Claim: Andy Warhol is dead.

Andy Warhol -LRB- -LSB- ˈwɔrhɒl -RSB- born Andrew Warhola ; August 6 , 1928 -- February 22 , 1987 -RRB- was an American artist , director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art . His works explore the relationship between artistic expression , celebrity culture , and advertising that flourished by the 1960s , and span a variety of media , including painting , silkscreening , photography , film , and sculpture . Some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell 's Soup Cans -LRB- 1962 -RRB- and Marilyn Diptych -LRB- 1962 -RRB- , the experimental film Chelsea Girls -LRB- 1966 -RRB- , and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable -LRB- 1966 -- 67 -RRB- .   Born and raised in Pittsburgh , Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator . After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s , he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist . His New York studio , The Factory , became a well-known gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals , drag queens , playwrights , Bohemian street people , Hollywood celebrities , and wealthy patrons . He promoted a collection of personalities 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 experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine . He authored numerous books , including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism : The Warhol Sixties . He is also notable as a gay man who lived openly as such before the gay liberation movement . After a gallbladder surgery in 1987 , Warhol died in February of that year at the age of 58 .   Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions , books , and feature and documentary films . The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city of Pittsburgh , which holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives , is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist . 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 -LRB- Double Disaster -RRB- '' ; his works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold . A 2009 article in The Economist described Warhol as the `` bellwether of the art market '' .