The Andy Warhol Story

By Emma Green
Andrew Warhola was born February 6th 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pensylvania. His parents were migrants from north-eastern Slovakia, which at the time, had been under Austro-Hungarian rule. Warhol's father was a coal miner, and the family were brought up as Catholics.
As a youngster, Andy got chorea; a nervous system disease which caused involuntary movements of the extremities and skin pigmentation blotchiness. Often bed-ridden as a child, he became an outcast with his peers, so developed a strong bond with his mother. Because of his lack of freedom, he would either draw in bed, listen to the radio or collect pictures of celebrities. Warhol later believe this period helped to build his personality, his skills, and preferences.
Warhol went on to study commercial art at Pittsburgh School of Fine Arts, and in 1949, he moved to New York where he began a career in magazine illustration and advertising. His work was first praised in the 1950s, when he gained fame for his ink drawings of shoe advertisements. RCA records then decided to employ Warhol to design album covers and promotional material.
It was in the early 1960s when Andy had his first one-man art gallery exhibition as a fine artist. It was also when Warhol began to start making his paintings of iconic American products such as Campbell Soup and CocaCola as well as famous celebrities like Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, Muhammad Ali and Elizabeth Taylor. His work was both popular and controversial. Furthermore, he founded his "Factory", the studio in which he worked during this period, and the people which gathered in there. These included a wide range of artists, musicians, writers, and underground celebrities.

Among the imagery tackled by Warhol were dollar bills, celebrities and brand name products. He also used as imagery for his paintings newspaper headlines or photographs of mushroom clouds, electric chairs, and police dogs attacking civil rights protesters. Warhol also used Coca Cola bottles as subject matter for paintings. He 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. "
Warhol were attacked for "capitulating" to consumerism. Critics were scandalized by Warhol's open embrace of market culture. Throughout the decade it became more and more clear that there had been a profound change in the culture of the art world, and that Warhol was at the center of that shift. Andy's work challenged the question of what really was art and how it is created.
Because Andy was an advertisement illustrator in the 1950s, Warhol used to use assistants to help with productivity. Collaboration would remain a defining (and controversial) aspect of his working methods throughout his career; in the 1960s, this was particularly true. One of the most important collaborators during this period was Gerard Malanga. Malanga assisted the artist with producing silkscreens, films, sculpture, and other works at "The Factory", Warhol's aluminum foil-and-silver-paint-lined studio. Other members of Warhol's Factory crowd included Freddie Herko, Ondine, Ronald Tavel, Mary Woronov, Billy Name, and Brigid Berlin (from whom he apparently got the idea to tape record his phone conversations).
During the 60s, Warhol also groomed a retinue of bohemian eccentrics upon whom he bestowed the designation "Superstars", including Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Ultra Violet, and Candy Darling. These people all participated in the Factory films, and some, like Berlin, remained friends with Warhol until his death. Important figures in the New York underground art/cinema world, such as writer John Giorno and film-maker Jack Smith, also appear in Warhol films of the 1960s, revealing Warhol's connections to a diverse range of artistic scenes during this period.
When Andy was shot by an art critic and Factory figure, Mario Amaya in 1968, for "having too much control over life", this signalled the end of the "Great Factory 60's". Warhol nearly died in the attempted assasination and he suffered physical effects from it for the rest of his life. The shooting inspired much of his later life and art.
The 1970's was a much quiter decade for Warhol after the success and scandal of the 1960s. He spent most of this time looking for new, rich patrons for portrait commissions. These people included Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Bridgette Bardot. He also founded "Interview" Magazine and published "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol". He also would socialise at clubs such as Studio 54 but he was described as quiet, shy and an observer. In the 1980's, he re-emerged with critical and financial success, due to his new-found friendships with young artists who were dominating the world of Art at the time with their neo-expressionist and transavantgarde work. However, Warhol was starting to become critisised for being a "business artist". His portraits of celebrities and famous personalities were called superficial and commercial with no depth or significance to the subjects themselves.
Two significant things about Andy was his sexuality and his religious beliefs. Many people thought of Warhol as "asexual", but it was well established he was a homosexual. His sexuality can be seen in work through his erotic photography, drawings of male nudes and films such as "Blow Job" and "Lonesome Cowboys". His work was drawn from the gay underground culture and many of his films were shown in gay porn theatres. At the beginning of his career, his work was rejected from galleries for being too "openly gay". His camp personality also made it difficult for him to fit in in social situations, but he refused to change his attitude.
Warhol was a practicing Byzantine Catholic. He regularly volunteered at homeless shelters in New York, particularly during the busier times of the year, and described himself as a religious person. Several of Warhol's later works depicted religious subjects, including two series, Details of Renaissance Paintings and The Last Supper. In addition, a body of religious-themed works was found posthumously in his estate. During his life, Warhol regularly attended Mass, and the priest at Warhol's church, Saint Vincent's, said that the artist went there almost daily. His art is noticeably influenced by the eastern Christian iconographic tradition which was so evident in his places of worship.
Warhol died in New York City at on February 22, 1987. According to news reports, he had been making good recovery from a routine gallbladder surgery at New York Hospital before dying in his sleep from a sudden post-operative cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beats and electric impulses in the heart). Prior to his diagnosis and operation, Warhol delayed having his recurring gallbladder problems checked, as he was afraid to enter hospitals and see doctors. His family sued the hospital for inadequate care, saying that the arrhythmia was caused by improper care and hyperhydration.

The coffin was a solid bronze casket with gold plated rails and white upholstery. Warhol was dressed in a black cashmere suit, a paisley tie, a platinum wig, and sunglasses. He was posed holding a small prayer book and a red rose.