manny as a nickname, changed his first name to Man, Man Rays father worked in a garment factory and ran a small tailoring business out of the family home. He enlisted his children to assist him from an early age, Man Rays mother enjoyed designing the familys clothes and inventing patchwork items from scraps of fabric. Man Ray wished to disassociate himself from his background. Mannequins, flat irons, sewing machines, needles, pins, threads, swatches of fabric, Art historians have noted similarities between Rays collage and painting techniques and styles used for tailoring. Mason Klein, curator of a Man Ray exhibition at the Jewish Museum, titled Alias Man Ray, The Art of Reinvention, Man Ray was the uncle of the photographer Naomi Savage, who learned some of his techniques and incorporated them into her own work. Man Ray displayed artistic and mechanical abilities during childhood and his education at Brooklyns Boys High School from 1904 to 1909 provided him with solid grounding in drafting and other basic art techniques. While he attended school, he educated himself with frequent visits to the art museums. After his graduation, Ray was offered a scholarship to study architecture, Man Rays parents were disappointed by their sons decision to pursue art, but they agreed to rearrange the familys modest living quarters so that Rays room could be his studio. The artist remained in the home over the next four years. During this time, he worked steadily towards becoming a professional painter, Man Ray earned money as a commercial artist and was a technical illustrator at several Manhattan companies
10.
Henry Moore
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Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English artist. He is best known for his monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War and his forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moores works are usually suggestive of the body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces, many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire. Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a coal miner and he became well-known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfill large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy, despite this, he lived frugally, most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts. Henry Moore was born in Castleford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to Mary Baker and his father was of Irish origin and became pit deputy and then under-manager of the Wheldale colliery in Castleford. He was an autodidact with an interest in music and literature, determined that his sons would not work in the mines, he saw formal education as the route to their advancement. Henry was the seventh of eight children in a family often struggled with poverty. He attended infant and elementary schools in Castleford, where he began modelling in clay and he professed to have decided to become a sculptor when he was eleven after hearing of Michelangelos achievements at a Sunday School reading. On his second attempt he was accepted at Castleford Grammar School, which several of his siblings had attended, where his headmaster soon noticed his talent and interest in medieval sculpture. His art teacher broadened his knowledge of art and, with her encouragement, he determined to make art his career, despite his early promise, Moores parents had been against him training as a sculptor, a vocation they considered manual labour with few career prospects. After a brief introduction as a student teacher, Moore became a teacher at the school he had attended, upon turning eighteen, Moore volunteered for army service. He was the youngest man in the Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles regiment and was injured in 1917 in a gas attack, on 30 November at Bourlon Wood, during the Battle of Cambrai. After recovering in hospital, he saw out the remainder of the war as a training instructor. He recalled later, for me the war passed in a haze of trying to be a hero. And I still have that feeling, after the Great War Moore received an ex-servicemans grant to continue his education and in 1919 he became a student at the Leeds School of Art, which set up a sculpture studio especially for him
11.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries, the Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992. Basquiats art focused on suggestive dichotomies, such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation and he appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. He died of an overdose at his art studio at age 27. Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22,1960, shortly after the death of his elder brother and he was the second of four children of Matilda Andrades and Gérard Basquiat. He had two sisters, Lisane, born in 1964, and Jeanine, born in 1967. His father, Gérard Basquiat, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and his mother, Matilde Basquiat, Matilde instilled a love for art in her young son by taking him to art museums in Manhattan and enrolling him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Basquiat was a child who learned how to read and write by age four and was a gifted artist. His teachers, such as artist Jose Machado, noticed his artistic abilities, by the age of 11, Basquiat was fully fluent in French, Spanish and English. In 1967, Basquiat started attending Saint Anns, an exclusive private school. He drew with Marc Prozzo, a friend from St. Anns, they created a childrens book, written by Basquiat. Basquiat became a reader of Spanish, French, and English texts. In September 1968, when Basquiat was about eight, he was hit by a car while playing in the street and his arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, and he eventually underwent a splenectomy. While he was recuperating from his injuries, his mother brought him the Grays Anatomy book to keep him occupied and this book would prove to be influential in his future artistic outlook. His parents separated that year and he and his sisters were raised by their father, the family resided in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, for five years, then moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1974. After two years, they returned to New York City, when he was 13, his mother was committed to a mental institution and thereafter spent time in and out of institutions. At 15, Basquiat ran away from home and he slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park, and was arrested and returned to the care of his father within a week. His father banished him from the household for dropping out of high school and he supported himself by selling T-shirts and homemade post cards
12.
Andy Warhol
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Andy Warhol was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Warhol initially pursued a career as a commercial illustrator. After exhibiting his work in galleries in the late 1950s. He promoted a collection of known as Warhol superstars, and is credited with coining the widely used expression 15 minutes of fame. In the late 1960s, he managed and produced the rock band The Velvet Underground. He authored numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism and he is also notable as a gay man who lived openly as such before the gay liberation movement. Warhol has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions, books. The Andy Warhol Museum in his city of Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of art. Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable, the highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$105 million for a 1963 canvas titled Silver Car Crash, his works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold. A2009 article in The Economist described Warhol as the bellwether of the art market, Warhol was born on August 6,1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the child of Ondrej Warhola and Julia, whose first child was born in their homeland. His parents were working-class Lemko emigrants from Mikó, located in todays northeastern Slovakia, Warhols father emigrated to the United States in 1914, and his mother joined him in 1921, after the death of Warhols grandparents. Warhols father worked in a coal mine, the family lived at 55 Beelen Street and later at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The family was Byzantine Catholic and attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church, Andy Warhol had two older brothers—Pavol, the oldest, was born before the family emigrated, Ján was born in Pittsburgh. Pavols son, James Warhola, became a childrens book illustrator. He became a hypochondriac, developing a fear of hospitals and doctors, often bedridden as a child, he became an outcast at school and bonded with his mother. At times when he was confined to bed, he drew, listened to the radio, Warhol later described this period as very important in the development of his personality, skill-set and preferences. When Warhol was 13, his father died in an accident, as a teenager, Warhol graduated from Schenley High School in 1945
Lancaster Gate; South Kensington
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