Background

Ethnicity: Andy's parents were working-class Lemko emigrants from Mikó, Austria-Hungary (present-day Miková, Slovakia).

Andy Warhol was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was a son of Ondrej Warhola (Americanized as Andrew Warhola, Sr.) and Julia (Zavacká) Warhola. Andy had two older brothers, Paul (Pavol), born in 1923, and John (Ján), born in 1925. Paul's son, James Warhola, became a successful children's book illustrator.

Ondrej Warhola, Andy's father, emigrated to the United States in 1914, and his mother settled down there in 1921 after the death of Warhol's grandparents. Their family lived at 55 Beelen Street and later at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Ondrej Warhola died in an accident, when Andy was just thirteen years old.

Education

It was during the time, when Warhol was sick in bed, suffering from Chorea (also known as St. Vitus's Dance), that his mother, herself a skillful artist, gave him his first drawing lessons. Drawing soon became Warhol's favorite childhood pastime. He was also an avid fan of the movies, and when his mother bought him a camera at the age of nine, he took up photography as well, developing film in a makeshift darkroom he set up in their basement.

Warhol attended Holmes Elementary school, and took the free art classes, offered at the Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museum of Art) in Pittsburgh. Warhol's father recognized his son's artistic talents and in his will he dictated, that his life savings go toward Warhol's college education.

In 1942, Andy Warhol began studying at Schenley High School. Upon his graduation from the educational establishment, in 1945, his intentions were to receive education in art at the University of Pittsburgh in the hope of becoming an art teacher, but his plans changed, and he enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology (present-day Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh to study pictorial design. While there, Warhol joined the campus Modern Dance Club and Beaux Arts Society. Besides, Andy acted as the art director of the student art magazine, "Cano", illustrating a cover in 1948 and a full-page interior illustration in 1949. It was in 1949, that Andy received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Career

At the time, when Warhol attended Carnegie Mellon University, he served as the art director of the student art magazine "Cano", illustrating a cover in 1948 and a full-page interior illustration in 1949. These are believed to be his first two published artworks.

After graduation from the university in 1949, Warhol arrived in New York City, where he made a meager living in advertising display work. He took some of his drawings to "Glamour" magazine and received a commission to make drawings of shoes. They were published and admired, and then, in the 1950's, Warhol worked as a designer for shoe manufacturer - Israel Miller. His work appeared in "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar" magazines, and, in 1959, he exhibited his gold shoe drawings in a New York City gallery.

In 1960, Warhol began painting pictures with no commercial market in mind. In 1961, he debuted the concept of "pop art" - paintings, that focused on mass-produced commercial goods. He did a series on comic strips, such as Dick Tracy, Popeye, Superman and the Little King. His paintings of Coca Cola bottles and Campbell soup cans, arranged in seemingly endless rows, were ridiculed, when they were first shown. He created paintings of money and silk-screen portraits of Marilyn Monroe.

His second New York show in 1962 was a critical success and perfectly timed, as pop art was just becoming an acceptable art form. His fascination with silk screen as an instrument for mass production led him to open his own art studio, a large silver-painted warehouse, known simply as "The Factory", in 1964.

"The Factory" became a center for pop and would-be pop stars. It attracted a wide variety of glamorous people and an assortment of characters in the art and performing worlds. Although many of Warhol's films, such as "Eat" (1963), "Sleep" (1964) and "Empire" (1964), were lengthy depictions of the most mundane activity or object; some of his works anticipated future film themes or ridiculed certain subjects. "Lonesome Cowboys" (1968) treated homosexuality, when it was taboo, as a subject for commercial films and, at the same time, challenged the cowboy myth of courageous, macho riders of the range. With such works, as "Flesh" (1968) and "Trash" (1970), Warhol focused on sexual themes. These were the forerunners of the pornographic film market of the 1970's and 1980's. By the mid-1970's, the "Andy Warhol's Dracula" (1974) and "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein" (1974) enjoyed commercial success as satiric, yet serious works. From 1963 to 1974, he was involved in the production of more than sixty films of varying quality and subject matter.

In 1968, Warhol's celebrity status nearly cost him his life. A disturbed visitor to "The Factory", Valerie Solanas, an aspiring writer and radical feminist, shot him on June 3, 1968, inflicting serious internal wounds. Warhol's slow recovery included a two-month hospital stay and a turn to a new direction, his post-Pop period.

In 1969, Warhol founded "Interview" magazine. From 1970 onward, Andy increasingly turned to producing portraits of cult figures, prominent persons and personal friends. These portraits of figures, such as Mao Zedong, Philip Johnson, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Carter and Merce Cunningham, display a softer, more delicate imagery, than Warhol's earlier Pop Art paintings. His art of the 1970's moved closer to an abstract expressionist style and away from the figurative or realistic style of his work in the 1960's.

In the 1970's, Warhol continued to explore other forms of media. He published such books, as "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol" ("From A to B and Back Again") and "Exposures". Warhol also experimented extensively with video art, producing more than 60 films during his career. It's worth noting, that Andy worked in sculpture and photography.

In the 1980's, Andy moved into television, hosting "Andy Warhol's TV" and "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" on MTV.

In 1981, Andy undertook a series of myth paintings, in which the subject matter treated mythical figures from popular culture sources, such as advertisements, comic strips and films. These works included Dagwood, Mickey Mouse and Superman. Later, in 1983, he created a series of endangered species paintings, which depicted various threatened wild-life. As in all of his work, Warhol selected subjects with great popular imagery and treated the symbol and image the same way as he did the real object.

In his later years, Warhol suffered from chronic issues with his gallbladder. On February 20, 1987, he was admitted to New York Hospital, where his gallbladder was successfully removed and he seemed to be recovering. However, days later, on February 22, 1987, Warhol died of heart failure hours after undergoing gallbladder surgery in New York City. Thousands of people attended a memorial for the artist at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

Achievements

• Andy Warhol was aт American pioneer pop artist and filmmaker. He is considered a founder and major figure of the pop art movement. He pioneered the development of the process, where an enlarged photographic image is transferred to a silkscreen, that is placed on a canvas and inked from the back. It was this technique, that enabled him to produce the series of mass-media images-repetitive, yet with slight variation, that he began in 1962.
  
  In 1957, a shoe advertisement brought Warhol the Art Directors' Club Medal. Among his other awards are the 6th Film Culture award and the Los Angeles Film Festival Award.
  
  Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings "Campbell's Soup Cans" (1962) and "Marilyn Diptych" (1962); the experimental film "Chelsea Girls" (1966); and the multimedia events, known as "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" (1966-1967).
  
  In 2002, the United States Postal Service issued an 18-cent stamp, commemorating Warhol. Designed by Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Arizona, the stamp was unveiled at a ceremony at the Andy Warhol Museum and features Warhol's painting "Self-Portrait" (1964). In March 2011, a chrome statue of Andy Warhol and his Polaroid camera was revealed at Union Square in New York City.
  
  It's also worth noting, that Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books and feature and documentary films. A few years after his death, the Andy Warhol Museum was opened in Pittsburgh in honor of the artist.
  
  A whopping $12 million was spent to keep the Warhol's works alive. Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is $105 million for a 1963 canvas, titled "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)".

Works

More photos

• advertisement

  • Hamburger (beige)

  • Campell's Onion Soup Box

  • Absolut Vodka

  • Double Hamburger

  • Moon Explorer

• artwork

  • A Cat Named Sam

• book

  • POPism: The Warhol Sixties

    (Anecdotal, funny, frank, "POPism" is Warhol's personal vi...)

    1980
  • a

    (Conceptually unique, hilarious and frightening, "a" is th...)

    1979
  • The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

    (A loosely formed autobiography by Andy Warhol, told with ...)

    1975

• collage

  • Untitled

  • Untitled (Superman Collage #15)

• design

  • Fairy and Christmas Ornaments

  • Bunny Multiple

  • Brillo Soap Pads

  • Campbell Soup Company

  • The Souper Dress

  • Dollar Sign

  • Spam

  • Velvet Underground & Nico

  • Toy Fish

  • Brillo Soap Pads Boxes

  • Time Magazine Cover

• offset lithograph

  • Flowers

  • Chanel No. 5

  • Cherub and Horse

• painting

  • Mao

  • Oxidation Painting

  • Amos

  • Untitled (Beauty Products)

  • Oxidation Painting

  • Apple

  • Rorschach

  • Shadow

• photo

  • Maria Shriver

  • Andy and Truman Capote

  • Sylvester Stallone

  • Self-Portrait in Drag

  • Martha Graham

  • Committee 2000 Champagne Glasses

  • Pia Zadora

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger

  • Shoes

  • Christmas Poinsettias-White

  • Self-Portrait in Drag

• poster

  • La Grande Passion

  • Only Way Out is In

  • Beatle Boots

  • Paris Review Poster

• screenprint

  • 3 Coke Bottles

  • Blackglama (Judy Garland)

  • Marilyn

  • Marilyn

  • Mick Jagger

  • Life Savers

  • Cow

  • Electric Chair

  • Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato/Pink)

  • Mickey

  • Red Race Riot

  • Marella Agnelli

  • Flowers

  • Diamond Dust Shoes

  • Truck Announcement

  • Truck Announcement

  • Ingrid Bergman (as Herself)

  • James Dean

  • Early Electric Chair

  • Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

  • Cagney

  • Sarah Bernhardt

  • Beethoven

  • Ingrid Bergman as the Nun

  • Kiku

  • Sigmund Freud

  • Princess Caroline of Monaco

  • Hammer and Sickle

  • Black Lenin

  • The Last Supper

  • Ladies and Gentlemen

  • Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton's Arm (after Munch)

  • Campbell's Soup Can (onion)

  • Marlon Brando

  • Botticelli (dettaglio)

  • Liz Taylor

  • Sixteen Jackies

  • Mick Jagger

  • Muhammad Ali

  • Muhammad Ali

  • Five Deaths Eleven Times In Orange

  • Howdy Doody

  • Green Coca-Cola Bottles

  • Campbell's Soup Can (Old Fashioned Vegetable)

  • Kimiko

  • Self-Portrait

  • Mammy

  • Ted Turner

  • Muhammad Ali

  • Ingrid Bergman With Hat

  • Bighorn Ram (Endangered Species)

  • Turtle

  • Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, from Reigning Queens

  • Skull

  • Carter Burden (brown)

  • Jack Nicklaus

  • Jimmy Carter

  • Mickey Mouse

  • Goethe

  • Gertrude Stein

  • Joseph Beuys in Memoriam

  • Albert Einstein

  • Suicide

  • Mick Jagger

  • Pine Barren Tree Frog II.294 (From Endangered Species Suite)

  • Jackie

  • Muhammad Ali

  • Gun

  • Jane Fonda

  • Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato) / Retrospective Series

  • After The Party

  • Mimosas

  • Big Campbell's Soup Can 19c (Beef Noodle)

  • Big Electric Chair

  • Apple

• silkscreen print

  • Mona Lisa Four Times

  • Vesuvius

  • The Scream (after Munch)

  • Double Mona Lisa

  • Work Boots

  • 100 Cans

  • Statue of Liberty

  • Jackie

  • Triple Elvis

  • Skull

  • Front and Back

  • Orange Disaster

  • 30 are Better than One

  • Colored Mona Lisa

  • Poinsettias

  • Friedrich The Great

  • Self-Portrait (Camouflage)

  • Campbell's Soup Cans

  • Drag Queen

  • Man Ray

  • Knives

  • The Last Supper

  • Portrait of Maurice

  • Five Deaths

  • Last Supper

  • Julia Warhola

  • Benz Racing Car

  • Gabrielle Navarra

  • Candy Box

  • Martinson Coffee

  • Che Guevara

Religion

Warhol was raised as a Ruthenian Catholic by his parents, and continued being religious even during the later years of his life. He regularly volunteered at homeless shelters in New York City, particularly during the busier times of the year, and described himself as a religious person. Many of Warhol's later works depicted religious subjects, including two series, "Details of Renaissance Paintings" (1984) and "The Last Supper" (1986).

It's worth noting, that Andy attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. Besides, during his lifetime, he regularly attended Mass, and the priest at Warhol's church, Saint Vincent Ferrer, said, that the artist went there almost daily, although he was not observed taking Communion or going to Confession and sat or knelt in the pews at the back. The priest thought he was afraid of being recognized. Warhol said he was self-conscious about being seen in a Roman Rite church, crossing himself "in the Orthodox way" (right to left instead of the reverse).

Warhol's brother said, that the artist was "really religious, but he didn't want people to know about that, because it was private". Despite the private nature of his faith, in Warhol's eulogy John Richardson depicted it as devout, saying: "To my certain knowledge, he was responsible for at least one conversion. He took considerable pride in financing his nephew's studies for the priesthood."

Politics

Despite being a symbol of liberal American counterculture, whose portraits of political figures often seem to be liberal statements (his menacing portrait of Nixon with a handwritten appeal below to "Vote McGovern" is perhaps his most notable work of the kind), Warhol was non-political. However, he once said, that he felt like he should be Republican, because he hated paying taxes. But then, claiming political agnosticism, he said: "Well, the reason I don't sort of get involved in politics is because I sort of believe in everything. One day I really believe in this and the next day I believe in doing that."

Views

Warhol and other pop artists drew their inspiration and imagery from popular culture, but they heightened the color and changed the scale to make the images larger than life. In doing so they redefined pictorial realism and extended its concept. Warhol's imagery can be classified into four broad categories: commercial products, such as Brillo boxes and Heinz ketchup bottles; personality portraits of celebrities; modes of exchange, such as trading stamps and bills; and disaster pictures of automobile accidents, electric chairs, gangster funerals and race riots.

Quotations: "What's great about this country is that America started the tradition, where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know, that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke, than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it and you know it."

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

"Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches."

"People should fall in love with their eyes closed."

"When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them."

"Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years, when they could just say "so what". That's one of my favorite things to say. So what."

"Art is what you can get away with."

"As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it."

"The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting."

"I never fall apart, because I never fall together."

"I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art, that anybody could ever want."

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."

"I'm afraid, that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning."

"I wonder if it's possible to have a love affair, that lasts forever."

"Beauty is a sign of intelligence."

"You have to do stuff, that average people don't understand, because those are the only good things."

"I think everybody should be nice to everybody."

"An artist is somebody, who produces things, that people don't need to have."

"Everybody must have a fantasy."

"Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life."

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."

Personality

Beginning from childhood years, Warhol was a hypochondriac and had a fear of hospitals and doctors. Often bedridden as a child, he became an outcast at school and bonded with his mother, often calling himself a "Mama's Boy". At times, when he was confined to bed, he drew, listened to the radio and collected pictures of movie stars around his bed. Warhol later described this period as very important in the development of his personality, skill-set and preferences.

Warhol was gay. His enigmatic personal life has been the subject of much debate and his art was often infused with homoerotic imagery and motifs. However, he claimed, that he remained a virgin for his entire life. But it has been contradicted by his lovers, including Warhol's muse, BillyBoy.

Besides, Warhol was an avid collector. His collections included a Coca-cola memorabilia sign and 19th-century paintings along with airplane menus, unpaid invoices, pizza dough, pornographic pulp novels, newspapers, stamps, supermarket flyers and cookie jars, among other eccentricities.

Physical Characteristics: At the age of eight, Warhol contracted Chorea (also known as St. Vitus's Dance) - a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system, that left him bedridden for several months.

In 1968, Warhol's celebrity status nearly cost him his life. A disturbed visitor to "The Factory", Valerie Solanas, an aspiring writer and radical feminist, shot him on June 3, 1968, inflicting serious internal wounds. It took Warhol two months to recover.

Andy died of cardiac arrhythmia in his sleep after gallbladder surgery in 1987 at the age of 58.

Quotes from others about the person

• "I think he [Andy Warhol] would be very interested in the moment, that the Dalai Lama appears, being involved in such a kind of idea. Andy has always difficulties with this kind of political activities, because he works in another kind of world, but he is always... Also, when he was here (in Germany) last week, he is very interested to hear a lot of new information. He has a kind of observing sense in the back of his mind. So, he is always interested to follow the development, and there is really a kind of imaginative process going on, I think." - Joseph Beuys, a German painter and sculptor
  
  "No director in human history has ever made or will ever make worse movies. Warhol makes Ed Wood look like Ingmar Bergman." - Dana Gioia, an American poet and writer
  
  "Nobody drew shoes the way Andy did. He somehow gave each shoe a temperament of its own, a sort of sly, Toulouse-Lautrec kind of sophistication, but the shape and the style came through accurately and the buckle was always in the right place. The kids in the apartment, which Andy shared in New York, noticed, that the vamps on Andy's shoe drawings kept getting longer and longer, but [Israel] Miller didn't mind. Miller loved them." - John Coplans, a British artist and art writer
  
  "When he wasn't being Andy Warhol and when you were just alone with him, he was an incredibly generous and very kind person. What seduced me was the Andy Warhol, who I saw alone. In fact, when I was with him in public, he kind of got on my nerves. I'd say: "You're just obnoxious, I can't bear you." - BillyBoy, an American artist, socialite and fashion designer

Interests

• collecting

Connections

Warhol's partners included John Giorno, Billy Name, BillyBoy, Charles Lisanby and Jon Gould. Andy was involved in romantic relationships with Jed Johnson, whom he met in 1968, for 12 years.

Father:

Ondrej Warhola

(born 1889 - died 1942)

Mother:

Julia (Zavacká) Warhola

Julia (Zavacká) Warhola (born November 20, 1891 - died November 22, 1972) was Ondrej Warhola's wife, whom she married in the Rusyn village of Miková, which was part of Austria and Hungary and is now in northeastern Slovakia. She followed her husband to the United States in 1921 and joined him in Pittsburgh. They had three sons.

After her husband's death in 1942, Julia moved to New York City in 1951 to join her son, Andy Warhol, who was at the time becoming a leader in what was to become known as pop art.

Julia was known for her passion for decorative handwriting and her drawings of angels and cats. Andy often used her lettering to accompany his illustrations. In 1957, Andy used her lettering for "25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy" and she illustrated a small book, called "Holy Cats". She won an award for her lettering for an album cover, featuring the musician Moondog in 1958.

In 1966, Julia was featured as "an aging peroxide movie star with a lot of husbands" in a 66-minute film, titled "Mrs. Warhol", produced by her son, Andy Warhol.

In 1971, Julia returned to Pittsburgh, where she died a year later. She is buried beside her husband and near her son Andy.

nephew:

James Warhola

James Warhola (born March 16, 1955) is mostly known as an artist, who has illustrated more than two dozen children's picture books since 1987.

Brother:

Pavol Warhola

Pavol Warhola (born March 16, 1922 - died January 29, 2014) built successful scrap business on the North Side of Pittsburgh and in Elizabeth. Besides, Paul had a lifelong love for art.

Brother:

John Warhola

John Warhola (born May 31, 1925 - died December 24, 2010) served as a trustee of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts after his brother's, Andy, death in 1987. Besides, he oversaw the establishment of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce, Slovakia.

Partner:

BillyBoy

BillyBoy (born March 10, 1960) is known as an artist, socialite and fashion designer, as well as muse of Andy Warhol.

Partner:

John Giorno

John Giorno (born December 4, 1936 - died October 11, 2019) was a well-known poet and performance artist.

Partner:

Billy Name

Billy Name (born February 22, 1940 - died July 18, 2016) was a well-known photographer, filmmaker and lighting designer.

Partner:

Charles Lisanby

Charles Lisanby (born January 22, 1924 - died August 23, 2013) was an American production designer, who helped define scenic design in early color television.

Partner:

Jed Johnson

Jed Johnson (born December 30, 1948 - died July 17, 1996) gained prominence as an interior designer and film director. He was Warhol's partner for 12 years.

Partner:

Jon Gould

Andy Warhol and Jon Gould met in 1980, when Warhol was 51 and Gould was a 27-year-old movie executive, living in Los Angeles.

References

• Andy Warhol This work, written by Wayne Koestenbaum, represents an intimate depiction of the visionary, who revolutionized the art world.
  2001
• Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities Was Andy Warhol a hoarder? Did Einstein have autism? Was Frank Lloyd Wright a narcissist? In this surprising, inventive and meticulously researched look at the evolution of mental health, acclaimed health and science journalist, Claudia Kalb, gives readers a glimpse into the lives of high-profile historic figures through the lens of modern psychology, weaving groundbreaking research into biographical narratives.
  2016
• Who Was Andy Warhol? "Who Was Andy Warhol?" tells the story of an enigmatic man, who grew into a cultural icon.
  2014
• Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up Written by a former editor of Warhol's "Interview" magazine and packed with names, this hard-hitting memoir presents an insider's look at the "Pope of Pop Art", Andy Warhol, whose eclectic oeuvre is comparable to Picasso's or Pollock's in its impact on modern art and culture.
  1990
• Becoming Andy Warhol This graphic novel biography offers insight into the turning point of Warhol's career and the creation of the "Thirteen Most Wanted Men" mural for the 1964 World's Fair, when Warhol clashed with urban planner Robert Moses, architect Philip Johnson and Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
  2016
• Like Andy Warhol A book by Jonathan Flatley.
  2017
• After Andy: Adventures in Warhol Land This work is Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni's insider's account of working in Andy Warhol's studio and "Interview" magazine. It also explores Warhol's impact on the art world, pop culture, society and fashion.
  2017
• Andy Warhol Portraits This book grew out of an exhibition, that was organized by the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, in 2005.
  2007
• Andy Warhol An elegant, masterful portrait of Andy Warhol's life, character and lasting influence by an eminent art critic.
  1997
• Pop Out: Queer Warhol Written from the perspectives of art history, critical race theory, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, cinema studies and social and literary theory, these essays consider Warhol in various contexts and within the history of the communities, in which he figured.
  1996
• Warhol This work represents the definitive chronicle of Warhol's storied life.
  1989