Remembering the man who changed the way the world views art

Andy Warhol, Pepper Pot
Andy Warhol, Pepper Pot

Andy Warhol, August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987

The man was a master of his own destiny. Despite a rather poor upbringing in Pittsburgh and sickly early years, he reached for the stars and held them. In fact, he squeezed them. He milked them.

Warhol, Banana, Velvet Underground Album cover art
Warhol, Nixon

At Warhol’s grave, the priest said a brief prayer and sprinkled holy water on the casket. Before the coffin was lowered, Paige Powell dropped a copy of Interview magazine, an Interview T-shirt, and a bottle of the Estee Lauder perfume “Beautiful” into the grave. Warhol was buried next to his mother and father. A memorial service was held for Warhol on April 1, 1987, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York.

RIP, AW. You changed our lives, the way we evaluate artworks, and how we see. You defined the value of scale.

By Stephen Brockelman

As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.

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