You don’t have to be an award-winning actress or a pro basketball player to be a celebrity these days—all you need is a social media account. Internet personalities, people who post their views on everything from video games to fashion, have amassed millions of followers. They rely on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to sell themselves. But long before these sites were invented, Andy Warhol had already mastered the art of self-promotion.
Warhol began his career as a commercial artist. He learned the importance of brand identity in successfully selling a product. Warhol became famous for his now instantly recognizable, colorful paintings of iconic American products and people, from Campbell’s Soup to Elvis Presley. He examined society’s—and his own—obsession with popular culture and celebrity in his artwork. Warhol’s New York City studio became a gathering place for the rich and famous, whom Warhol photographed, recorded audio of, filmed, and wrote about.