Andy Warhol vs David Bowie
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
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The record, side by side
| Andy Warhol | David Bowie | |
| Field | Art | Film |
| Sub-field | Painting | Actor |
| Born | 1928 | 1947 |
| Died | 1987 | 2016 |
| Country of birth | United States | United Kingdom |
| Star sign | Leo | Capricorn |
Who they are
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola was born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third child of Lemko immigrants from what is now Slovakia. His father worked in coal mines and construction; his mother, Julia, made tin flowers and sold tin cans decorated with folk motifs door to door. The family was Byzantine Catholic, poor, and tight-knit. Warhol would never entirely leave Pittsburgh — or rather, Pittsburgh never entirely left him. His lifelong obsession with the iconography of American consumer culture — the Campbell's soup can, the Coca-Cola bottle, the Brillo box — can be read as…
Full biography of Andy Warhol →
David Bowie
On June 6, 1972, a twenty-four-year-old Brixton-born musician named David Robert Jones — performing under the name David Bowie, inhabiting a character he had named Ziggy Stardust — appeared on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops to perform "Starman," draped his arm around his guitarist Mick Ronson's shoulders in a gesture that was, for British television in 1972, practically avant-garde, and stared directly into the camera. The performance reached approximately fifteen million viewers. Within a week, the Ziggy Stardust album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was…
Full biography of David Bowie →
What they share
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Art for Andy Warhol, Film for David Bowie.
- Born in different countries: United States and United Kingdom.
- 19 years separate their births (1928 and 1947).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Andy Warhol or David Bowie?
- Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol was born in 1928, David Bowie in 1947.
- What field is each of them in?
- Andy Warhol is filed under Art (Painting). David Bowie is filed under Film (Actor).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.