Andy Warhol is instantly recognisable as the man who turned Campbell’s soup cans, Brillo boxes and Coca Cola bottles into Pop Art. He captured celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe (his ‘Blue Shot Marilyn’ painting sold for $195m in May 2022), Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Prince, in silkscreen prints. From paintings to sculptures and film, he mastered it all, and explored issues around media, publicity, consumerism and fame. But what can his life and career teach us about being resilient and innovative?
Dr Phillip Romero is a psychiatrist, based in New York, and the author of Andy Warhol’s Brain: Creative Intelligence for Survival, which explores the concept of creative intelligence (a mixture of creativity and resilience) through Warhol’s life and art. Dr Romero first met Warhol in New Orleans in 1976, having been introduced by Thomas Downing, a member of the Washington Colour School and a former studio assistant to Fernand Léger.
