Andy Warhol – Biography, Life and Work

Andy Warhol was born on August 6, 1928.

You have to memorize that? There aren't that many memory anchors for August 6, 1928; probably not much exciting happened in the world on that day.

But the year 1928 might stick in your mind better if you read about who else was born that year:

• Actress Jeanne Moreau
• Rock 'n' roll legend Fats Domino
• Jazz pianist Paul Kuhn
• Composer and singer Serge Gainsbourg
• Revolutionary leader Che Guevara
• artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser

If you read other birth dates for Andy Warhol somewhere, don't be surprised or suspect us of sloppy research – Andy Warhol liked to play around with his birth date a little, like many an aging diva, he sometimes made himself look two or five years younger.

Andy Warhol's real name

Andy was originally Andrej (Andrijko), and the family name was Varhola. His parents had already Americanized the family name to Warhola , and little Andrej quickly became Andrew in his new environment, with Andy being the short form.

Andy Warhol, with the loss of the “a”, was “officially born” when a magazine published drawings by him in early 1950, which he signed “Andy Warhol” and stuck with.

Andy Warhol's nickname

“Drella” by his friends , a name combining “Dracula” and “Cinderella.” Whether this name was coined by Andy Warhol himself or by one of his “superstars” (Robert Xavier Francis Peter Michael Olivo, nicknamed Ondine) is disputed.

Warhol's followers, the "Mole People" populated Factory , certainly adopted him quickly.

Key life milestones at a glance

• 1928 Birth
• 1945 Studied graphic design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh
• 1949 Completion of studies
• 1950 First publications of some drawings; in between, work e.g. as an advertising graphic designer
• 1952 First solo exhibition (Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote)
• 1956 Major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but as a graphic artist
• 1962 First exhibition as a Pop Art artist in Los Angeles and founding of the "Factory"
• 1964 Exhibition “The American Supermarket” at the Upper East Side Gallery in New York
• 1968 Assassination attempt on Warhol with life-threatening injuries
• 1971 Premiere of his first play “Pork”
• 1972 Death of his mother, whom he had loved above all else
• Warhol dies in New York on February 22, 1987, following gallbladder surgery

Andy Warhol's birthplace

Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh , which is located in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. Pennsylvania is named after its founder William Penn; Silva means forest, so in German it means "Penn's Woodland".

This eastern US state is one of the thirteen original states and lies south of New York. Pittsburgh is the second largest city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and, at the time of his birth, an important center of the US steel industry.

Andy Warhol's parents and childhood

Andy Warhol's parents, Ondrej and Julia Justyna Varhola, had immigrated to America a few years earlier from a village in the Carpathian Mountains, now in Slovakia. Andy was the fourth child of the then quite poor family; he spent the first six years of his life in the impoverished Soho neighborhood.

During his childhood, he struggled with various illnesses, including a pigment disorder that made him appear like an albino. Although this made it difficult for him to make friends his own age, it fostered his artistic talent. His numerous hospital stays led him to develop a deep interest in various art forms.

At the age of eight, Warhol became seriously ill with Sydenham's chorea, a disease that confined him to bed. His prolonged bed rest likely laid the foundations for his later artistic success; for a long time, young Andy could do little more than read comics, draw, or cut out paper figures.

Vocational training

Andy Warhol trained as a commercial artist at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh from 1945 to 1949, graduating with a degree in painting and design at the age of 21. After that, the young visionary was unstoppable.

Professional activity

In 1950, Andy Warhol moved to New York with his fellow student Philip Pearlstein, the center of what was then the burgeoning mass phenomenon of advertising. For about a decade, he lived off odd jobs, advertising graphics, window dressing, and street vending (fruits and vegetables).

Advertising brought in the most money, but production also took the most time, so Warhol devised a kind of "mass production" : He drew his designs with ink or India ink, copied them with blotting paper, and transferred them to a new sheet. This resulted in graphic templates for magazines, greeting cards, promotional gifts, and cookbooks with humorous illustrations, which he then had his friends color in "coloring parties."

This “drop and dripping” was the beginning of Warhol’s later factory-like production method of series, in which his employees completed works and films.

Although he had little time for art, Andy Warhol still managed to develop his first screen prints. He used ink to draw various motifs such as angels, butterflies, and cats. He copied these designs onto a new sheet of paper using blotting paper and published them in various newspapers and magazines. Although the technique wasn't new, Warhol popularized it and made it his trademark .

Andy Warhol's training as an artist

Andy Warhol never received formal artistic training; he developed his artistic practice out of his professional life. Thanks to his reproduction technique, Warhol was among the highest-paid graphic designers in Manhattan around 1960. New York was not only the center of advertising but also the stronghold of contemporary art, and he wanted to be among these celebrated artists.

As a graphic artist, he had already exhibited his own works; now, as a painter, he wanted to attract attention with his paintings on canvas. Initially, he chose familiar motifs from the advertising world, comic and cartoon subjects, and Hollywood stars for his artistic work, but quickly realized that well-known colleagues like Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein had already presented very similar motifs to the public.

So Warhol changed direction, going beyond “drop and dripping” with screen printing techniques and collected other familiar motifs, advertisements and photographs, from magazines, leaflets and movie programs to make art out of them.

Again, immediately as mass-produced goods, Warhol created screen templates of the new motifs, from which he then released color-modified series, and he elevated precisely this mass production to his artistic credo:

“I love to do the same thing over and over again” = “I love doing the same thing over and over again”

is a much-quoted Warhol statement,

“30 are better than one” = “30 are better than one”

is a typical work title from this period, used for a postcard with an image of the Mona Lisa , which was reproduced 30 times on canvas.

By 1952, he had amassed enough works to bring his art to a wider audience. With the help of Alexander Iolas, the Greek director of the Hugo Gallery , he organized his first exhibition. Just a few years later, in 1956, Warhol even managed to get his unique art into the Museum of Modern Art in New York .

Andy Warhol's artistic breakthrough

This “mass production” of art brought success; the initial works were 32 almost identical pictures of soup cans (32 because the soup was sold in 32 different flavors). Warhol used these “Campbell’s Soup” cans for his first solo exhibition as an artist, in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles .

Most exhibition visitors regarded the cans with complete incomprehension; nobody wanted them, not even the Hollywood stars whom Ferus partner Blum Warhol had promised as visitors – in fact, only the art critics debated the soups intensely.

Only five trendsetters were interested in the work, including actor Dennis Hopper and Max Factor heir Donald Factor; they each paid the asking price of $100 for their picture from the soup can parade. Had they kept their can paintings, it would have been a good investment: the Museum of Modern Art in New York paid $15 million for all 32 pictures in 1996.

None of the buyers kept their picture at the time; they were persuaded to buy it back by the far-sighted Ferus partner Irving Blum , and Warhol was persuaded to sell Blum the entire series of 32 pictures for $1,000 (payable in 10 installments).

When Blum sold the soups to MoMA for the aforementioned 15 million, it was already considered partly a donation, so much had the value increased….

Famous art and sought-after artworks by Andy Warhol

The soup cans were followed by Marilyn Monroe , using a still from the film Niagara (1953) as a template, which Warhol would then work on in many color variations for a longer period of time.

The silkscreen template “The Marilyn Diptych” , completed in the weeks following Marilyn Monroe’s death (August 1962, one day after the closure of the Ferus Gallery Los Angeles), with 50 variations of the statue.

Over the years, his art became increasingly bizarre, although he claimed it was self-producing, as all the source material was already available. Starting in 1962, he launched his “Death and Disaster” series, in which he presented press photos of shocking accidents, distorted through subtle retouching. His aim was to explore the technical manipulability of the perception of reality through art.

In 2004, the English “Guardian” conducted a survey of 500 artists, critics and art experts, from which this painting emerged as the third most influential contemporary work of art in the world.

Many other Marilyns followed, such as the “Ten Marilyns” of 1967; “James Deans , “Elvise,” and “Liz Taylors” were also available in countless variations. Later came many experimental works like films, happenings, and music productions; in his most commercially successful period, Andy Warhol even created a portrait of anyone who paid $25,000 for it.

A selection of his artwork on Pinterest

Andy Warhol as a filmmaker

In 1962, he created something unique: the “Factory” in New York. It consisted of factory halls converted into studios where he and other artists could unleash their creative energy. The “Factory” became a place of creation and life for various artists and intellectuals.

Celebrities like Jim Morrison , Bob Dylan , and Mick Jagger were frequent visitors, as the "Factory" was also used as a party venue . He used these unique spaces not only for his pop art, for which he primarily used 100 by 100 centimeter canvases, but also for his films.

Some of his works were met with disapproval, as he produced material featuring nudity, among other things. Furthermore, in 1966 he founded the rock group Velvet Underground , with whom he worked on nightclub shows.

Although many of his art films and productions remain virtually unknown, he nevertheless created a body of work comprising almost 200 films. The following three productions are particularly noteworthy:

"The Chelsea Girls", 1966

In 1966, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey co-directed “The Chelsea Girls.” The film offers a glimpse into the lives of the residents of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, where Warhol founded “The Factory” in 1964 as a residence for artists, musicians, dancers, actors, and other creatives.

This house was home to Warhol's "superstars" from the creative scene, whose extravagances permeate the film. Commissioned by Jonas Mekas, the film was conceived without cuts on twelve reels of film and in a single take. "The Chelsea Girls" moves from room to room, revealing the extraordinary lives of the "Factory" residents.

"Blue Movie", 1969

The film “Blue Movie” was produced by Paul Morrissey and directed by Andy Warhol. It depicts the lives of the lovers Viva and Louis Waldon, who live together in an apartment in Manhattan. The film shows chance conversations between the two, which include serious topics such as society and the Vietnam War, as well as lighthearted chats in the shower and actual sex scenes.

The actors enhance the film with genuine erotic scenes that reflect the couple's everyday life. The film's tone is compelling and impressively portrays the life of a couple in Manhattan.

In October 1968, the groundbreaking film "Blue Movie" was filmed in the apartment of art critic David Bourdon in picturesque Greenwich Village. It is considered the first film of its kind to be publicly screened. The cinematography is masterful and captures the characters' gradual awakening to self-awareness.

Sexual intercourse is portrayed here as the ultimate political protest against the Vietnam War. A playful use of the camera and subtle direction make this film a masterpiece of cinematic history.

"Trash", 1970

The protagonists live in poverty and drug addiction, trying to make ends meet by selling garbage. The film depicts the harsh reality of life in a big city and the despair that accompanies it. The actors deliver impressive performances, making the viewer feel like they are part of this world.

Morrissey's direction is masterful and lends the film a unique atmosphere. With "Trash," the team around Morrissey and Warhol created a timeless classic that remains relevant and thought-provoking even today.

Life's work

All these series of images of actors and singers became the epitome of “Pop Art” , and Andy Warhol became the figurehead of this art movement.

Pop Art became the hottest artistic trend in the USA and Europe in the 1960s. This art, with its penchant for the trivial, was often seen by influential critics of the time as a long-overdue reaction to the overly intellectual abstract art of the era. In any case, a Pop Art artist little interest in abstraction; they aim to depict reality, everyday and commonplace objects, which are made even more easily understood by emphasizing them with black lines, comic strip illustrations

Initially, Pop Art's motifs typically stemmed from everyday culture, mass media, advertising, or the consumer world, presented in realistic or even exaggerated forms. In its later phase, influenced by the Vietnam War and racial unrest , rising drug use, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Pop Art took a more critical view of affluent society .

Initially, Warhol used everything from popular culture that could be presented in a glamorous way, such as celebrities or soup cans, before increasingly using more unappetizing images like press photos of car accidents and suicides as templates.

Even survivors of tragedies, who were the focus of intense public interest, were used in the name of art, such as the grieving Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of her husband.

Shortly after John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Andy Warhol began his 1964 series of “16 Jackies” , based on photographs taken from international media coverage of John F. Kennedy’s death.

The Pop Art artworks attracted a lot of attention and, with their clear language, quickly became a cult in the public eye; influential art critics soon attributed aesthetic appeal to the easily marketable images.

The images had an immediately accessible visual appeal for everyone, but their deeper meaning was discovered in the revelation of the manipulative nature of popular culture – these images, according to the prevailing art critics of the time, show us how we consumers are manipulated by the mass media.

The Lives of Andy Warhol (Documentary – Part 1)

Part 1 of the documentary Andy Warhol begins by delving deep into his impoverished upbringing in 1930s-40s Pittsburgh, offering a rare glimpse behind the facade of one of the most famous Pop Art personalities in history.

This often riveting and deeply moving portrayal then examines his early career as an advertising graphic artist from the 1950s to the 1960s, when he produced his renowned screen-printed pop images.

The Life of Andy Warhol (Documentary – Part 2)

Part 2 of Andy Warhol examines his most productive expansion into the world of art.

Filmmaking, sculpture, performance art, playwriting, and publishing are just a few of Warhol's artistic outputs. Besides his famous paintings and sculptures , Warhol was the creator of many classics in avant-garde cinema, as well as the producer of a multimedia show with the Velvet Underground (one of the most influential rock bands in history) and co-founder of the iconic pop culture magazine Interview.

Featuring rare film footage and interviews, Part 2 of this extraordinarily provocative story examines an unconventional artist, seemingly drunk on fame, whose life's work was a continuous stream of cultural symbolism.

Key Andy Warhol exhibitions – an overview

Since at least 1965, Andy Warhol's paintings have been unanimously celebrated as sensations of the art market, for many years (if not always) more so in Europe than in his homeland: Andy Warhol participated in the 34th Venice Biennale and the 4th documenta in 1968, the 36th Venice Biennale in 1972, and the 6th documenta in 1977. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1981, and at the 7th documenta in 1982, the 41st Venice Biennale in 1984, and the 42nd Venice Biennale in 1986.

In 1995 he participated in the 46th Venice Biennale , in 1996 he was in New York for the first time, and since then his works have been shown in over 2,500 exhibitions in all major art centers across the world.

In his new home, people seemed to be considerably less enthusiastic about Andy Warhol than in the rest of the world (of contemporary art); in the USA he only had around 400 exhibitions, which is just under 15% of all exhibitions (which could also be due to the fact that the public presentation of art has a much lower status in the USA than in Europe; you can read more about this in the article “Art-o-Gram: The importance of art as a mirror of society”).

As recently as 2013, a good quarter of a century after his death, over 40 renowned art events around the world included Andy Warhol in their exhibition catalogue.

Lifestyle and love life of the artist

Warhol had already founded his Factory in 1962, comprising various studios in New York factory buildings where he worked on a wide range of projects. These Factories quickly became much more than just a place for screen printing; from the very beginning, the studios also served Warhol as an experimental space and film studio.

The film studio also offered overnight accommodations for the film's protagonists, and even back then, the Factory was just a short walk from the iconic party location. New York's creative scene gathered at the Factory , rife with stars; Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, and Jim Morrison were just as frequently seen there as Salvador Dalí and Marcel Duchamp.

When the stars of Warhol's own underground films started appearing, such as pop artist Robert Indiana (actor in the film "Eat", shown eating mushrooms), and the musicians of his rock group The Velvet Underground, the events at the Factory became as famous as they were infamous.

These multimedia happenings soon became a colorful succession of deafening rock music and mind-numbing light and strobe effects; the audience was shocked by more visually delicate sexual provocations from the dancing performers, and drugs were said to be circulating in unimaginable quantities.

The assassination attempt by Valerie Solana (see below) permanently spoiled the party scene at the Factory for the artist. From 1968 onward, the Factory was considered an office building, and Warhol turned to the New York party and glamour scene. In the 1970s, he was a regular at the trendy clubs in New York, such as Studio 54. He also enjoyed watching almost pornographic films featuring drug addicts, but these didn't hold his interest for long. He switched to Western parodies and horror films with gay cowboys and pathetic Count Draculas, all increasingly directed by Paul Morrissey.

Andy Warhol's love life also unfolded within the context of the Factory. The shy artist, who wasn't particularly self-confident about his appearance, didn't find it without its challenges, as revealed in some of his statements in his 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back ." Warhol believed that love affairs consumed a person entirely, but weren't really worth it. He revealed his insight that there were bound to be problems in love if one was always searching for the soufflé that never collapses.

Warhol called for a basic course on love, but on the other hand, he suggested that it might work just as well to be left in the dark about everything, otherwise one would have nothing to think about or dream about for the rest of one's life.

Warhol saw the reason for his time's departure from old values ​​in the longer lifespans of his contemporaries, along with the resulting problems. He recommended that parents who truly loved their children insist on delaying any contact with the opposite sex for as long as possible, so that the children would have something to look forward to for a long time.

After the assassination, Warhol's life became quieter, partly due to the influence of the increasingly present Paul Morrissey, who openly despised rock music and drug use and increasingly ensured that the Factory remained free of junkies and partygoers.

Andy Warhol in the media

There was constant media attention surrounding Andy Warhol; every happening at the Factory gave the press enough material for a detailed report peppered with numerous prominent names.

For at least 8 years, the tabloid press was already quite well supplied by him, until Warhol, as an unpleasant and passive participant, gave the media a very special gift on June 3, 1968:

The assassination of Andy Warhol – and its consequences

On that day, the radical feminist Valerie Solanas attempted to shoot Andy Warhol. In the Factory elevator, she pulled a revolver from a paper bag and fired, even though Warhol screamed, “No! No! Valerie! Don’t do it!”—a second and a third time, the third shot hitting Warhol in the chest. Solanas, as the founder and sole member of SCUM (“Society for Cutting Up Men”), saw herself as destined to eliminate as many troublesome men as possible, and Warhol was a troublesome man.

Solanas allowed himself to be arrested by a police officer in Times Square. Warhol was initially clinically dead upon arrival at the hospital, but was saved by a five-and-a-half-hour operation. After nearly two months, he was discharged and immediately threw himself back into his work. The assassination attempt changed him, however; instead of staying up all night, Warhol now went home early. The attack also left physical scars, and Warhol had to wear a medical corset constantly from then on.

The late edition of the “New York Post” ran the headline: “Andy Warhol fights for life.” Many journalists who hadn't received sufficient attention in the past saw this as a welcome opportunity to settle scores. However, the man who had celebrated every form of excess for years only benefited from this coverage. The art market reacted to the attack in its own unique way; the shooting had definitively cemented Warhol's status as a superstar of Pop Art.

Before the media frenzy, his paintings had fetched an average price of around $200; afterwards, they were suddenly sold for no less than $15,000. The extensive coverage made the artist Andy Warhol as omnipresent as his art – ironically, the assassination opened a path for Andy Warhol that he had always longed to follow: the path to fame.

How much does a work of art by Andy Warhol cost?

A great deal, certainly since June/July 1968 – as just described, the price of his artworks exploded after the assassination attempt on Warhol, and prices have remained in the sphere to which this explosion carried them ever since, at least.

Some later examples: “Green Car Crash – Green Burning Car I” fetched $71.7 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2007. Also from the “Death and Disaster” , dating from 1963, is “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)”, which sold for more than $105 million (then €78 million) at auction in November 2013, making it the sixth most expensive painting in the world for a long time.

Sometimes a few Warhol works sell for their estimated price, like “Liz #1 ,” a portrait of Elizabeth Taylor just minutes after the “ Silver Car Crash ,” for $20.3 million. That was probably bad timing on the part of the sellers, as Liz Taylor had died in Los Angeles almost three years earlier… No reason to be cynical, though—sometimes a few Warhols even remain unsold at the auctioneer's, and if that continues for a while, you have a real chance of acquiring a Warhol painting for under $20 million.

The artist in our world

Since these prices are also far beyond the reach of most “normal people”, and a “normal person” would certainly do much more sensible things with such sums, most of us will be content to look at Andy Warhol (and others will even forgo doing so).

You certainly have plenty of opportunities; current exhibitions of Warhol's works are frequent, and there are several art venues around the world where you can see Andy Warhol's work every day. For example, the Andy Warhol Museum in his birthplace of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Museum of Art, also in Pittsburgh, the Kantor Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce, Slovakia.

Are you a true fan? Is that not enough for you? Here you go: Since August 6, 2013 (Warhol's 85th birthday), the Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh has installed a live video stream to the artist's grave. This webcam is broadcasting continuously because, according to the museum director, it is "a fantastic way to keep Andy on air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and connected with our global audience."

Here is the direct link to Warhol: https://earthcam.com/usa/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/warhol/ .

The end

Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987, in New York City at the age of 58. He died unexpectedly from complications following gallbladder surgery at New York Hospital; the exact circumstances remain unclear to this day.

The estate

Warhol left the main part of his fortune, along with legacies to his family, to the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts , whose establishment he had stipulated in his will.

His friend and business manager Frederick W. Hughes became the executor of his estate; the New York Magazine at the time estimated the fortune at over 100 million US dollars, later estimates speak of 600 million dollars (Warhol's private collection of works by his fellow artists has since brought in several million dollars, as has the auction of his memorabilia).

The intangible heritage is almost even more impressive:

Art critics are still debating whether Warhol

• With his version of Pop Art, he merely created a kind of culture industry, focused on maximizing profits
• or actually celebrated American consumer culture in his works, combined with a blurring of the lines between autonomous and trivial art,
• or rather he was criticizing American consumer-oriented society, including the ironic treatment of stars and VIPs.

In any case, Andy Warhol managed to market his art impressively well, and with the motto “Good business is the best art” inspired a whole series of subsequent artists to act as capitalist entrepreneurs in their own right: Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Damien Hirst, for example, were able to sell their works to art lovers (or speculators) at truly impressive prices, and entire industries of art-inspired merchandising items arose Takashi Murakami

There are countless artistic tributes to Andy Warhol, such as Rob Pruitt's "The Andy Monument," "Songs for Drella" by former Velvet Underground members John Cale and Lou Reed , and the song "Andy Warhol" on David Bowie's studio album Hunky Dory (whose refrain "Andy Warhol looks a scream" didn't exactly please Warhol, who was plagued by complexes about his appearance; Warhol is said to have called the song horrible). If you'd like to judge for yourself:

Book recommendation about Andy Warhol and his time

For book lovers who want to delve into the time of Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol's book “POPism – The Warhol Sixties” , in the German version “POPism – Meine 60er Jahre”, is recommended.

This book is undoubtedly one of the most authentic artist autobiographies of the last century , and is also celebrated by literary critics. Dictated by Andy Warhol in 1980 and transcribed by his assistant Pat Hackett, the account of the wonderful 1960s, the free—even dangerously free—life, and the unbridled creative experimentation is said to have coalesced into an almost fairytale-like book.