Andy Warhol (/ˈwɔːrhɒl/;[1] bornAndrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in thepop art movement, Warhol is considered the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century.[2][3][4] His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, andcelebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Some of his best-known works include thesilkscreen paintingsCampbell's Soup Cans (1962) andMarilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental filmChelsea Girls (1966), the multimedia events known as theExploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67), and theerotic filmBlue Movie (1969) that started the "Golden Age of Porn".[5]
Warhol has been described as the "bellwether of theart market", with several of his works ranking among themost expensive paintings ever sold.[12][13] In 2013,Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) (1963) sold for $105 million, setting a record for the artist. In 2022,Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, which is the highest price paid at auction for a work by an American artist. Warhol has been the subject of numerousretrospectiveexhibitions, books, and documentary films.The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city of Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist.
Warhol was born on August 6, 1928, inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[14] He was the fourth child of Ondrej Warhola (Americanized as Andrew Warhola Sr.; 1889–1942)[15] andJulia Warhola (née Zavacká, 1891–1972).[16] His parents were working-classRusyn emigrants from Mikó,Czechoslovakia (nowMiková in northeastSlovakia).[17][18]
In 1912, Warhol's father emigrated to the United States and found work in a coal mine.[19] His wife joined him nine years later in 1921.[20] The family lived at 55 Beelen Street and later at 3252 Dawson Street in theOakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.[21] They wereRuthenian Catholic and attendedSt. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. Warhol had two older brothers, Paul (1922–2014) andJohn (1925–2010),[22] as well as an older sister, Maria (1912; died in infancy).[18][19] Warhol's nephewJames Warhola, became a successful children's book illustrator.[23]
At the age of eight, Warhol had astreptococcal infection that led toscarlet fever.[24] Because there were no antibiotics to treat the illness it progressed torheumatic fever and ultimately the neurological conditionSydenham's chorea, sometimes referred to as St. Vitus' Dance.[24] At times he was confined to bed and made to remain home from school. He would spend these days drawing, creating scrapbooks from Hollywood magazines, and cutting out images from comic books that his mother bought him.[25][18] He also enjoyed using the family's Kodak Baby Brownie Special camera, and after noticing his passion for photography, his father and brothers built adarkroom in the basement for him.[26]
A toddler Warhol (right) with his mother,Julia, and his brother,John,c. 1930
When Warhol started art classes atHolmes School in 1937, his art teacher saw his potential and got him admitted to Saturday drawing lessons at theCarnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.[27] In 1942, his father died after drinking contaminated water from a coal mine in West Virginia.[18]
Warhol excelled in school and won aScholastic Art and Writing Award.[28][18] After graduating fromSchenley High School in 1945, he enrolled at theCarnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, where he studiedcommercial art. During his time there, Warhol joined the campus Modern Dance Club and Beaux Arts Society.[29][30] He also served as art director of the student art magazine,Cano, illustrating a cover in 1948 and a full-page interior illustration in 1949.[31][32] These are believed to be his first two published artworks.[32] Warhol earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in pictorial design in 1949.[33]
Career
1940s
Warhol moved to New York City with $200 a week after graduating from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in June 1949.[34] He was accompanied by his classmatePhilip Pearlstein.[35] They lived in a six-floor walk-uptenement apartment on St. Mark's Place nearTompkins Square Park.[34]
Warhol went to see Tina Fredericks, the art director ofGlamour magazine, on his second day in New York.[36] He had met Fredericks on his brief visit to New York the year prior. His career as a commercial artist began when she commissioned him to draw shoes for an advertisement after purchasing a small $10 drawing of an orchestra for herself.[37][38]
1950s
In 1952,Alexander Iolas is credited as discovering Andy Warhol, and he organized his first solo show at theHugo Gallery in New York.[39]
In 1955, Warhol began designing advertisements for shoe manufacturer Israel Miller.[40][41] He developed his "blotted line" technique, applying ink to paper and then blotting the ink while still wet, which was akin to aprintmaking process on the most rudimentary scale. His use of tracing paper and ink allowed him to repeat the basic image and also to create endless variations on the theme.[42] American photographer John Coplans recalled that "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 – note by Coplans] noticed that thevamps on Andy's shoe drawings kept getting longer and longer but [Israel] Miller didn't mind. Miller loved them."[citation needed]
In 1956, Warhol was included in his first group exhibition at theMuseum of Modern Art, New York.[43] That year, he traveled around the world with his friend, production designerCharles Lisanby, studying art and culture in several countries.[44]
To attract attention to himself as an artist, Warhol printed books of his illustrations such as25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy (1957), which he would distribute to people, in an attempt to generate work.[47][48] He would often use his mother Julia Warhol'scalligraphy to accompany his illustrations.[49]
Warhol habitually used the expedient of tracing photographs projected with anepidiascope.[50] Using prints byEdward Wallowitch, his "first boyfriend",[51] the photographs would undergo a subtle transformation during Warhol's often cursory tracing of contours andhatching of shadows. Warhol used Wallowitch's photographYoung Man Smoking a Cigarette (c. 1956)[52] for a 1958 design for a book cover he submitted toSimon and Schuster for the Walter Ross pulp novelThe Immortal, and later used others for his series of paintings.[53][54]
With the rapid expansion of therecord industry,RCA Records hired Warhol, along with another freelance artist, Sid Maurer, to design album covers and promotional materials.[55]
As a commercial artist, Warhol was working with high-end advertising clients such asTiffany & Co. by the late 1950's.[56]
In 1961 Warhol purchased a townhouse at 1342Lexington Avenue inCarnegie Hill, which he also used as his art studio.[57][58] In 1962, Warhol was taughtsilkscreen printmaking techniques byMax Arthur Cohn at his graphic arts business in Manhattan.[59][60] Warhol is often considered to be a pioneer in silkscreen printmaking and his techniques became more elaborate throughout his career.[61] In his bookPopism: The Warhol Sixties, Warhol writes: "When you do something exactly wrong, you always turn up something".[62]
In May 1962, Warhol was featured in an article inTime with his paintingBig Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable) (1962), which initiated his most sustained motif, theCampbell's soup can.[63] That painting became Warhol's first to be shown in a museum when it was exhibited at theWadsworth Atheneum in Hartford in July 1962.[64] On July 9, 1962, Warhol's exhibition opened at theFerus Gallery in Los Angeles withCampbell's Soup Cans, marking hisWest Coast debut ofpop art.[65][66]
In November 1962, Warhol had an exhibition at Eleanor Ward'sStable Gallery in New York.[67] The exhibit included the worksGold Marilyn, eight of the classicMarilyn series also namedFlavor Marilyns,Marilyn Diptych,100 Soup Cans,100 Coke Bottles, and100 Dollar Bills.Gold Marilyn was bought by the architectPhilip Johnson and donated to the Museum of Modern Art.
Campbell's Soup I (1968)
In December 1962, New York City's Museum of Modern Art hosted asymposium on pop art, during which artists such as Warhol were attacked for "capitulating" to consumerism. Critics were appalled by Warhol's open acceptance of market culture, which set the tone for his reception.[68]
In January 1963, Warhol rented his first studio—an old firehouse at 159 East 87th Street—where he created hisElvis series, which includedEight Elvises (1963) andTriple Elvis (1963).[70][71] These portraits, along with a series ofElizabeth Taylor portraits, were shown at his second exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.[72] Later that year, Warhol relocated his studio to East 47th Street, which would turn intoThe Factory.[71] The Factory became a popular gathering spot for a wide range of artists, writers, musicians and underground celebrities.[73]
Warhol had his second exhibition at the Stable Gallery in the spring of 1964, which featured sculptures of commercial boxes stacked and scattered throughout the space to resemble a warehouse.[74][75] For the exhibition, Warhol custom ordered wooden boxes and silkscreened graphics onto them. The sculptures—Brillo Box,Del Monte Peach Box,Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box,Kellogg's Cornflakes Box,Campbell's Tomato Juice Box andMott's Apple Juice Box—sold for $200 to $400 depending on the size of the box.[76]
A pivotal event wasThe American Supermarket exhibition at Paul Bianchini'sUpper East Side gallery in late 1964.[77] The show was presented as a typical small supermarket environment, except that everything in it—from the produce, canned goods, meat, posters on the wall, etc.—was created by prominent pop artists of the time, among them sculptorClaes Oldenburg, Mary Inman andBob Watts.[77] Warhol designed a $12 paper shopping bag—plain white with a red Campbell's soup can.[77] His painting of a can of a Campbell's soup cost $1,500 while each autographed can sold for three for $18, $6.50 each.[77][78] The exhibit was one of the first mass events that directly confronted the general public with both pop art and the perennial question of what art is.[79]
Warhol used assistants to increase his productivity and these collaborations would remain a defining and controversial aspect of his working methods throughout his career. One of Warhol's most important collaborators during this period wasGerard Malanga who assisted him with the production of silkscreens and films at The Factory, Warhol's studio that was covered inaluminium foil and painted silver byBilly Name.[80][81]
In November 1964, Warhol's firstFlowers series exhibited at theLeo Castelli Gallery in New York.[82] In May 1965, his secondFlowers series, which had more sizes and color variation that the previous, was shown atGalerie Ileana Sonnabend in Paris.[83][84] During this trip Warhol announced that he was retiring from painting to focus on film.[85]
Warhol amid hisBrillo Box (1964) sculptures at theModerna Museet in Stockholm, 1968
Warhol made a conscious decision to oppose conventional painting, stating that he no longer believed in painting.[94] In response to art dealerIvan Karp's suggestion to paint cows, Warhol producedCow Wallpaper, which covered the walls of the Leo Castelli Gallery during his April 1966 exhibition.[95]
In 1967, Warhol establishedFactory Additions for his printmaking and publishing enterprise.[96] To duplicate prints for a wide audience, Factory Additions published multiple portfolios of ten images each in editions of 250. These were then printed using professional screen printers.[97]
Warhol intended to present the filmChelsea Girls (1966) at the1967 Cannes Film Festival, but it wasn't shown because "the festival authorities explained that the film was too long, there were technical problems."[1]
In February 1968, Warhol's first solo museum exhibition was mounted at theModerna Museet in Stockholm.[98]
On June 3, 1968,radical feminist writerValerie Solanas shot Warhol andMario Amaya, art critic and curator, at The Factory.[99] Solanas had been a marginal figure in the Factory scene before the shooting. She authored theSCUM Manifesto,[100] aseparatist feminist tract that advocated the elimination of men; and appeared in the Warhol filmI, a Man (1967).[101] Amaya received only minor injuries and was released from the hospital later the same day.[102] Warhol was seriously wounded by the attack and barely survived and remained in the hospital for nearly two months.[103][104] Solanas turned herself in to the police a few hours after the attack and said that Warhol "had too much control over my life."[99][105] She was subsequently diagnosed withparanoid schizophrenia and eventually sentenced to three years in prison.[106]
One of the Factory's assistants,Jed Johnson, had witnessed the shooting.[107][103] Johnson visited Warhol regularly during his hospitalization, and the two developed anintimate relationship.[108][109] Johnson moved in with Warhol shortly after he was discharged from the hospital to assist him in recuperating and taking care of his mother, Julia Warhola.[110]
The assassination attempt had a profound effect on Warhol's life and art.[111][112][11] He had physical effects for the rest of his life, including being required to wear a surgicalcorset.[113] The Factory became more regulated and Warhol focused on making it a business enterprise. He credited his collaboratorPaul Morrissey with transforming the Factory into a "regular office."[11]
Post-shooting
In August 1968, Warhol made an appearance in court after Phillip "Fufu" Van Scoy Smith, an investor in a canceled film adaptation of theCharlotte Brontë novelJane Eyre, sued him for $80,000.[114] A legal battle ensued for 2 years, ending after the backer failed to show up in court.[115]
In September 1968, Warhol and Ultra Violet attended a party to celebrate the completion of the filmMidnight Cowboy.[116][117] In the film, there is a party scene featuring members of the Factory that was filmed during Warhol's hospitalization.[117]
In 1969, Warhol and his entourage traveled to Los Angeles to discuss a prospective movie deal withColumbia Pictures.[120] Warhol, who has always had an interest in photography, used aPolaroid camera to document his recuperation after the shooting.[121] In 1969, some of his photographs were published inEsquire magazine.[122] He would become well known for always carrying his Polaroid camera to chronicle his encounters.[123] Eventually, he used instant photography as the basis for his silkscreen portraits when he resumed painting in the 1970s.[124]
Warhol and British journalistJohn Wilcock foundedInterview magazine in the fall of 1969.[125] The magazine was initially published asinter/VIEW: A Monthly Film Journal. It was revamped a few years later and came to represent Warhol's social life and fascination with celebrity.[126]
In 1969, Warhol received an invitation to curate an exhibition using items from the permanent collection of theRISD Museum in Providence.[127] In October 1969, the exhibitionRaid the Icebox opened atRice University's Institute for the Arts in Houston.[128] In 1970, the show traveled to theIsaac Delgado Museum in New Orleans before arriving at the RISD Museum.[128]
Compared to the success and scandal of Warhol's work in the 1960s, the early 1970s were much quieter years, as he became more entrepreneurial. He was generally regarded as quiet, shy and a meticulous observer. Art criticRobert Hughes called him "the white mole ofUnion Square".[129] His fashion evolved from what Warhol called his "leather look" to his "Brook Brothers look," which included a Brooks Brothers shirt and tie, DeNoyer blazer, andLevi jeans.[130][131]
As Warhol continued to forge into filmmaking, he had established himself as "one of the most celebrated and well-known pop art figures to emerge from the sixties."[132] ThePasadena Art Museum inPasadena organized a majorretrospective of his work in 1970, which traveled in the United States and abroad.[133] In 1971, the exhibition was mounted at theTate Gallery in London and theWhitney Museum of American Art in New York.[134][135] The Whitney show distinctly featured Warhol'sCow Wallpaper (1966) as the backdrop for his paintings.[135][136]
After years of deteriorating health, Warhol's mother, Julia Warhola, died in Pittsburgh in November 1972.[145] Although he covered the cost of her funeral, he chose not to attend or inform his friends of her death.[145] Warhol and his longtime partner Jed Johnson got a dachshund,Archie Warhol, in November 1972.[146][13] Warhol doted on Archie and took him everywhere: to the studio, parties, restaurants, and on trips to Europe.[17][147] He created portraits of Johnson, Archie, and Amos—a second dachshund they got a few years later.[12]
Warhol began traveling to Europe more frequently and developed a fondness for Paris.[148] Warhol had an apartment that he shared with his business managerFred Hughes on theLeft Bank of Paris on Rue du Cherche-Midi.[149][150]
In 1974, Warhol and Johnson moved from his home on Lexington Avenue to a townhouse at 57 East 66th Street in Manhattan'sLenox Hill neighborhood.[154] By this time, Warhol's public presence had increased significantly due to his attendance at parties. In 1974, he said, "I try to go around so often so much and try to go to every party so that they'll be bored with me and stop writing about me."[155]
In 1976, Warhol and painterJamie Wyeth were commissioned to paint each other's portraits by the Coe Kerr Gallery in Manhattan.[159] In January 1977, Warhol traveled to Kuwait for the opening of his exhibition at the Dhaiat Abdulla Al Salem Gallery.[160] In June 1977, Warhol was invited to a special reception honoring the "Inaugural Artists" who had contributed prints to theJimmy Carter presidential campaign.[161] In 1977, Warhol was commissioned by art collector Richard Weisman to createAthletes, ten portraits consisting of the leading athletes of the day.[162]
The opening ofStudio 54 in 1977 ushered in a new era in New York City nightlife. Warhol would often socialize at Studio 54 and take note of the drug-fueled activities that his friends engaged in at parties.[163] In 1977, Warhol began taking nude photographs of men in various poses and performing sexual acts—referred to as "landscapes"—for what became known as theTorsos andSex Parts series.[164][165] Most of the men were street hustlers and male prostitutes brought to the Factory by Halston's loverVictor Hugo.[166][167] This caused tension in Warhol's relationship with Johnson who did not approve of his friendship with Hugo.[168][169] "When Studio 54 opened things changed with Andy. That was New York when it was at the height of its most decadent period, and I didn't take part. I never liked that scene, I was never comfortable. ... Andy was just wasting his time, and it was really upsetting. ... He just spent his time with the most ridiculous people," said Johnson.[170]
PresidentJimmy Carter and Warhol at the White House, 1977
In 1979, Warhol formed a publishing company, Andy Warhol Books, and released the bookExposures, which contained his photographs of famous friends and acquaintances.[171] In November 1979, he embarked on a three-week book tour in the US.[172]
According to formerInterview editorBob Colacello, Warhol devoted much of his time to rounding up new, rich patrons for portrait commissions—including Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, his wife EmpressFarah Pahlavi, his sisterPrincess Ashraf Pahlavi,Mick Jagger,Liza Minnelli,John Lennon,Diana Ross andBrigitte Bardot.[173][174] In November 1979, the Whitney Museum of American Art mounted the exhibitionAndy Warhol: Portraits of the '70s to celebrate the "very commercial celebrity of the '70s, the decade ofPeople magazine anddesigner jeans."[175] Some critics disliked his exhibits of portraits of personalities and celebrities, calling them superficial, facile and commercial, with no depth or indication of the significance of the subjects.[176]
TheNew York Academy of Art was founded in part by Warhol.[178] First established in 1980, the institute's mission was to "revive traditional methods of training artists."[179] According to Stuart Pivar, a fellow co-founder and art collector, "What happened was thatModernism got boring [for Warhol] ... But his overall game plan, what he really believed, was that themodern age was going away and that we were entering aneoclassical period."[179]
In 1981, Warhol worked on a project withPeter Sellars andLewis Allen that would create a traveling stage show called,A No Man Show, with a life-sized animatronic robot in the exact image of Warhol.[180] TheAndy Warhol Robot would then be able to read Warhol's diaries as a theatrical production.[181][182] Warhol was quoted as saying, "I'd like to be a machine, wouldn't you?"[183]
Warhol also had an appreciation for intenseHollywood glamour. He once said: "I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're so beautiful. Everything's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic."[184] Warhol occasionally walked the fashion runways and did product endorsements, represented byZoli Agency and laterFord Models.[185]
In 1983, Warhol was commissioned to create a poster for the centennial of theBrooklyn Bridge.[186] The poster was his contribution to the 1983 New York Art Expo.[186]
Warhol created a series ofendangered species silkscreen prints for his exhibitionWarhol's Animals: Species at Risk at New York City'sAmerican Museum of Natural History in April 1983.[187] Warhol donated 10 of the 150 sets he made to wildlife organizations "so they could sell them to raise money."[187]
In 1984,Vanity Fair commissioned Warhol to produce a portrait ofPrince, to accompany an article that celebrated the success ofPurple Rain andits accompanying movie.[189] Referencing the many celebrity portraits produced by Warhol across his career,Orange Prince (1984) was created using a similar composition to theMarilyn "Flavors" series from 1962, among some of Warhol's first celebrity portraits.[190] Prince is depicted in a pop color palette commonly used by Warhol, in bright orange with highlights of bright green and blue. The facial features and hair are screen-printed in black over the orange background.[191][192][193]
In September 1985, Warhol's joint exhibition with Basquiat,Paintings, opened to negative reviews at theTony Shafrazi Gallery.[194] That month, despite apprehension from Warhol, his silkscreen seriesReigning Queens was shown at theLeo Castelli Gallery.[195] In theAndy Warhol Diaries, Warhol noted: "They were supposed to be only for Europe—nobody here cares about royalty and it'll be another bad review."[196]
In January 1987, Warhol traveled to Milan for the opening of his last exhibition,Last Supper, at the Palazzo delle Stelline.[197] The next month, Warhol modeled with jazz musicianMiles Davis for Koshin Satoh's fashion show at theTunnel in New York City on February 17, 1987.[198][199]
Death
Warhol died at age 58 followinggallbladder surgery atNew York Hospital in Manhattan on February 22, 1987.[200] Reportedly, he had been making a good recovery from the surgery before dying in his sleep at 6:32 a.m. from a sudden post-operativeirregular heartbeat.[201] Prior to his diagnosis and operation, Warhol delayed having his recurring gallbladder problems checked, as he was afraid to enter hospitals and see doctors.[202]
Warhol's brothers took his body back to Pittsburgh, where an open-casketwake was held at the Thomas P. Kunsak Funeral Home. The solid bronze casket had gold-plated rails and white upholstery. Warhol was dressed in a black cashmere suit, a paisley tie, a platinum wig, and sunglasses. He was laid out holding a small prayer book and a red rose. The funeralliturgy was held at theHoly Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church on Pittsburgh'sNorth Side on February 27, 1987. The eulogy was given by Monsignor Peter Tay.Yoko Ono andJohn Richardson were speakers. The casket was covered with white roses andasparagus ferns.
After the liturgy, the casket was driven toSt. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery inBethel Park, a south suburb of Pittsburgh, where Warhol was buried near his parents.[203] The priest said a brief prayer at the graveside and sprinkled holy water on the casket. Before the casket was lowered, Warhol's close friend and associate publisher ofInterview,Paige Powell, dropped a copy of the magazine and a bottle of BeautifulEau de Parfum byEstée Lauder into the grave.[204][205]
In December 1991, Warhol's family sued the hospital in theNew York Supreme Court for inadequate care, before judgeIra Gammerman, saying that the arrhythmia was caused by improper care andwater intoxication.[209] The malpractice case was quickly settled out of court; Warhol's family received an undisclosed sum of money.[210]
Prior to his surgery, doctors expected Warhol to survive, though a re-evaluation of the case about thirty years after his death showed many indications that Warhol's surgery was in fact riskier than originally thought.[211] It was widely reported at the time that Warhol had died of a "routine" surgery, though when considering factors such as his age, afamily history of gallbladder problems, his previous gunshot wound, and his medical state in the weeks leading up to the procedure, the potential risk of death following the surgery appeared to have been significant.[211]
Art works
Paintings
By the beginning of the 1960s, pop art was an experimental form that several artists were independently adopting; some of these pioneers, such asRoy Lichtenstein, would later become synonymous with the movement. Warhol, who would become famous as the "Pope of Pop", turned to this new style, where popular subjects could be part of the artist's palette. His early paintings show images taken fromcartoons and advertisements, hand-painted with paint drips. Those drips emulated the style of successful abstract expressionists such asWillem de Kooning.
From these beginnings, he developed his later style and subjects. Instead of working on a signature subject matter, as he started out to do, he worked more and more on a signature style, slowly eliminating the handmade from the artistic process. Warhol was an early adopter of thesilkscreen printmaking process as a technique for making paintings. His later drawings were traced from slide projections. Warhol had several assistants through the years, includingGerard Malanga,Ronnie Cutrone, andGeorge Condo, who produced his silkscreen multiples, following his directions to make different versions and variations.[212][213]
Warhol's first pop art paintings were displayed in April 1961, serving as the backdrop for New York Department Store Bonwit Teller's window display. This was the same stage his Pop Art contemporariesJasper Johns,James Rosenquist andRobert Rauschenberg had also once graced.[214] It was the gallerist Muriel Latow who came up with the ideas for both the soup cans and Warhol's dollar paintings. On November 23, 1961, Warhol wrote Latow a check for $50 which, according to the 2009 Warhol biography,Pop, The Genius of Warhol, was payment for coming up with the idea of the soup cans as subject matter.[215] For his first major exhibition, Warhol painted his famous cans of Campbell's soup, which he claimed to have had for lunch for most of his life.
It was during the 1960s that Warhol began to make paintings of iconic American objects such as dollar bills,mushroom clouds,electric chairs, Campbell's soup cans,Coca-Cola bottles, celebrities such asMarilyn Monroe,Elvis Presley andElizabeth Taylor, as well as newspaper headlines or photographs of police dogs attacking African-American protesters during theBirmingham campaign in thecivil rights movement. His work became popular and controversial. Warhol had this to say about Coca-Cola:
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.[216]
In 1962, Warhol created his famousMarilyn series. The Flavor Marilyns were selected from a group of fourteen canvases in the sub-series, each measuring 20" x 16". Some of the canvases were named after various candy Life Savers flavors, includingCherry Marilyn,Lemon Marilyn andLicorice Marilyn. The others are identified by their background colors.[217]
Warhol produced both comic and serious works; his subject could be a soup can or an electric chair. Warhol used the same techniques—silkscreens, reproduced serially, and often painted with bright colors—whether he painted celebrities, everyday objects, or images of suicide, car crashes and disasters, as in the 1962–63Death and Disaster series.[218]
In the 1970s, Warhol evolved into a commercial artist, painting mostly commissioned portraits of celebrities.[219][175] In 1979, Warhol was commissioned to paint aBMW M1Group 4 racing version for the fourth installment of theBMW Art Car project.[220] He was initially asked to paint aBMW 320i in 1978, but the car model was changed and it didn't qualify for the race that year.[221][222][223] Warhol was the first artist to paint directly onto the automobile himself instead of letting technicians transfer a scale-model design to the car.[220] Reportedly, it took him only 23 minutes to paint the entire car.[224]Racecar driversHervé Poulain,Manfred Winkelhock andMarcel Mignot drove the car at the1979 24 Hours of Le Mans.[220]
Some of Warhol's work, as well as his own personality, has been described as beingKeatonesque. Warhol has been described as playing dumb to the media. He sometimes refused to explain his work. He has suggested that all one needs to know about his work is "already there 'on the surface'".[225]
HisRorschach inkblots are intended as pop comments on art and what art could be. His cow wallpaper (literally, wallpaper with a cowmotif) and hisoxidation paintings (canvases prepared with copper paint that was then oxidized with urine) are also noteworthy in this context. Equally noteworthy is the way these works—and theirmeans of production—mirrored the atmosphere at Andy's New York "Factory". FormerInterview editor Bob Colacello provides some details on Andy's "piss paintings":
Victor ... was Andy's ghost pisser on the Oxidations. He would come to the Factory to urinate on canvases that had already been primed with copper-based paint by Andy orRonnie Cutrone, a second ghost pisser much appreciated by Andy, who said that the vitamin B that Ronnie took made a prettier color when the acid in the urine turned the copper green. Did Andy ever use his own urine? My diary shows that when he first began the series, in December 1977, he did, and there were many others: boys who'd come to lunch and drink too much wine, and find it funny or even flattering to be asked to help Andy 'paint'. Andy always had a little extra bounce in his walk as he led them to his studio.[226]
Warhol's 1982 portrait of Basquiat,Jean-Michel Basquiat, is a silkscreen over an oxidized copper "piss painting".[227][228] After many years of silkscreen, oxidation, photography, etc., Warhol returned to painting with a brush in hand. In 1983, Warhol began collaborating with Basquiat and Clemente.[229] Warhol and Basquiat created a series of more than 50 large collaborative works between 1984 and 1985.[230] Despite criticism when these were first shown, Warhol called some of them "masterpieces", and they were influential for his later work.[231]
In 1984, Warhol was commissioned by collector and galleristAlexander Iolas to produce work based onLeonardo da Vinci'sThe Last Supper for an exhibition at the old refectory of the Palazzo delle Stelline inMilan, opposite from theSanta Maria delle Grazie where Leonardo da Vinci's mural can be seen.[232] Warhol exceeded the demands of the commission and produced nearly 100 variations on the theme, mostly silkscreens and paintings, and among them a collaborative sculpture with Basquiat, theTen Punching Bags (Last Supper).[233] The Milan exhibition that opened in January 1987 with a set of 22 silk-screens, was the last exhibition for both the artist and the gallerist.[234] The series ofThe Last Supper was seen by some as "arguably his greatest",[235] but by others as "wishy-washy, religiose" and "spiritless".[236] It is the largest series of religious-themed works by any American artist.[235]
ArtistMaurizio Cattelan describes that it is difficult to separate daily encounters from the art of Andy Warhol: "That's probably the greatest thing about Warhol: the way he penetrated and summarized our world, to the point that distinguishing between him and our everyday life is basically impossible, and in any case useless." Warhol was an inspiration towards Cattelan's magazine and photography compilations, such asPermanent Food, Charley, andToilet Paper.[237]
In the period just before his death, Warhol was working onCars, a series of paintings forMercedes-Benz.[238]
Drawings
According to a 2023Artnet article, "Though he is often associated with printmaking—specifically silkscreen—Warhol was also an incredibly talented illustrator and draughtsman, and drawing was an integral part of his practice throughout his career. His early drawings on paper bare a resemblance to both continuous line and blind contour drawing techniques, giving his work a sense of ease and immediacy. While working primarily within commercial advertisement, he pioneered the blotted line technique, which synthesized graphite drawing on paper with elements of printmaking. Warhol continued his practice of drawing through the last years of his life and career, and the work from this later period exemplifies a long and storied career's worth of honed skill and technique."[239]
Art market
In 1970, screens and film matrixes that had been used to produce original Warhol works in the 1960s were taken to Europe for the production of Warhol screenprints under the name "Sunday B Morning". Warhol signed and numbered one edition of 250 before subsequent unauthorized unsigned versions were produced.[240] The unauthorized works were the result of a falling out between Warhol and some of his New York City studio employees who went toBrussels where they produced work stamped with "Sunday B Morning" and "Add Your Own Signature Here".[241] Since the works began as a collaboration, Warhol facilitated exact duplication by providing the photo negatives and precise color codes.[242] Some of the unauthorized productions bore the markings "This is not by me, Andy Warhol".[240] The most famous unauthorized reproductions are 1967Marilyn Monroe portfolio screenprints. These "Sunday B Morning" Marilyn Monroe prints were among those still under production as of 2013.[243] Art galleries and dealers also market Sunday B Morning reprint versions of several other screenprint works includingFlowers,Campbell's Soup I,Campbell's Soup Cans II,Gold Marilyn Monroe Mao and Dollare bill prints.[244] Although the original Sunday B Morning versions had black stamps on the back, by the 1980s, they switched to blue.[245]
In 1970, Warhol's paintingCampbell's Soup Can With Peeling Label (1962) sold for $60,000 at an auction byParke-Bernet Galleries.[246] At the time it was the high price ever paid at a public auction for a work by a living American artist.[246]
In the 1970s, the price of a commissioned portrait by Warhol was $25,000, two for $40,000.[219][175] The value of Andy Warhol's work has been on an endless upward trajectory since his death in 1987. In 2014, his works accumulated $569 million at auction, which accounted for more than a sixth of the global art market.[247] However, there have been some dips. According to art dealerDominique Lévy: "The Warhol trade moves something like a seesaw being pulled uphill: it rises and falls, but each new high and low is above the last one."[248] She attributes this to the consistent influx of new collectors intrigued by Warhol. "At different moments, you've had different groups of collectors entering the Warhol market, and that resulted in peaks in demand, then satisfaction and a slow down," before the process repeats another demographic or the next generation.[248]
In 1998,Orange Marilyn (1964), a depiction of Marilyn Monroe, sold for $17.3 million, which at the time set a new record as the highest price paid for a Warhol artwork.[249] In 2007, one of Warhol's 1963 paintings of Elizabeth Taylor,Liz (Colored Liz), which was owned by actorHugh Grant, sold for $23.7 million atChristie's.[250][251]
In 2007,Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson sold Warhol'sTurquoise Marilyn (1964) to financierSteven A. Cohen for $80 million.[252] In May 2007,Green Car Crash (1963) sold for $71.1 million andLemon Marilyn (1962) sold for $28 million at Christie's post-war and contemporary art auction.[253] In 2007,Large Campbell's Soup Can (1964) was sold at aSotheby's auction to a South American collector for 7.4 million.[254] In November 2009,200 One Dollar Bills (1962) at Sotheby's for $43.8 million.[255]
In 2008,Eight Elvises (1963) was sold byAnnibale Berlingieri for $100 million to a private buyer.[256] The work depicts Elvis Presley in agunslinger pose. It was first exhibited in 1963 at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Warhol made 22 versions of theElvis portraits, eleven of which are held in museums.[72] In May 2012,Double Elvis (Ferus Type) sold at auction at Sotheby's for $37 million.[257][258] In November 2014,Triple Elvis (Ferus Type) sold for $81.9 million at Christie's.[259]
In May 2010, a purple self-portrait of Warhol from 1986 that was owned by fashion designerTom Ford sold for $32.6 million at Sotheby's.[260] In November 2010,Men in Her Life (1962), based on Elizabeth Taylor, sold for $63.4 million atPhillips de Pury andCoca-Cola (4) (1962) sold for $35.3 million at Sotheby's.[261][262] In May 2011, Warhol's first self-portrait from 1963 to 1964 sold for $38.4 million and a red self-portrait from 1986 sold for $27.5 million at Christie's.[263] In May 2011,Liz No. 5 (Early Colored Liz) sold for $26.9 million at Phillips.[264]
In November 2013, Warhol's rarely seen 1963 diptych,Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), sold at Sotheby's for $105.4 million, a new record for the artist.[265][266] In November 2013,Coca-Cola (3) (1962) sold for $57.3 million at Christie's.[267] In May 2014,White Marilyn (1962) sold for $41 million at Christie's.[268] In November 2014,Four Marlons (1964), which depicts Marlon Brando, sold for $69.6 million at Christie's.[269] In May 2015,Silver Liz (diptych), painted in 1963, sold for $28 million andColored Mona Lisa (1963) sold for $56.2 million at Christie's.[270][271] In May 2017, Warhol's 1962 paintingBig Campbell's Soup Can With Can Opener (Vegetable) sold for $27.5 million at Christie's.[272] In 2017, billionaire hedge-fund managerKen Griffin purchasedOrange Marilyn privately for around $200 million.[273] In March 2022,Silver Liz (Ferus Type) sold for 2.3 billion yen ($18.9 million) at Shinwa Auction, which set a new record for the highest bid ever at auction in Japan.[274] In May 2022,Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million at Christie's, becoming the most expensive American artwork sold at auction.[275]
Collectors
Emily and Burton Tremaine were among Warhol's early collectors and influential supporters. Among the over 15 artworks purchased,[276]Marilyn Diptych (now at Tate Modern, London)[277] andA boy for Meg (now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC),[278] were purchased directly out of Warhol's studio in 1962. One Christmas, Warhol left a smallHead of Marilyn Monroe by the Tremaine's door at their New York apartment in gratitude for their support and encouragement.[279]
Robert Scull andEthel Scull were among the first people to support Warhol's artwork.[280]Ethel Scull 36 Times (1963), which is presently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, was Warhol's first commissioned portrait.[280]
The Souper Dress, 1967, screen-printed paper dress based on Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans
BMW Group - 4 M1, 1979, painted car
Works
Warhol was a fan of "Business Art", as he stated in his bookThe Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and Back Again. "I went into business art. I wanted to be an art business man or a business artist. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art," he said. His transformation into a mere business artist was a point of criticism.[281] In hindsight, however, some critics have come to view Warhol's superficiality and commerciality as "the most brilliant mirror of our times", contending that "Warhol had captured something irresistible about thezeitgeist of American culture in the 1970s."[176]
In addition to his paintings and drawings, Warhol directed and produced films, managed the Velvet Underground, and authored numerous books, as well as producing works in such diverse media as audio, photography, sculpture, theater, fashion and performance art. His ability to blur the lines between art, commerce, and everyday life was central to his creative philosophy.
His earlyexperimental films were silent observations of very typical daily life.Sleep (1964) monitors poet John Giorno sleeping for six hours.[287]Kiss (1964) shows couples kissing.[288] The filmEat (1964) consists of an artistRobert Indiana eating a mushroom for 45 minutes.[288] The 35-minute filmBlow Job (1964) is one continuous shot of the face ofDeVeren Bookwalter supposedly receivingoral sex from poetWillard Maas, although the camera never tilts down to see this.[289]
For these efforts, Mekas presented Warhol with the Independent Film Award of 1964, "the underground's answer to Oscar."[290]Newsday'sMike McGrady hailed Warhol as "theCecil B. DeMille of the Off-Hollywood movie makers."[290]
Batman Dracula is a 1964 film that was produced and directed by Warhol, without the permission ofDC Comics.[291] It was screened only at his art exhibits. A fan of theBatman series, Warhol's movie was an "homage" and is considered the first appearance of a blatantlycampy Batman. The film was until recently thought to have been lost, until scenes from the picture were shown at some length in the 2006 documentaryJack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis.[291]
Warhol's 1965 filmEmpire is an eight-hour view of theEmpire State Building, and shortly after he releasedVinyl (1965), an adaptation ofAnthony Burgess' populardystopian novelA Clockwork Orange. Other films record improvised encounters between Factory regulars such as Brigid Berlin, Viva, Edie Sedgwick, Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, Ondine, Nico and Jackie Curtis. The underground artist Jack Smith appears in the filmCamp.
Warhol's most popular and critically successful film wasChelsea Girls (1966). It was the first underground film of the 1960s to reach widespread popularity and capture the attention of notable film critics.[288] The film was highly innovative in that it consisted of two16 mm-films being projected simultaneously, with two different stories being shown in tandem. From the projection booth, the sound would be raised for one film to elucidate that "story" while it was lowered for the other. The multiplication of images evoked Warhol's seminal silkscreen works of the early 1960s.
The 1969 filmBlue Movie—in which Warhol superstars Viva andLouis Waldon make love in bed—was Warhol's last film as director.[5][292] It is a seminal film in theGolden Age of Porn, and at the time it was controversial for its frank approach to a sexual encounter.[293][294]Blue Movie was publicly screened in New York City in 2005, for the first time in more than 30 years.[295]
In the wake of the 1968 shooting, Warhol's assistant director,Paul Morrissey, took over most of the film-making chores for the Factory collective, steering Warhol-branded cinema towards more mainstream, narrative-based, B-movieexploitation fare withFlesh (1968),Trash (1970) andHeat (1972). All of these films, including the laterAndy Warhol's Dracula (1973) andAndy Warhol's Frankenstein (1974), were far more mainstream than anything Warhol as a director had attempted. Joe Dallesandro starred in these latter films, which are now consideredcult classics. The last Warhol-produced film,Bad, starredCarroll Baker and was made without either Morrissey or Dallesandro.[296] It was directed by Warhol's boyfriend Jed Johnson, who had assisted Morrissey on several films.[296]
Most of the films directed by Warhol were pulled out of circulation by Warhol and the people around him who ran his business. With assistance from Warhol in 1984, the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art began to restore his films, which are occasionally shown at museums and film festivals.[284] In 2022, the Andy Warhol Museum announced the launch of The Warhol TV, a streaming platform that allows users to watch free museum content and to rent a selection of Warhol's films from its collection.[297]
Music
In 1965, Warhol adopted the bandthe Velvet Underground, making them a crucial element of theExploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia performance art show. Warhol, with Paul Morrissey, acted as the band's manager, introducing them to Nico (who would perform with the band at Warhol's request). While managing The Velvet Underground, Andy would have them dressed in all black to perform in front of movies that he was also presenting.[298] In 1966, he "produced" their first albumThe Velvet Underground & Nico, as well as providing its album art. His actual participation in the album's production amounted to simply paying for the studio time.[93]
After the band's first album, Warhol and band leaderLou Reed started to disagree more about the direction the band should take, and Warhol was fired in 1967.[299][300] In 1989, Reed andJohn Cale reunited for the first time since 1972 to write, perform, record and release the concept albumSongs for Drella, as a tribute to Warhol.[301] In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book,The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, was reported to have been discovered in an archive at theAndy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.[302]
Beginning in the 1950s, Warhol produced several unbound portfolios of his work. In 1957, his bound book25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy was printed by Seymour Berlin.[48] Berlin also printed some of Warhol's other self-published books, includingGold Book andWild Raspberries. Warhol's bookA La Recherche du Shoe Perdu marked his "transition from commercial to gallery artist".[309] (The title is aplay on words by Warhol on the title of French authorMarcel Proust'sÀ la recherche du temps perdu.)[309] In an effort to generate work, the majority of these books were printed in order to be given out to people to draw attention to his illustrations.[47]
After gaining fame, Warhol "wrote" several books that were commercially published:
A, a novel (1968,ISBN978-0-8021-3553-7) is a literal transcription—containing spelling errors and phonetically written background noise and mumbling—of audio recordings ofOndine and several of Andy Warhol's friends hanging out at the Factory, talking, going out.[310]
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again) (1975,ISBN978-0-15-671720-5)—according to Pat Hackett's introduction toThe Andy Warhol Diaries,Pat Hackett did the transcriptions and text for the book based on daily phone conversations, sometimes (when Warhol was traveling) using audio cassettes that Andy Warhol gave her.[311] The cassettes contained conversations withBrigid Berlin and formerInterview magazine editorBob Colacello.[312]
Exposures (1979,ISBN9780448128504), authored by Warhol and Bob Colacello, is a book of Warhol's photographs of his famous friends with anecdotes.
The Andy Warhol Diaries (1989,ISBN978-0-446-39138-2), edited by Pat Hackett, is a diary dictated by Warhol to Hackett in daily phone conversations.[311] Warhol started the diary to keep track of his expenses after being audited, although it soon evolved to include his personal and cultural observations.[313]
Warhol created the fashion magazineInterview that is still published. The loopy title script on the cover is thought to be either his own handwriting or that of his mother, Julia Warhola, who would often do text work for his early commercial pieces.[314]
Warhol created covers for a number of magazines, includingTime andVogue.[315]
Other media
Although Andy Warhol is most known for his paintings and films, he authored works in many different media.
Drawing: Warhol started his career as a commercial illustrator, producing drawings in "blotted-ink" style for advertisements and magazine articles. Best known of these early works are his drawings of shoes. Some of his personal drawings were self-published in small booklets, such asYum, Yum, Yum (about food),Ho, Ho, Ho (about Christmas) andShoes, Shoes, Shoes. His most artistically acclaimed book of drawings is probablyA Gold Book, compiled of sensitive drawings of young men.A Gold Book is so named because of thegold leaf that decorates its pages.[316] In April 2012 a sketch of 1930s singer Rudy Vallee claimed to have been drawn by Andy Warhol was found at a Las Vegas garage sale. The image was said to have been drawn when Andy was nine or 10.[317] Various authorities have challenged the image's authenticity.[318]
Sculpture: Warhol's most well-known sculptures are hisBrillo boxes—silkscreened ink on wood replicas of the large branded cardboard boxes used to hold 24 packages of Brillo soap pads.[319] The original Brillo design was by commercial artistJames Harvey. Warhol's Brillo boxes were part of a series of "grocery carton" works that also includedHeinz ketchup and Campbell's tomato juice boxes.[320] Other famous works include theSilver Clouds—helium filled, silver mylar, pillow-shapedballoons. ASilver Cloud was included in the traveling exhibitionAir Art (1968–1969) curated byWilloughby Sharp.Clouds was also adapted by Warhol foravant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham's dance pieceRainForest (1968).[321]
Audio: At one point Warhol carried a portable recorder with him wherever he went, taping everything everybody said and did. He referred to this device as his "wife". Some of these tapes were the basis for his literary work. Another audio-work of Warhol's was hisInvisible Sculpture, a presentation in which burglar alarms would go off when entering the room. Warhol's cooperation with the musicians of The Velvet Underground was driven by an expressed desire to become a music producer.[322][323]
Time Capsules: In 1973, Warhol began saving ephemera from his daily life—correspondence, newspapers, souvenirs, childhood objects, even used plane tickets and food—which was sealed in plain cardboard boxes dubbed Time Capsules. By the time of his death, the collection grew to include 600, individually dated "capsules". The boxes are now housed at the Andy Warhol Museum.[324]
Television: In 1968, Warhol produced a TV commercial forSchrafft's Restaurants in New York City, for an ice cream dessert appropriately titled the "Underground Sundae".[325] Warhol dreamed of a television special about a favorite subject of his – Nothing – that he would callNothing Special.[296] Later in his career he created three television shows:Fashion (1979–80),Andy Warhol's TV (1980–1983), and theMTV seriesAndy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes (1985–87).[326]
Fashion: Warhol is quoted for having said: "I'd rather buy a dress and put it up on the wall, than put a painting, wouldn't you?"[327] Warhol had friendships with fashion designers such as Yves Saint Laurent andHalston.[328][329] Warhol's work in fashion includes silkscreened dresses, a short sub-career as a catwalk-model and books on fashion as well as paintings with fashion (shoes) as a subject.[330] Warhol himself has been described as a moderndandy, whose authority "rested more on presence than on words".[331]
Performance Art: Warhol and his friends staged theatrical multimedia happenings at parties and public venues, combining music, film, slide projections and even Gerard Malanga in anS&M outfit cracking a whip. The Exploding Plastic Inevitable in 1966 was the culmination of this area of his work.[332]
Photograph ofDebbie Harry by Andy Warhol, taken at the Factory on the day of the photoshoot for her silkscreen portraits in 1980Theater: Warhol's playAndy Warhol's Pork opened on May 5, 1971, at LaMama theater in New York for a two-week run and was brought to the Roundhouse in London for a longer run in August 1971.Pork was based on tape-recorded conversations between Brigid Berlin and Andy during which Brigid would play for Andy tapes she had made of phone conversations between herself and her mother, socialite Honey Berlin. The play featuredJayne County as "Vulva" andCherry Vanilla as "Amanda Pork".[333] In 1974, Andy Warhol also produced the stage musicalMan on the Moon, which was written byJohn Phillips of theMamas and the Papas.
Photography: To produce his silkscreens, Warhol made photographs or had them made by his friends and assistants. These pictures were mostly taken with a specific model ofPolaroid camera,The Big Shot, that Polaroid kept in production especially for Warhol. This photographic approach to painting and his snapshot method of taking pictures has had a great effect on artistic photography. Warhol was an avid photographer and also used thePolaroid SX-70 as a portable camera.[334] He took an enormous number of photographs of Factory visitors, friends, and celebrities; many of these have been acquired byStanford University.[335][336]
Music: In 1963, Warhol foundedThe Druds, a short-lived avant-gardenoise music band that featured prominent members of the New York proto-conceptual art and minimal art community.[69]
Computer: Warhol usedAmiga computers to generate digital art, includingYou Are the One, which he helped design and build with Amiga, Inc. He also displayed the difference between slow fill and fast fill on live TV with Debbie Harry as a model.[337]
Personal life
Sexuality
Warhol lived as a gay man before thegay liberation movement, but he often veiled his personal life in the press. In 1980, Warhol proclaimed that he was still a virgin. FormerInterview editor Bob Colacello felt it was probably true and that what little sex he had was probably "a mixture ofvoyeurism andmasturbation—to use [Andy's] wordabstract."[338] However, Warhol's assertion of virginity is contradicted by his hospital treatment in 1960 forcondylomata, asexually transmitted disease.[339] His friendCharles Lisanby, whom Warhol hadunrequited romantic feelings for, said Warhol told him sex was "messy and distasteful."[44] "He told me he'd had sex a few times, he had tried it and didn't really like it," said Lisanby.[340] Furthermore, some of Warhol's friends from his early career claimed to have either witnessed Warhol having sex or heard him boasting about his sexual relations.[340]Due to Warhol's own admission that he was asexual, it has been assumed that all his relationships were platonic.[341] Warhol superstarJay Johnson, whose twin brother was Warhol's partner, stated, "He enjoyed the idea that he was considered a voyeur and that he was considered asexual. That was his mystique."[341] The Factory photographerBilly Name was briefly Warhol's lover.[81] He said Warhol was "the essence of sexuality. It permeated everything. Andy exuded it, along with his great artistic creativity ... It brought a joy to the whole art world in New York."[342] "But his personality was so vulnerable that it became a defense to put up the blank front," said Name.[343] Warhol's other lovers included aspiring filmmakerDanny Williams and artistJohn Giorno.[344][345]Paramount Pictures executiveJon Gould was one of his last companions.[341] His most enduring romantic relationship was withJed Johnson who nursed him back to health after he was shot.[341] Johnson collaborated with Warhol on films, and went on to achieve fame as an interior designer.[346] Warhol and Johnson "functioned as husband and husband, sharing a bed and a domestic life" for 12 years.[347]
The impact of Warhol's homosexuality on his work and connection with the art industry has been extensively studied. Throughout his career, Warhol produced erotic photography and drawings of male nudes. Many of his most famous works—portraits of Liza Minnelli,Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor and films such asBlow Job,My Hustler andLonesome Cowboys—draw from gayunderground culture or openly explore the complexity of sexuality and desire. As has been addressed by a range of scholars, many of his films premiered ingay porn theaters, including the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre and 55th Street Playhouse, in the 1960s.[348]
The first works that Warhol submitted to a fine art gallery, homoerotic drawings of male nudes, were rejected for being too openly gay.[51] InPopism, furthermore, the artist recalls a conversation with the filmmakerEmile de Antonio about the difficulty Warhol had being accepted socially by the then-more-famous (butcloseted) gay artistsJasper Johns andRobert Rauschenberg. De Antonio explained that Warhol was "too swish and that upsets them". In response to this, Warhol writes, "There was nothing I could say to that. It was all too true. So I decided I just wasn't going to care, because those were all the things that I didn't want to change anyway, that I didn't think I 'should' want to change ... Other people could change their attitudes but not me".[51][349] In exploring Warhol's biography, many turn to this period—the late 1950s and early 1960s—as a key moment in the development of his persona.
Some have suggested that his frequent refusal to comment on his work, to speak about himself (confining himself in interviews to responses like "Um, no" and "Um, yes", and often allowing others to speak for him)—and even the evolution of his pop style—can be traced to the years when Warhol was first dismissed by the inner circles of the New York art world.[350]
Warhol was a practicingRuthenian Catholic. He regularly volunteered athomeless shelters in New York City, particularly during the busier times of the year, and described himself as a religious person.[351] In 1966, his motherJulia Warhola toldEsquire magazine that he was a "good religious boy" and he attended one o'clockMass at St. Paul's every Sunday.[18] The priest at Warhol's church,Saint Vincent Ferrer, said that the artist went there almost daily,[351] and although he was not observed takingCommunion or going toConfession, he sat or knelt in the pews at the back.[338] The priest thought he was afraid of being recognized; Warhol said he was self-conscious about being seen in aLatin Catholic churchcrossing himself "in theOrthodox way" (right to left instead of the reverse).[338] In 1980, Warhol metPope John Paul II inSt. Peter's Square.[338]
Many of Warhol's later works depicted religious subjects, including two series,Details of Renaissance Paintings (1984) andThe Last Supper (1986). Warhol made almost 100 variations on the theme of theLast Supper, which theGuggenheim felt "indicates an almost obsessive investment in the subject matter".[352] In addition, a body of religious-themed works was found posthumously in his estate.[351]
Warhol's art is noticeably influenced by theEastern Christian tradition which was so evident in his places of worship.[351] Warhol's brother has described the artist as "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: "To my certain knowledge, he was responsible for at least oneconversion. He took considerable pride in financing his nephew's studies for priesthood".[351]
From November 2021 to June 2022, theBrooklyn Museum displayed theAndy Warhol: Revelation exhibition.[353] The exhibition delved at the artist's enduring connection to his faith, which was often reflected in his artwork.[354]
Collections
Warhol was an avid collector. His friends referred to his numerous collections, which filled not only his four-story townhouse, but also a nearby storage unit, as "Andy's Stuff". The true extent of his collections was not discovered until after his death, when The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh took in 641 boxes of his "Stuff".
Warhol's 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.[355] It also included significant works of art, such asGeorge Bellows'sMiss Bentham.[356] One of his main collections was his wigs. Warhol owned more than 40 and felt very protective of his hairpieces, which were sewn by a New York wig-maker from hair imported from Italy. In 1985, a girl snatched Warhol's wig off his head. It was later discovered in Warhol's diary entry for that day that he wrote: "I don't know what held me back from pushing her over the balcony."
In 1960, he had bought a drawing of a light bulb by Jasper Johns.[357] Another item found in Warhol's boxes at the museum in Pittsburgh was amummified human foot fromAncient Egypt. The curator of anthropology atCarnegie Museum of Natural History felt that Warhol most likely found it at a flea market.[358]
Warhol collected many books, with more than 1,200 titles in his collection. Of these, 139 titles have been publicly identified through a 1988 Sotheby's Auction catalog,The Andy Warhol Collection and can be viewed online.[359] His book collection reflects his eclectic taste and interests, and includes books written by and about some of his acquaintances and friends. Some of the titles in his collection includeThe Two Mrs. Grenvilles: A Novel byDominick Dunne,Artists in Uniform byMax Eastman,Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology by George Clinton Andrews,D.V. byDiana Vreeland,Blood of a Poet byJean Cocteau,Watercolours by Francesco Clemente,Little World, Hello! byJimmy Savo,Hidden Faces bySalvador Dalí andTheDinah Shore Cookbook.[360]
In 1992, Warhol's estate donated 15-acres of land on his former propertyEothen toThe Nature Conservancy. Now called The Andy Warhol Preserve, it is part of a 2,400-acre protected area in Montauk.[362]
In 1994, theAndy Warhol Museum opened in Pittsburgh.[363] It holds the largest collection of the artist's works in the world.[361]
In 1998, Warhol'sUpper East Side townhouse at 57 E 66th Street in Manhattan was designated a cultural landmark by the Historical Landmarks Preservation Center to commemorate the 70th anniversary of his birthday.[364]
In 2002, theUS Postal Service issued an 18-cent stamp commemorating Warhol. Designed by Richard Sheaff ofScottsdale, Arizona, the stamp was unveiled at a ceremony at The Andy Warhol Museum and features Warhol's painting "Self-Portrait, 1964".[365][366] In March 2011, a chrome statue of Andy Warhol and his Polaroid camera was revealed at Union Square in New York City.[367]
Acrater on Mercury was named after Warhol in 2012.[368]
In 2013, to honor the 85th anniversary of Warhol's birthday, The Andy Warhol Museum andEarthCam launched a collaborative project titledFigment, a live feed of Warhol's gravesite.[369][370]
In 2024, Warhol was posthumously awarded theOrder of the White Double Cross of the Second Class by the Slovak Republic's ambassador to the U.S. on the 37th anniversary of his death, at the behest of Slovakian PresidentZuzana Čaputová, "for promoting the Slovak Republic's good name abroad."[371]
Warhol Foundation
Warhol's will dictated that his entire estate—with the exception of a few modest legacies to family members—would go to create a foundation dedicated to the "advancement of the visual arts". Warhol had so many possessions that it took Sotheby's nine days to auction his estate after his death; the auction grossed more than $20 million.[372]
In 1987, in accordance with Warhol's will, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was formed. The foundation serves as the estate of Andy Warhol, but also has a mission "to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process" and is "focused primarily on supporting work of a challenging and often experimental nature".[373]
TheArtists Rights Society is the US copyright representative for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for all Warhol works with the exception of Warhol film stills.[374] The US copyright representative for Warhol film stills is the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.[375] Additionally, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has agreements in place for its image archive. All digital images of Warhol are exclusively managed byCorbis, while all transparency images of Warhol are managed by Art Resource.[376]
The Andy Warhol Foundation released its20th Anniversary Annual Report as a three-volume set in 2007: Vol. I, 1987–2007; Vol. II, Grants & Exhibitions; and Vol. III, Legacy Program.[377]
The Foundation is in the process of compiling itscatalogue raisonné of paintings and sculptures in volumes covering blocks of years of the artist's career. Volumes IV and V were released in 2019. The subsequent volumes are still in the process of being compiled.[378]
The Foundation remains one of the largest grant-giving organizations for the visual arts in the US.[379]
Many of Warhol's works and possessions are on display at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The foundation donated more than 3,000 works of art to the museum.[380]
In pop culture
Warhol foundedInterview, a stage for celebrities he "endorsed" and a business staffed by his friends. One might even say that he produced people (as in the Warholian "Superstar" and the Warholian portrait). Warhol endorsed products, appeared in commercials, and made frequent celebrity guest appearances on television shows and films.
Films
Warhol (right) with directorUlli Lommel on the set ofCocaine Cowboys (1979) atEothen, in which Warhol made a cameo
I met him a couple of times, but we seldom shared more than platitudes. The first time we saw each other an awkward silence fell till he remarked my bright yellow shoes and started talking enthusiastically. He wanted to be very superficial. And seemingly emotionless, indifferent, just like a dead fish. Lou Reed described him most profoundly when he once told me they should bring a doll of Andy on the market: a doll that you wind up and doesn't do anything. But I managed to observe him well, and that was a helping hand for the film [Basquiat...].[384]
In the movieHighway to Hell a group of Andy Warhols are part of theGood Intentions Paving Company where good-intentioned souls are ground intopavement.[386] In the filmMen in Black 3 (2012) Andy Warhol turns out to really be undercover MIB Agent W (played byBill Hader). Warhol is throwing a party at The Factory in 1969, where he is encountered by MIB Agents K and J.
Andy Warhol (portrayed byTom Meeten) is one of main characters of the 2012 British television showNoel Fielding's Luxury Comedy. The character is portrayed as having robot-like mannerisms. In the 2017 featureThe Billionaire Boys Club,Cary Elwes portrays Warhol in a film based on the true story about Ron Levin (portrayed byKevin Spacey) a friend of Warhol's who was murdered in 1986.[387] In September 2016, it was announced thatJared Leto would portray the title character inWarhol, an upcoming Americanbiographical drama film produced byMichael De Luca and written byTerence Winter, based on the bookWarhol: The Biography byVictor Bockris.[388]
Documentaries
Warhol (1973) is anITV documentary by British photographerDavid Bailey. Initially banned by British courts for containing "indecent material," the film features candid interviews with the artist and his associates.[389][390]
Absolut Warhola (2001) was produced by Polish director Stanislaw Mucha, featuring Warhol's parents' family and hometown in Slovakia.[391]
Andy Warhol: Double Denied (2006) is a 52-minute movie by Ian Yentob about the difficulties authenticating Warhol's work.[394]
Andy Warhol's People Factory (2008), a three-part television documentary directed by Catherine Shorr, features interviews with several of Warhol's associates.[395][396]
In 1965, Warhol and his muse Edie Sedgwick appeared onThe Merv Griffin Show.[398] Warhol doesn't say much save for bashful gestures and whispering "yes" or "no," while Sedgwick mediates a conversation on how Pop Art is art without any sense of emotion.[399]
In 1969, Warhol was commissioned byBraniff International to appear in two television commercials to promote the luxury airline's "When You Got It – Flaunt It" campaign. The campaign was created by the advertising agency Lois Holland Calloway, which was led byGeorge Lois, creator of a famed series ofEsquire covers. The first commercial series involved the unlikely paring of Warhol and heavyweight boxing championSonny Liston who shared the fact that they both flew Braniff Airways. The odd commercial worked and Warhol was featured in another commercial entering a Braniff jet and being greeted by a Braniff hostess, while espousing their like for flying Braniff. The rights to Warhol's films for Braniff and his signed contracts are owned by a private trust and are administered by Braniff Airways Foundation in Dallas, Texas.[400]
Warhol appeared on the BBC series Arena in a scene with writers William S. Burroughs and Victor Bockris in an episode that aired in January 1981.[401] Warhol filmed a segment for the sketch comedy television showSaturday Night Live, which aired in October 1981.[402] In a 1981Sony Beta Tapes advertisement, Warhol featured beside a Marilyn image to showcase the tapes' capacity to record "brilliant color and delicate shading."[403] In 1983, he appeared in a commercial forTDK Videotape.[399]
In 1985, Warhol appeared in aDiet Coke commercial.[399] He also had a guest appearance on the 200th episode of the television seriesThe Love Boat wherein a Midwestern wife (Marion Ross) fears Andy Warhol will reveal to her husband (Tom Bosley) her secret past as a Warhol superstar named Marina del Rey.[404]
Warhol strongly influenced thenew wave/punk rock bandDevo, as well as David Bowie. Bowie recorded a song called "Andy Warhol" for his 1971 albumHunky Dory.[408] Lou Reed wrote the song "Andy's Chest" in response to the attempted assassination of Warhol.[299] The song was originally recorded by the Velvet Underground in 1969, but it wasn't released until a version appeared on Reed's solo albumTransformer in 1972. The bandTriumph also wrote a song about Andy Warhol, "Stranger In A Strange Land" off their 1984 albumThunder Seven.
Books
Many books have been written about Warhol. In 1989, the biographyThe Life and Death of Andy Warhol by author Victor Bockris was published.[409] Bockris expanded the book in 2003 for the 75th anniversary of Warhol's birth and called itWarhol: The Biography.[410] Former Interview editor Bob Colacello wrote the bookHoly Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up, which was published in 1990.[411] A biography written by art criticBlake Gopnik was published in 2020 under the titleWarhol.[412][413][414]
Comic books
Warhol is featured as a character in theMiracleman series of comics. It is first mentioned that he was resurrected by the alien scientist Mors and subsequently convinces the latter to mass-produce copies of himself.[415] Later on, 18 copies of Warhol are seen in the underworld beneath the pyramid structure Olympus, where they produce pop art relating to the new superhuman regime. One Warhol clone numbered 6 is assigned to and develop a friendship with a clone of Emil Gargunza (Miracleman's creator) before the latter's betrayal and attempted escape.[416]
Video games
Warhol makes an appearance in the 2003 video gameThe Sims: Superstar as the photographer in Studio Town.[417] Warhol (played by Jeff Grace) makes a cameo appearance in the 2022 video gameImmortality.[418][419]
^abAcocella, Joan (June 1, 2020)."Untangling Andy Warhol".The New Yorker.ISSN0028-792X. RetrievedApril 1, 2024.There was no huger reputation than Warhol's in the art of the sixties, and in late-twentieth-century art there was no more important decade than the sixties. Much of the art that has followed, in the United States, is unthinkable without him (...)
^abMagocsi, Paul Robert (November 30, 2002).Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture. University of Toronto Press. p. 539.ISBN978-0-8020-3566-0.Warhol's mother and father emigrated from the Rusyn-inhabited village of Mikova in northeastern Slovakia to the United States on the eve of World War I.
^abcdefWeinraub, Bernard (November 1966)."Mothers".Esquire.66 (5): 101, 158.
^Three one-dollar bills mounted on cardboard (1962). Photograph by Edward Wallowitch.The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
^Printz, N. (2014). Making Money/Printing Painting: Warhol's Dollar Bill Paintings. Criticism, 56(3), 535–557.
^Connolly, John (April 8, 1996)."School for Scandal".New York. Vol. 29, no. 14. p. 24.Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. RetrievedDecember 4, 2013.
^Alexander, Paul (January 27, 1992)."What happened to Andy's Treasures".New York. Vol. 25, no. 4. p. 28.Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. RetrievedDecember 4, 2013.
^Wilson, Scott.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 49627). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
^Housley, Kathleen L. (2001).Emily Hall Tremaine: Collector on the cusp, (p. 160). Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation: Meriden, CT. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
^McNeil, Legs; McCain, Gillian (2016).Please kill me : the uncensored oral history of punk (Twentieth anniversary ed.). New York: Grove Press.ISBN978-0-8021-2536-1.OCLC955634990.
^abSmith, John W., Pamela Allara, and Andy Warhol.Possession Obsession: Andy Warhol and Collecting. Pittsburgh, PA: Andy Warhol Museum, 2002, p. 46.ISBN978-0-9715688-0-8.
^"Andy Warhol Polaroids".Public Art University of Houston System. July 30, 2021. RetrievedOctober 24, 2024.
^"Andy Warhol Photography Archive".Spotlight at Stanford.Stanford University. RetrievedFebruary 5, 2022.From 1976 until his death in 1987, Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987) was never without his camera. He snapped photos at discos, dinner parties, flea markets, and wrestling matches. Friends, boyfriends, business associates, socialites, celebrities, and passersby all captured Warhol's attention. Drawing on a trove of over 3,600 contact sheets featuring 130,000 photographic exposures acquired in 2014 from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., the images document Warhol's daily life.
^Waugh, Thomas (1996).Hard to Imagine: Gay Male eroticism in Photography and Film from the Beginnings to Stonewall. New York City: Columbia University Press.
^Butt, Gavin (2005).Between you and me: queer disclosures in the New York art world, 1948–1963. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 113.ISBN978-0-8223-3486-6.OCLC57285910.
^Fairbrother, Trevor (1989). "Tomorrow's Man". In De Salvo, Donna (ed.).Success Is a Job in New York: the Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol. New York: Grey Art Gallery and Study Center. pp. 55–74.ISBN978-0-934349-05-5.OCLC19826995.
^Wachs, Joel; Michael Straus (2002)."Past & Present". The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Archived fromthe original on January 6, 2009. RetrievedJanuary 6, 2009.
^The Andy Warhol Museum, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,archived from the original on July 15, 2017, retrievedJune 26, 2017
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