Andy Warhol

He was the fourth child of Ondrej Warhola (Americanized as Andrew Warhola Sr.; 1889–1942) and Julia (née Zavacká, 1891–1972), whose first child was born in their homeland of Austria-Hungary and died before their move to the US.

His parents were working-class Lemko emigrants from Mikó, Austria-Hungary (now called Miková, located in today's northeastern Slovakia).

Warhol's father emigrated to the United States in 1914, and his mother joined him in 1921, after the death of Warhol's grandparents.

Warhol's father worked in a coal mine.

The family lived at 55 Beelen Street and later at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

The family was Ruthenian Catholic and attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church.

Warhol had two elder brothers—Pavol (Paul), the eldest, was born before the family emigrated; John was born in Pittsburgh.

Pavol's son, James Warhola, became a successful children's book illustrator.

In third grade, Warhol had Sydenham's chorea (also known as St. Vitus' Dance), the nervous system disease that causes involuntary movements of the extremities, which is believed to be a complication of scarlet fever which causes skin pigmentation blotchiness.

At times when he was confined to bed, he drew, listened to the radio and collected pictures of movie stars around his bed.

Warhol later described this period as very important in the development of his personality, skill-set and preferences.

When Warhol was 13, his father died in an accident.

Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, producer, and leading figure in the pop art movement.

Warhol was born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Warhol's early career was dedicated to commercial and advertising art, where his first commission had been to draw shoes for Glamour magazine in the late 1940s.

As a teenager, Warhol graduated from Schenley High School in 1945, and also won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he studied commercial art.

During his time there, Warhol joined the campus Modern Dance Club and Beaux Arts Society.

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.

These are believed to be his first two published artworks.

Warhol earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in pictorial design in 1949.

Later that year, he moved to New York City and began a career in magazine illustration and advertising.

After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist.

His New York studio, The Factory, became a well-known gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.

He promoted a collection of personalities known as Warhol superstars, and is credited with inspiring the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame".

His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture.

In the late 1960s, he managed and produced the experimental rock band the Velvet Underground and founded Interview.

He authored numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties.

He lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement.

Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator.

In June 1968, he was almost killed by radical feminist Valerie Solanas, who shot him inside his studio.

After gallbladder surgery, Warhol died of cardiac arrhythmia in February 1987 at the age of 58 in New York.

Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books and feature 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 has been described as the "bellwether of the art market".

Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable.

His works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

In 2013, a 1963 serigraph titled Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold for $105 million.

In 2022, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, which is the most expensive work of art sold at auction by an American artist.