Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was a leading figure of Pop art whose work transformed the imagery and methods of American consumer culture into fine art. He studied pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, graduating in 1949. After moving to New York, Warhol became a successful commercial illustrator, developing his distinctive “blotted-line” technique before turning increasingly to fine art. In the 1960s, Warhol adopted silkscreen printing to reproduce images drawn from advertising, newspapers and popular culture. His serial depictions of Campbell’s soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, celebrities and news events challenged conventional ideas about originality and the artist’s hand while examining the relationship between art, celebrity and mass production. Photography became central to Warhol’s practice, serving as both an independent medium and source material for his portraits. In 2008, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts donated 152 of his photographs—102 Polaroids and 50 black-and-white prints—to University of California, Davis, through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program.