If Andy Warhol were alive, he'd be the ripe old age of 82 today. Whatever you think of his art, he undeniably changed the visual landscape of the 20th century, putting to canvas a potent mix of consumerism, death and celebrity that remains an iconic symbol of what it meant/means to be modern. Some of my favourite works are his early advertising illustrations from the 1950s before he shot to super stardom. In particular, his drawings of shoes, employing the use of the blotted line, bold colours and whimsical slogans, always make me smile.

[pullquote author="Andy Warhol"]I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say 'figment.'[/pullquote]

[pullquote author="Andy Warhol"]People need to be made more aware of the need to work at learning how to live because life is so quick and sometimes it goes away too quickly.[/pullquote]

[pullquote author="Andy Warhol"]They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.[/pullquote]