Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola Jr. arrived in the world on the 6th of August 1928 within a working-class home at 55 Beelen Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents were Rusyn immigrants from Mikó, Austria-Hungary who had traveled to America decades before his birth. The family later moved to 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood where they attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. At age eight young Andrew contracted scarlet fever which progressed into rheumatic fever and Sydenham's chorea due to the lack of antibiotics available at that time. He spent weeks confined to bed unable to attend school while his mother bought him comic books and Hollywood magazines. During these long days he drew constantly creating scrapbooks and cutting out images with scissors. His father and brothers built a darkroom in their basement so he could use the family Kodak Baby Brownie Special camera. This early isolation fostered a deep connection to photography and image-making that would define his future career.
Warhol graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in June 1949 and moved immediately to New York City with classmate Philip Pearlstein. They lived in a sixth-floor walk-up tenement building on St. Mark's Place near Tompkins Square Park. On his second day in the city he visited Tina Fredericks the art director of Glamour magazine. She purchased a small $10 drawing of an orchestra for her personal collection and subsequently commissioned shoe illustrations from him. By 1956 Warhol was widely recognized as a fashion illustrator working for Vogue Mademoiselle Harper's Bazaar and other prominent publications. His distinctive blotted line technique combined printmaking with graphite drawing to create whimsical shoe designs embellished with gold leaf. These personal drawings sold for between $50 and $225 at the Bodley Gallery in December 1956. A significant turning point occurred when he began drawing dollar bills which inspired him to start silkscreening in spring 1962. He learned these techniques from Max Arthur Cohn at his graphic arts business in Manhattan. In May 1962 Time magazine featured Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable) initiating his most sustained motif.
In November 1963 Warhol relocated his studio to 231 East 47th Street where it became known simply as the Factory. The space was covered in aluminum foil and silver paint by Billy Name transforming it into a hub for avant-garde experimentation. Poet Gerard Malanga assisted him with production while Warhol managed the experimental rock group the Velvet Underground. They performed at his Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia happenings held between 1966 and 1967. The Factory attracted a shifting group of personalities including drag queens poets bohemians musicians and wealthy patrons. Key figures included Baby Jane Holzer Brigid Berlin Ondine Edie Sedgwick Ingrid Superstar Nico Mary Woronov Viva Ultra Violet Joe Dallesandro Candy Darling Holly Woodlawn Jackie Curtis and Jane Forth. These individuals participated in Factory films and some like Berlin and Holzer remained lifelong friends with Warhol. Less widely noted was his encouragement of young collaborators who later became prominent such as writer David Dalton photographer Stephen Shore and artist Bibbe Hansen. The phrase fifteen minutes of fame is attributed to Warhol summarizing his view on fleeting celebrity after appearing in a 1967 Time magazine article.
On the 3rd of June 1968 radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and Mario Amaya art critic and curator at the Factory. Solanas had been a marginal figure before the shooting and authored the SCUM Manifesto which advocated the elimination of men. She appeared in the Warhol film I a Man released in 1967. Warhol was seriously wounded by the attack and barely surviving he remained in hospital for nearly two months. Complications from a second operation left his abdominal muscles improperly repaired requiring him to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life. The Factory became more regulated and Warhol focused on making it a structured business enterprise. He credited Paul Morrissey with transforming the Factory into a regular office during his absence. In August 1968 Warhol made an appearance in court after Phillip Van Scoy Smith sued him for $80,000 over a canceled film adaptation of Jane Eyre. A legal battle ensued for two years ending after the backer failed to show up in court. After recovery Warhol reemerged on the public social scene that fall hosting parties and appearing on magazine covers including The New York Times Magazine on the 10th of November 1968.
Warhol founded Interview magazine in the fall of 1969 initially published as inter/VIEW: A Monthly Film Journal. It was revamped later to represent his social life and fascination with celebrity. Between 1972 and 1973 he created portraits of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong with funding from Knoedler & Co and Leo Castelli Gallery. These were installed at Musée Galliera in Paris in February 1974. In 1975 he designed sets for the Broadway musical Man on the Moon by John Philips which opened at Little Theatre in New York. That same year he attended President Gerald Ford's state dinner honoring Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at the White House. He traveled to Europe more frequently developing a fondness for Paris where he shared an apartment with business manager Fred Hughes on Rue du Cherche-Midi. In 1983 Warhol began collaborating with artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente creating over 50 large collaborative works between 1984 and 1985. He also used Amiga computers to generate digital art including the short film You Are the One released that year.
Warhol underwent gallbladder surgery on the 21st of February 1987 at New York Hospital after being diagnosed with a gallstone years earlier but adamantly rejecting surgery due to fear of hospitals. His surgeon Bjorn Thorbjarnarson found his gallbladder on the verge of perforating during the four-hour operation. He was awake able to walk about make phone calls and watch television when both doctors visited him after the procedure. His private nurse Min Cho saw his growing pallor at 4:30 am the following morning but did not call the cardiac-arrest team until 5:45 am when he turned blue. He was pronounced dead at 6:31 am from sudden cardiac arrhythmia. A wrongful death lawsuit followed in December 1991 where Warhol's family sued the hospital for inadequate care before judge Ira Gammerman. The malpractice case settled out of court with an undisclosed sum paid to the family. In May 2022 Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for $195 million at Christie's becoming the most expensive American artwork ever sold at auction. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh holds an extensive permanent collection of his art and archives making it the largest institution dedicated to a single artist.
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Common questions
When and where was Andy Warhol born?
Andrew Warhola Jr. arrived in the world on the 6th of August 1928 within a working-class home at 55 Beelen Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
What caused Andy Warhol to spend weeks confined to bed as a child?
At age eight young Andrew contracted scarlet fever which progressed into rheumatic fever and Sydenham's chorea due to the lack of antibiotics available at that time.
Who shot Andy Warhol and when did the attack occur?
On the 3rd of June 1968 radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and Mario Amaya art critic and curator at the Factory.
How did Andy Warhol die and what time was he pronounced dead?
He was pronounced dead at 6:31 am from sudden cardiac arrhythmia following gallbladder surgery performed on the 21st of February 1987 at New York Hospital.
Which artwork sold for $195 million at Christie's in May 2022?
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for $195 million at Christie's becoming the most expensive American artwork ever sold at auction.