13 Things You Might Not Know about Andy Warhol

Communications staff

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, The East Village Other (1966)

A self-portrait by Andy Warhol. Warhol appears from the shoulders up, his figure centered on a dark gray background. He wears a black shirt, that contrasts with the pale pink of his skin. Warhol looks directly at the view, his chin up and green eyes aimed directly forward. — *Self-Portrait*, 1964

The Art Institute of Chicago; gift of Edlis Neeson Collection

You can put Warhol’s quote to the test with the over 400 works in Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again. But below you’ll find 13 biographical facts that look at the surface of his life.

A black-and-white drawing that is a self-portrait done by Andy Warhol. In this early work, Warhol stands with his arms crossed, wearing a suit jacket, a tie, and glasses. — *Self-Portrait*, 1948

Janet and Craig Duchossois Collection

ONE
The son of Slovakian immigrants, he was born in Pittsburgh and named Andrew Warhola. He later dropped the “a” in Warhola to make it sound more “American.”

TWO
He was raised Byzantine Catholic and regularly attended mass for most of his life. He even had an audience with the Pope.

THREE
He was the first in his family to go to college, at what is now known as Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he studied pictorial design.

Diana Vreeland, about 1956

Private collection

FOUR
In 1956 the Museum of Modern Art in New York rejected Warhol’s offer to donate one of his shoe drawings after the museum included it—or one very similar—in an exhibition.

FIVE
Warhol’s first public display of Pop paintings was in the department store windows of New York’s Bonwit Teller in April 1961.

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… . Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.
—Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975)

A black-and-white silkscreen of Elvis Presley. In this image, based on a still from a movie, Elvis looks into the camera, and points a gun that he holds in his right hand. Elvis's image is repeated three times, left to right. — *Triple Elvis [Ferus Type]*, 1963

The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Elvis Presley™; Rights of Publicity and Persona Rights: Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC. elvis.com

SIX
For his Ferus-type Elvis paintings, he sent the gallery one giant roll of canvas screenprinted with numerous images of Elvis, along with stretchers of various sizes, telling the gallerist, “Cut them any way that you think you should.” The result was paintings featuring one, two, three, or multiple Elvises, hung edge to edge on the gallery walls.

E 2016 2283 Web — *Julia Warhola*, 1974

Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

SEVEN
His mother loomed large in his life: she lived with him for 18 years in New York before moving back to Pittsburgh, and he used her distinctive handwriting in his illustrations.

EIGHT
In 1965, Warhol declared his retirement from painting to focus on film. He underlined it with an exhibition that included one room of his Cow Wallpaper and another of silver mylar balloons. (He never really quit painting.)

NINE
After Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas in 1968, he was briefly pronounced dead before doctors revived him. Due to injuries, he had to wear a special corset for the rest of his life.

Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there—I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life… . Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it’s all television.
—Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975)

TEN
He carried a tape recorder around with him everywhere. He called this constant companion his “wife.”

To me, good talkers are beautiful because good talk is what I love. The word itself shows why I like Talkers better than Beauties, why I tape more than I film. It’s not “talkies.” Talkers are doing something. Beauties are being something. Which isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just that I don’t know what it is they’re being.
—Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975)

An iconic silkscreen portrait of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. This work is one of a series of Mao portraits by Warhol, and the work is nearly a towering 15 feet tall. Mao is rendered in Warhol's recognizable Pop style, with bright colors and a graphic feel. — *Mao*, 1972

The Art Institute of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize and Wilson L. Mead funds

ELEVEN
Warhol chose to paint Mao Zedong in 1972 after reading in Life magazine that he was then the most famous person in the world. Mao was his first non-American living subject.

A silkscreen print portrait of Debbie Harry. Harry's hair is a garish yellow that is the sam as the background. She wears red lipstick and pink eye makeup, and looks directly into the camera. — *Debbie Harry*, 1980

Collection of Deborah Harry

TWELVE
In 1981, he did a series of spots on Saturday Night Live, and in the mid-1980s, MTV gave him a show called Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes. Guests included Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, and Ian McKellan.

THIRTEEN
In the 1980s, both the Ford and Zoli modeling agencies signed Warhol, and he appeared in a number of ads—in print and on television. One recent ad, created from footage shot in the 1980s, featured Warhol eating a hamburger and was aired during Super Bowl LIII in 2019.

What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest… . 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.
—Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975)

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