section idsynopsisAndy Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop art movements He ventured into a wide variety of art forms including performance art filmmaking video installations and writing and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics Warhol died on February 22 1987 in New York CityBorn Andrew Warhola on August 6 1928 in the neighborhood of Oakland in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Warhols parents were Slovakian immigrants His father AndrejWarhola was a construction worker while his mother Julia Warhola was an embroiderer They were devout Byzantine Catholics who attended mass regularly and maintained much of their Slovakian culture and heritage while living in one of Pittsburghs Eastern European ethnic enclavesAt the age of eight Warhol contracted Chorea also known as St Vituss Dance a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system that left him bedridden for several months It was during these months while Warhol was sick in bed that his mother herself a skillful artist gave him his first drawing lessons Drawing soon became Warhols favorite childhood pastime He was also an avid fan of the movies and when his mother bought him a camera at the age of nine he took up photography as well developing film in a makeshift darkroom he set up in their basementWarhol attended Holmes Elementary school and took the free art classes offered at the Carnegie Institute now the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh In 1942 at the age of 14 Warhol again suffered a tragedy when his father passed away from a jaundiced liver Warhol was so upset that he could not attend his fathers funeral and he hid under his bed throughout the wake Warhols father had recognized his sons artistic talents and in his will he dictated that his life savings go toward Warhols college education That same year Warhol began at Schenley High School and upon graduating in 1945 he enrolled at the Carnegie Institute for Technology now Carnegie Mellon University to study pictorial designsectionsection idearlylifeh2Pop Arth2sectionsection idartisticcareerWhen he graduated from college with his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1949 Warhol moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist It was also at this time that he dropped the a at the end of his last name to become Andy Warhol He landed a job with emGlamourem magazine in September and went on to become one of the most successful commercial artists of the 1950s He won frequent awards for his uniquely whimsical style using his own blotted line technique and rubber stamps to create his drawingsh3Campbells Soup Cansh3In the late 1950s Warhol began devoting more attention to painting and in 1961 he debuted the concept of pop art paintings that focused on massproduced commercial goods In 1962 he exhibited the nowiconic paintings of Campbells soup cans These small canvas works of everyday consumer products created a major stir in the art world bringing both Warhol and pop art into the national spotlight for the first timeBritish artist Richard Hamilton described pop art as popular transient expendable low cost massproduced young witty sexy gimmicky glamorous big business As Warhol himself put it Once you got pop you could never see a sign the same way again And once you thought pop you could never see America the same way againWarhols other famous pop paintings depicted Cocacola bottles vacuum cleaners and hamburgersh3Portraitsh3He also painted celebrity portraits in vivid and garish colors his most famous subjects include a hrefhttpswwwbiographycompeoplemarilynmonroe9412123Marilyn Monroea a hrefhttpswwwbiographycompeopleelizabethtaylor37991Elizabeth Taylora a hrefhttpswwwbiographycompeoplemickjagger9351966Mick Jaggera anda hrefhttpswwwbiographycompoliticalfiguremaotsetung relnofollowMao Tsetunga As these portraits gained fame and notoriety Warhol began to receive hundreds of commissions for portraits from socialites and celebrities His portrait Eight Elvises eventually resold for 100 million in 2008 making it one of the most valuable paintings in world historyh2The Factoryh2In 1964 Warhol opened his own art studio a large silverpainted warehouse known simply as The Factory a hrefhttpswwwbiographycomnewsandywarholandthefactory20750995The Factorya quickly became one of New York Citys premier cultural hotspots a scene of lavish parties attended by the citys wealthiest socialites and celebrities including musician Lou Reed who paid tribute to the hustlers and transvestites hed met at The Factory with his hit song Walk on the Wild Side the verses of which contain descriptions of individuals who were fixtures at the legendary studiowarehouse in the 60s including Holly Woodlawn Candy Darling Little Joe Dallesandro Sugar Plum Fairy Joe Campbell and Jackie Curtis Warhol was a friend of Reeds and managed Reeds band the Velvet UndergroundWarhol who clearly relished his celebrity became a fixture at infamous New York City nightclubs like a hrefhttpswwwbiographycomnewsandywarholhalstonfriendshipStudio 54a and Maxs Kansas City Commenting on celebrity fixation his own and that of the public at large Warhol observed more than anything people just want stars He also branched out in new directions publishing his first bookemAndy Warhols Indexem in 1967In 1968 however Warhols thriving career almost ended He was shot by a hrefhttpswwwbiographycomnewsandywarholvaleriesolanasshotValerieSolanasa anaspiring writer and radical feminist on June 3 Warhol was seriously wounded in this attackSolanashad appeared in one of Warhols films and wasreportedly upset with him over his refusal to use a script she had written After the shootingSolanaswas arrested and later pleaded guilty to the crime Warhol spent weeksin a New York hospital recovering from his injuries and underwent several subsequent surgeriesAs a result of the injuries he sustained he had to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his lifeIn the 1970s Warhol continued to explore other forms of media He published such books asemThe Philosophy of Andy Warholem emFrom A to B and Back Againem and emExposuresem Warhol also experimented extensively with video art producing more than 60 films during his career Some of his most famous films include emSleepem which depicts poet John Giorno sleeping for six hours and emEatem which shows a man eating a mushroom for 45 minutesWarhol also worked in sculpture and photography and in the 1980s he moved into television hosting emAndy Warhols TVem and emAndy Warhols Fifteen Minutesem on MTVh2Deathh2In his later life Warhol suffered from chronic issues with his gallbladder On February 20 1987 he was admitted to New York Hospital where his gallbladder was successfully removed and he seemed to be recovering However days later he suffered complications that resulted in sudden cardiac arrest and he died on February 22 1987 at the age of 58 Thousands of people attended a memorial for the artist at St Patricks Cathedral in New York Citysectionsection iddeathandlegacyh2Legacyh2Warhols enigmatic personal life has been the subject of much debate He is widely believed to have been a gay man and his art was often infused with homoerotic imagery and motifs However he claimed that he remained a virgin for his entire lifeWarhols life and work simultaneously satirized and celebrated materiality and celebrity On the one hand his paintings of distorted brand images and celebrity faces could be read as a critique of what he viewed as a culture obsessed with money and celebrity On the other hand Warhols focus on consumer goods and popculture icons as well as his own taste for money and fame suggests a life in celebration of the very aspects of American culture that his work criticized Warhol spoke to this apparent contradiction between his life and work in his book emThe Philosophy of Andy Warholem writing that making money is art and working is art and good business is the best artsection