Andy Warhol

Lore & Background

Born to working-class Rusyn immigrant parents in Pittsburgh, Warhol began his career as a commercial artist in New York before transitioning to fine art. His best-known early silkscreen paintings include Campbell's Soup Can (1962), Marilyn Diptych (1962), and Coca-Cola (3) (1962). In the mid-1960s, he turned to experimental films such as Blow Job (1964) and Empire (1965), and later directed underground films featuring a shifting group known as Warhol superstars. His studio, the Factory, became a hub for avant-garde experimentation, and he managed the influential rock band the Velvet Underground.

After surviving an assassination attempt in 1968, the Factory evolved into a business enterprise. Warhol founded Interview magazine, produced the play Pork (1971), and published books including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975) and Popism (1980). He executed series of paintings such as Mao (1972–73), Athletes (1977), and Last Supper (1986), and expanded into television with Andy Warhol's TV (1980–83) and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes (1985–87). He meticulously documented his social life through photography and daily recordings, published posthumously as The Andy Warhol Diaries (1989).

Reader's Guide

Warhol has been described as the 'bellwether of the art market,' with several of his works ranking among the most expensive paintings ever sold. In 2013, Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) (1963) sold for $105 million. In 2022, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by an American artist. His embrace of mechanical reproduction challenged traditional boundaries between high and low culture. Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and documentary films. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of his art and archives, is the largest in the United States dedicated to a single artist.

Did You Know?

• Warhol was born to working-class Rusyn immigrant parents in Pittsburgh.
• He survived an assassination attempt in 1968.
• His 2022 painting Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for $195 million, the highest auction price for an American artist.
• He managed the rock band the Velvet Underground.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola; 6 August 1928 – 22 February 1987) was an American painter, filmmaker, publisher, actor and major figure in the Pop Art movement." — Andy Warhol "Andy Warhol: I think everybody should like everybody.Gene Swenson: Is that what Pop Art is all about?Andy Warhol: Yes, it's liking things." — Andy Warhol "The reason I'm painting this way is that I want to be a machine, and I feel that whatever I do and do machine-like is what I want to do." — Andy Warhol "If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface; of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it." — Andy Warhol