Andrew Warhola Jr.
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In May 2022, Andy Warhol’s 1964 silkscreen Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold at Christie’s for $195 million, breaking records for 20th-century art. Warhol produced works such as Campbell Soup Cans 1962 and founded The Factory, his New York studio. He survived an assassination attempt by Valerie Solanas in 1968 and later published Interview magazine and created celebrity portraits.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Andy Warhol — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Andy Warhol by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Andy Warhol — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol suffered several nervous breakdowns during his teenage years before graduating from Schenley High School in 1945. His parents, Julia and Andrej Warhola, were immigrants from the Slovak village of Miková; his father worked as a construction worker and coal miner. Warhol enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology now Carnegie Mellon University, where he met fellow student Philip Pearlstein, graduating in June 1949.
In 1962, Warhol’s paintings of Campbell Soup cans and dollar bills at the Stable Gallery created a sensation, launching the pop art movement. The following year, he rented a studio and met assistant Gerard Malanga, beginning his first film Tarzan and Jane Regained… Sort of 1964. In 1963, he established The Factory at 231 East 47th Street, where he produced silkscreens and films. His 1966 film Chelsea Girls became the first underground film to play in commercial theaters. That same year, he formed a close alliance with The Velvet Underground and Nico, producing their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico 1967. On June 3, 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas but survived after two months in the hospital. He spent the 1970s and 1980s focusing on celebrity portraits, publishing Interview magazine, and creating series such as Skulls 1976 and Shadows 1979.
Warhol never married and lived much of his life with his mother, Julia Warhola, until her death in November 1972. He refused to attend her funeral and continued telling acquaintances she was still alive as late as 1976. He was a devout Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic who attended Mass almost daily. His closest relationships included his assistant Gerard Malanga, filmmaker Paul Morrissey, and friend Charles Lisanby, with whom he traveled the world in 1956. Warhol was also godfather to Bijou Phillips and counted Lou Reed, John Cale, and the Velvet Underground among his collaborators.
Warhol’s 2022 record sale of Shot Sage Blue Marilyn for $195 million demonstrated his market impact. He coined the term superstar and directed underground films including Empire 1964 and Chelsea Girls 1966, both inducted into the National Film Registry. His visual style appears in fashion, music, and advertising, inspiring artists such as Keith Haring and the Young British Artists. In 2002, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honor. Warhol left an estate valued at $500 million and authored A: A Novel 1968. He blurred the boundaries between high art and consumer culture with his Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe silkscreens.
Browse the complete filmography of Andy Warhol — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Andy Warhol's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Andy Warhol — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Would Rather Watch Somebody Buy Their Underwear Than Read a Book They Wrote.
In the Future Everyone Will Be Famous for Fifteen Minutes.
I Am a Deeply Superficial Person.
Success Is When the Checks Don’t Bounce.
I’d Prefer to Remain a Mystery. I Never Like to Give My Background And, Anyway, I Make It All up Different Every Time I’m Asked. It’s Not Just That It’s Part of My Image Not to Tell Everything, It’s Just That I Forget What I Said the Day Before, and I Have to Make It All up Over Again.
Business Art Is the Step That Comes After Art. I Started as a Commercial Artist, and I Want to Finish as a Business Artist. After I Did the Thing Called Art or Whatever It’s Called, I Went into Business Art. I Wanted to Be an Art Businessman or a Business Artist. Being Good in Business in the Most Fascinating Kind of Art.
Of Course What I Think Is Boring Must Not Be the Same as What Other People Think Is, Since I Could Never Stand to Watch All the Most Popular Action Shows on TV, Because They’re Essentially the Same Plots and the Same Shots and the Same Cuts Over and Over Again. Apparently, Most People Love Watching the Same Basic Thing, as Long as the Details Are Different. but I’m Just the Opposite: If I’m Going to Sit and Watch the Same Thing I Saw the Night Before, I Don’t Want It to Be Essentially the Same I Want It to Be Exactly the Same. Because the More You Look at the Same Exact Thing, the More the Meaning Goes Away, and the Better and Emptier You Feel.
My Idea of a Good Picture Is One That’s in Focus and of a Famous Person.
Sex Is the Biggest Nothing of All Time.
Our Movies May Have Looked Like Home Movies, but Then Our Home Wasn’t Like Anybody Else’s.
Living in New York City Gives People Real Incentives to Want Things That Nobody Else Wants.
I Like the Taste of the Last Chocolate in the Box.
If It Doesn’t Make Sense It’s Art.
Don’t Read Your Reviews; Weigh Them.
Sex Is More Exciting on the Screen and Between the Pages Than Between the Sheets.
Everyone Must Have a Fantasy.
I Have Social Disease. I Have to Go Out Every Night. If I Stay Home One Night I Start Spreading Rumours to My Dogs.
I Think Having Land and Not Ruining It Is the Most Beautiful Art That Anybody Could Ever Want.
The Best Thing About a Picture Is That It Never Changes, Even When the People in It Do.
The Idea of Waiting for Something Makes It More Exciting.
Sometimes the Little Times You Don’t Think Are Anything While They’re Happening Turn Out to Be What Marks a Whole Period of Your Life.
I Like to Be the Right Thing in the Wrong Place and the Wrong Thing in the Right Place. Being the Right Thing in the Wrong Place and the Wrong Thing in the Right Place Is Worth It Because Something Interesting Always Happens.
A Picture Means I Know Where I Was Every Minute. That’s Why I Take Pictures. It’s a Visual Diary.
I Think Everybody Should Be Nice to Everybody.
People Should Fall in Love with Their Eyes Closed.
It Does Not Matter How Slowly You Go so Long as You Do Not Stop.
They Always Say Time Changes Things, but You Actually Have to Change Them Yourself.
Beauty Is a Sign of Intelligence.
I Wonder If It’s Possible to Have a Love Affair That Lasts Forever.
The Idea Is Not to Live Forever, It Is to Create Something That Will.
An Artist Is Somebody Who Produces Things That People Don’t Need to Have.
Don’t Think About Making Art, Just Get It Done. Let Everyone Else Decide If It’s Good or Bad, Whether They Love It or Hate It. While They Are Deciding, Make Even More Art.
When I Was a Child I Never Had a Fantasy About Having a Maid, What I Had a Fantasy About Having Was Candy. as I Matured That Fantasy Translated Itself into ‘Make Money to Have Candy,’ Because as You Get Older, of Course, You Get More Realistic.
Little-known facts about Andy Warhol — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Is credited with coining the term superstar.
Avoided the subject of death, except in his paintings the Disaster series. He did not attend the funerals of his superstars nor did he attend his mother’s funeral when she died in November 1972. After she passed away he continued to give the impression that she was still alive to people who would ask about her. Warhol did not mention his mother’s death to any of his close friends. As late as 1976, when friends asked about his mother, Andy said, Oh, she’s great. But she doesn’t get out of bed much.
David Bowie borrowed one of Warhol’s wigs from The Andy Warhol Museum to portray Warhol in Basquiat 1996. Bowie had written the song Andy Warhol in tribute to him, which featured on his 1971 album Hunky Dory.
He left an estate worth $500 million when he died.
Was a frequent guest at the infamous Studio 54.
In 1984, he and Don Monroe directed the music video Hello Again for The Cars. He also appeared in it, playing The Bartender.
Gore Vidal once described Andy Warhol as The only genius I’ve ever known with an IQ of 60.
Whenever he was at a restaurant, he insisted that the waiter wraps up the entire plate like a takeaway order. He would then go to a nearby street corner and leave the food there for the homeless people to take.
In 1990, Lou Reed and John Cale made a CD album called Songs for Drella as a tribute to Warhol with 15 songs about Warhol’s life.
Produced The Velvet Underground’s first album. He essentially lent his name to their work and observed them in the recording studio, while Lou Reed and later Tom Wilson who had worked earlier with Bob Dylan mostly called the shots. The cover of the band’s first album with Nico was Warhol’s design: a banana with a peel that was actually a peelable sticker.
When guesting on The Love Boat 1977, he was nervous about the experience and turned to his castmate and muse for the particular episode Marion Ross, who calmed him down and offered some advice on how to act.
Was among the guests at Madonna’s and Sean Penn’s wedding.
He had a big sweet tooth. He visited pastry shops daily, sometimes buying an entire birthday cake for himself. He often refused more substantive meals, one time explaining to Tom Wolfe, Oh, I only eat candy.
He has directed two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant: Empire 1964 and Chelsea Girls 1966. He has also appeared in one film that is in the registry: Tootsie 1982.
He was a devout Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic for his entire life, attending Mass, though not taking communion, almost daily and even, according to his priest, making a few converts.
His older brother, Paul, owned a junkyard in Pittsburgh, located near the future site of The Andy Warhol Museum. Periodically his brother would bring him odd scraps of junk, which Warhol would use in his art.
Warhol’s A: A Novel, published in 1968, is based on 24 hours of tape recordings 24 one-hour tapes of Ondine speaking. His tape-recorded musings were transcribed and typed up and serve as the basis of the novel, which was disingenuously presented as one day in the life of Ondine. The book is one of the premier artifacts of the Pop art movement/Pop culture. Warhol followed Ondine around New York City with a tape recorder, recording their conversations. Ondine was addicted to amphetamines and was prone to wild verbal flights that covered many subjects. To type up the tapes, Warhol hired teenage girls, some of whom were barely literate and made many errors. Warhol edited the resulting manuscript during a series of concerts given by The Velvet Underground Lou Reed is one of the characters in the novel, sitting in the rear of the theater in the dark, reading proof sheets with a flashlight. Like James Joyce when confronted with transcription errors made by the French printers/compositors of the first edition of Ulysses 1922, Warhol loved the mistakes and decided to keep them in. He thought the mistakes improved the book as it made it worse, more of a Pop manifesto, and insisted that all the errata be left in the final draft, which he fancied as a Pop Finnegans Wake. In his later book/memoir Popism, Warhol explained, I wanted to do a bad book just the way I’d done bad movies and bad art, because when you do something exactly wrong, you always turn up something. Warhol, the author, refused to filter out the background noise or static, thus preventing the reader from following a coherent narrative thread. The book intentionally is boring, as are many of Warhol’s films. Of his films Warhold said that talking about them was more interesting than actually viewing them, and this likely was his intent with A: A Novel — to create an artifact that made people talk about it — and think.
In May 2022, his portrait of Marilyn Monroe titled Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for $195 million, becoming the most expensive 20th-century painting sold at auction.
His father, who traveled much on business trips, died when Warhol was 13.
His nephew, James Warhola, wrote and illustrated a children’s book titled Uncle Andy’s. It is about James Warhol’s visits to his famous uncle in New York City.
Son of immigrants from the town Miková, located in today’s northeastern Slovakia. His original name was Warhola.
Influenced the movement of The New Russian Classicism. Visited St. Petersburg, Russia and presented his tomato cans to Timur Novikov and Sergei Bugayev.
Godfather of Bijou Phillips.
He was an obsessive fan of Truman Capote who, in the days before Warhol’s career took off, described him as one of those hopeless people you know nothing’s ever going to happen to and a born loser.
Although he appeared in short film in which he was eating a Whopper from Burger King which was later used in a Super Bowl commercial in 2019, he admitted that he much preferred McDonald’s – but only for its design, not for the food.
Pictured on a USA 37 cent commemorative postage stamp issued 9 August 2002.
Alumnus of the College of Fine Arts CFA at Carnegie Mellon University CMU; School of Art, class of 1949.
Interred at St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
Biography in: The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 873-876. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999.
He was a close friend of art historian Evelyn Welch, who is the mother of Florence Welch lead singer of Florence and the Machine.
Was good friends with Charles Lisanby.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Andy Warhol.
Celebrities similar to Andy Warhol — same craft, ranked by reach.
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