Andy Warhol was one of the most groundbreaking and fascinating artists in history. Not only was Warhol the leader of the pop art movement, but he also experimented with a variety of art methods including film, music, writing, photography, and even digital art. Warhol created thousands of artworks over the course of his lifetime. This can be attributed to his commitment and dedication to his craft. He often stated how he would work twenty-four hours a day. While this may be an exaggeration, it’s only a slight one. For him to spend that much time on his work, he had to love it. For Warhol, he was inspired to create art at an early age.
Warhol was born as Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Slovakian immigrants. His father, Andrej, was a construction worker, while his mother, Julia, worked as an embroiderer. They were both heavily involved in the Byzantine Catholic religion attending mass regularly every Sunday at the St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. They took Warhol along with his older brothers, Pavol and Paul, to the services. It was at these services where Warhol took strong notice of the artwork around the Church, especially the various triptychs and stained-glass windows. Warhol’s mother, Julia, was interested in art and drew several pictures. She also had exquisite handwriting, which Warhol used to complement some of his illustrations once he began working professionally. In 1957, she illustrated a children’s book titled Holy Cats. The following year, she won an award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for designing the album cover for Louis Thomas Hardin’s The Story of Moondog. The cover was simply a poem, which was made completely in her handwriting using blue, green, and purple ink. So, the combination of both the artwork that was on display at the Church and his mother’s interest in art inspired Warhol to want to create his own work. However, Warhol had to overcome several obstacles along the way.
When Warhol was eight years old, he was diagnosed with Sydenham chorea, which is commonly known as St. Vitus’ dance. St. Vitus’ dance is defined by Britannica as, “a neurological disorder characterized by irregular and involuntary movements of muscle groups in various parts of the body that follow streptococcal infection.” The disease has the potential to be fatal. Fortunately for Warhol, that was not the case. However, Warhol was unable to get out of bed for several months because he was so sick. With Warhol incapable of leaving his room, there weren’t many options for things he could do. This is when Warhol’s mother felt it was an appropriate time to give Warhol his initial drawing lessons, knowing how interested her son was in practicing art. From these lessons, Warhol’s skill and interest grew even further. A specific style wasn’t developed until much later on in his life, but these fundamental lessons were key in the evolution of the future artist.
Warhol attended Holmes Elementary School, which was located in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. While attending school there, he also attended free art classes that were being offered at the Carnegie Institute of Technology where his artistic abilities developed even further. It was no secret to Warhol’s father, Andrej, that his son was incredibly talented. Andrej encouraged and praised his son’s artwork, which greatly helped Warhol’s confidence. Just as Warhol was about to begin high school at the age of fourteen, his father passed away at fifty-three years old. Andrej’s dying wishes were that his life savings were to go towards Andy’s college education, which he indicated in his will. This meant that Warhol’s older brothers Pavol and Paul were unable to afford college, but they also saw their younger brother’s talents and felt that their father made the correct choice in deciding which of his sons were to attend college. Upon graduating Schenley High School, Warhol made the decision to attend college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in order to study pictorial design.
Warhol was one of the best students in his class producing thought-provoking illustrations that gained him notoriety throughout the school. However, his first year proved to be challenging to the young artist, specifically in the Department of Painting and Design. As a result, Warhol was forced to take a summer drawing class so that he could spend more time on learning the different drawing techniques and lessons. One of his assignments was to draw something interesting he saw in the community. Warhol decided to draw his brother, Paul, who worked at a produce truck selling fruits and vegetables to consumers. These drawings impressed his professors who were stunned with how technically astute the drawings were. Upon returning to the school for the fall semester, the school decided to display the drawings in their art gallery and Warhol was awarded with the Martin B. Leisser Prize. From this point on, Warhol became one of the best students in the program and constantly impressed both professors and classmates alike. With the knowledge and skills he learned at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Warhol was ready to make an impact in the world of commercial illustration.
After graduating from college in 1949, Warhol moved to New York City where he was immersed by a plethora of artists and companies. Warhol’s first career choice was that he wanted to be an illustrator for magazines and advertising. Warhol was hired by Glamour magazine as a commercial illustrator. His first assignment for Glamour was to illustrate the article, “Success is a Job in New York,” which was published in September of 1949. The illustration features a woman climbing a ladder high above the New York skyline. It runs along the left side of the page with the article to the right of the illustration. The piece is a pen and ink drawing, which is the medium Warhol used most in his early years. Warhol also used his blotted line technique, which is an unsophisticated printing process where the artist uses a plate and repeatedly inks it. This allows multiple reproductions of the same piece to be made. Warhol continued to use the blotted line technique for almost all of his magazine illustrations. In addition to working for Glamour, Warhol was commissioned by other magazines such as Vogueand Harper’s Bazaar. While working for Harper’s Bazaar, this is where Warhol completed his famous shoe illustrations. Warhol gained notoriety from critics for his whimsical style and won several awards for his work. “I loved working when I worked at commercial art and they told you what to do and how to do it and all you had to do was correct it and they’d say yes or no.” While Warhol was having success in the field, he wasn’t completely satisfied with his work and wanted to take it to a new level.
Pop art existed in the early 1950s, but it didn’t yet enter the mainstream until a decade later. Warhol looked up to pop art artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. He liked how they took average, ordinary items and used them as subjects in their art. Warhol was inspired by them to make his own paintings of various everyday objects. Like Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, and Robert Rauschenberghad done before him, Warhol created his own painting of a Coca-Cola bottle in 1961. This piece was distinctly Warhol’s work because of his unique brushstrokes. As for the bottles of the aforementioned artists, they didn’t have a stylized look to them. Warhol soon realized that to be a great pop artist, he had to remove any of his personalized style and simply paint objects as they appear. This painting changed the way Warhol approached his work over the remainder of his career.
In 1961, Warhol had an epiphany, which eventually defined his style and career as an artist. Warhol decided to paint images of popular items and celebrities. Warhol felt that the paintings would attract people to them because they would be very much familiar with the subject matter since they would read about the celebrities in the newspapers or go shopping for the items at the market. This idea proved to be extremely popular when he decided to paint thirty-two almost identical Campbell’s soup cans with each of them depicting one of Campbell’s thirty-two different flavors. An exhibition was held at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, California that featured all of Warhol’s soup paintings. Irving Blum was the owner of the Gallery and was looking for young new artists to display. Warhol was unable to convince art galleries in New York to display his work, but Blum was more than happy to accommodate Warhol as this is what Blum had been searching for. The Ferus Gallery wasn’t one of the best art galleries in Los Angeles, but it was respected by the public and was successful. When looking for new artists to showcase at his Gallery, Warhol’s name appeared on two separate lists. Whenever Blum saw someone’s name listed more than once, he made a point to visit them and see what they had to offer. Blum flew to New York to meet Warhol. When discussing how his visit went, Blum stated, “He was doing unfinished cartoon paintings. The prevalent style was Abstract Expressionism and they seemed to me to be not so interesting. However, I really enjoyed the talk with Andy. He was incredibly curious about what was going on in L.A.” Six months after that visit, he visited Warhol for a second time. During this visit, Blum noticed three paintings of Campbell’s soup cans leaning against the wall. Blum curiously asked Warhol why he decided to make three of them. Warhol responded, “I’m going to do thirty-two, all the varieties of soup.” It was then when Blum decided that Warhol would be perfect for his Gallery. Warhol hadn’t yet established himself as a widely known artist, which is what Blum wanted. He also knew that Warhol couldn’t find any galleries in New York, so Blum made an offer to Warhol to showcase his Campbell’s soup paintings at the Ferus Gallery. Warhol was a bit hesitant at first, but he gladly accepted it and was appreciative that Blum was willing to give him an opportunity.
The Campbell’s soup paintings were originally intended to be sold independently of one another. However, they were only able to sell five of them. Before they were delivered, though, Blum decided they worked better as a whole since they were created as a series. Warhol agreed with Blum and felt that a good price for all thirty-two paintings was $1,000. Blum decided to purchase the paintings himself and paid Warhol $100 per month over a ten-month timespan. While the paintings didn’t sell as well as he hoped, they opened the door for Warhol’s career to skyrocket. It was clear that Warhol had established his own style. It was a style that made Warhol one of the most popular artists in history. However, this is just before he discovered the silkscreen technique. All thirty-two paintings of the soup cans were hand-painted.
When Warhol discovered the silkscreen process, he was able to produce pieces at a much faster rate. Much like the blotted line technique he used earlier in his career, Warhol was able to reproduce the same image as many times as he wanted. This would have been helpful had he discovered the technique a year earlier for his soup can paintings. According to Custom Planet, “Silk screening is the process of transferring a stenciled design onto a flat surface using a mesh screen, ink and a squeegee. Fabric and paper are the most commonly screen-printed surfaces, but with specialized inks it’s also possible to print onto wood, metal, plastic, and even glass. The basic method involves creating a stencil on a fine mesh screen, and then pushing ink (or paint, in the case of artwork and posters) through to create an imprint of your design on the surface beneath.” With this technique, not only was Warhol able to produce several paintings of the same image, but it allowed him to change the colors to whatever he wished. So, if one painting was made with a certain set of colors, the other painting of the same image could be a different set of colors. The colors Warhol used were bright, vibrant hues that were visually attractive and worked well to glorify the product or celebrity he was illustrating. However, when Warhol was trying to express a dark theme, he used dark colors to better express the murky, sometimes depressing, topic.
One of the celebrities that Warhol took a great interest in was Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, who at this time had recently committed suicide, was one of Warhol’s favorite subject matters. He was intrigued by her attractive physical appearance along with the idea that she was considered to be a perfect woman. Warhol’s silkscreens of Monroe are what set him apart from other artists at the time. Critics and the general public alike were infatuated with how Warhol was able to capture the dark undertones so perfectly. Probably one of the most intriguing paintings Warhol made of Monroe was titled, Marilyn Diptych. In this silkscreen, Warhol produced fifty identical images of Monroe consisting of five rows featuring ten portraits of Monroe in each row. The left side of the piece fills the canvas with vibrant, colorful portraits, but takes a dramatic turn on the right side where the portraits are in black and white. However, the black and white side is not very unified. While it’s the same image, Warhol uses the silkscreen technique to edit the photograph. To explain, Warhol uses what appears to be a normal amount of ink in the first column. However, the second column takes a dark turn when Warhol applies an enormous amount of ink. There is so much ink applied that it makes Monroe’s portrait almost obscured. For the remaining three columns, Monroe’s portrait continually fades. Many people interpreted this painting as a narrative of Monroe’s life. She was an American icon who had the world in the palm of her hands, but unfortunately the demons got the best of her as she slowly drifted into oblivion. It’s a powerful story told by Warhol. It’s one that many people sympathized with. The Marilyn Monroe paintings not only act a tribute to the fallen star, but they also represent the rise of a new star and that star’s name was Andy Warhol.
In addition to the Marilyn Monroe portraits, Warhol created silkscreens of various American icons of the day, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley. The public were fascinated with Warhol’s work. They were interested in him so much that they turned Warhol, himself, into a celebrity. Not many artists have achieved celebrity status, but Warhol was a rare exception.
Making portraits of celebrities weren’t the only silkscreens Warhol made at this time. Warhol created silkscreens that featured dark subject matters and are quite disconcerting. Warhol took pictures from newspapers and significantly enlarged them while applying either a single color or no colors whatsoever other than the black ink to produce the image. Most of the photographs Warhol extracted were images of horrendous car crashes that were usually fatal. Warhol produced a series of these silkscreens and named it the Death and Disaster series. While the portraits of celebrities usually portrayed how glamorous and entertaining popular culture is, the Death and Disaster series produced the exact opposite emotion. In addition, Warhol also created grim images of very brooding objects. The most notable of those being an electric chair. Warhol made several color variations of the chair that all produced menacing images. The most popular iteration was titled Little Electric Chair, which was completed in 1965. This also was an image that was taken out of a newspaper and enlarged. It features an electric chair, which is a bit off-centered surrounded by a dark, empty death chamber. On the right side of the image, there is a sign that says, “Silence.” The gritty texture of the silkscreen is also very apparent and helps further the piece’s overall bleakness. Besides the black ink, an off-red color encompasses the entirety of the piece. There’s also a sense of coldness and despair that is quite disheartening to look at, but it’s still powerful nonetheless. So, Warhol was able to capture both sides of the emotional spectrum. He was able to produce lively images of both consumer products and celebrities, but he also was able to terrify his viewers by producing paintings that were incredibly troublesome in nature. This is what makes the Marilyn Diptych so powerful, because Warhol was able to capture both the bright, lively side of Monroe as well as her dark, depressing side.
In 1965 and at the height of his popularity, Warhol announced that he was retiring from painting in order to become a filmmaker. Warhol always enjoyed the cinema even going back to his childhood. When he was at home sick with St. Vitus’ dance as a child, Warhol wrote a letter to one of his favorite actresses, Shirley Temple, who responded to his letter by sending him an autographed portrait of her. Warhol’s underground movies were very experimental and avant-garde. Warhol began focusing much of his work on filmmaking in 1964, but filmmaking became his primary and only focus in 1965. Film historian P. Adams Sitney described Warhol’s films as a “sudden shock-blow to the aesthetics of the avant-garde film.” Warhol pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in society exploring controversial topics such as sex, drugs, and violence. He made hundreds of films, but most of them were never released. While most of Warhol’s films weren’t commercially successful, his 1966 movie Chelsea Girls was a big hit. It was the movie that established Warhol as a serious filmmaker. The film follows the residents of the Chelsea Hotel and it shows what it was like to live in New York City in the 1960s. Viewers were shocked with the characters’ dialogue and drug use. People also couldn’t believe that characters did activities such as cutting their hair and simply lying in bed. At this point in American history, movies and television programs never showed a couple lying in bed because it was considered to be crude and vulgar to be shown on screen. The film is also significant for presenting the story in a split-screen format. A single audio track played in concurrence to one side of the screen while the film on the other side was silent.
In addition to Warhol’s feature films, Warhol made nearly five hundred screen tests. They were silent films of celebrities, friends, and visitors of the Factory. The Factory was Andy Warhol’s famous art studio and it’s where all of the screen tests were filmed. An individual was asked to sit on a stool and stare into a camera. A single screen test took two and a half minutes to film, but was significantly slowed down afterwards. The result was a “mesmerizing, slow-motion moving portrait.” However, the purpose of the screen tests was “not just the capacity to turn oneself into a living picture; rather, it is the capacity to bear the gaze of the camera.” Subjects either felt like a star upon completion of the film or found the process to be disturbing and were uncomfortable by the experience. For the subjects who felt like stars during filming, Warhol sometimes asked them to act in some of his movies because he could envision them in a certain role. Some of the biggest celebrities known to have filmed screen tests at the Factory were Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper, Salvador Dalí, Bob Dylan, and Lou Reed.
While Warhol was busy working on movies, Warhol decided to venture into the music business as he sponsored and managed the experimental art rock band, the Velvet Underground. The band formed the previous year in New York City, but had not earned much success. They were in need of a manager in order to help them get attention in the music scene. Warhol’s associate and film partner Paul Morrisey is credited with bringing Warhol and the Velvet Underground together. “Andy didn’t want to get into rock and roll; I wanted to get into rock and roll to make money. Andy didn’t want to do it, he never would have thought of it. Even after I thought of it, I had to bludgeon him into doing it. My idea was that there could be a lot of money managing a rock and roll group that got its name in the papers, and that was the one thing Andy was good for – getting his name in the papers,” Morrisey said. Warhol told Morrisey to go watch the Velvet Underground perform in concert and report back to him what he saw. Morrisey loved the avant-garde nature of the songs. After the show, Morrisey went backstage to speak with the group’s leader and vocalist, Lou Reed. Morrisey told Reed how much he enjoyed the show and asked Reed if the band had a manager. Reed never gave Morrisey a definitive answer, but it was clear that they didn’t have one. Morrisey asked Reed if they would like to be managed by Andy Warhol and told him that they would have a guaranteed job performing at a nightclub. Reed was interested, but the band didn’t even have their own amplifiers. Morrisey said that he and Warhol would purchase them for him. After that, Reed said they didn’t have a place to live. Morrisey responded by asking if the band could meet at the same location the following day to discuss the deal. Reed and the rest of the band agreed. It was during the second meeting when Andy Warhol met the Velvet Underground and saw them perform for the first time. Warhol was amazed at what he heard. Reed said about Warhol, “Andy Warhol told me that what we were doing with the music was the same thing he was doing with painting and movies and writing – i.e., not kidding around. To my mind, nobody in music was doing anything that even approximated the real thing, with the exception of us. We were doing a specific thing that was very, very real. It wasn’t slick or a lie in any conceivable way, which was the only way we could work with him. Because the very first thing I liked about Andy was that he was very real.” During the second meeting, it became clear to both parties that it was a perfect match. Warhol and Reed were two artistic geniuses in their own ways. A deal was reached very quickly and for Reed, it was the beginning of a long-lasting friendship.
As he had told Reed, Warhol was fascinated with how the Velvet Underground were able to capture the same idea that Warhol was trying to capture in his films. Their songs were groundbreaking for topics such as drugs, sex, and violence. Warhol was inspired by their music to create a concert experience like none other. Warhol called the project the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and invited vocalist Nico to sing some songs with the band, which Reed reluctantly accepted. The project combined art, film, and music and turned them into one spectacular show. Concertgoers were awestruck by the flashing strobe lights and videos that were projected onto the band as they performed. The lights were so blinding that the band had to wear sunglasses onstage to protect their eyes. In addition to the band’s performance, poetry was recited, Warhol’s films were screened, and dancers performed. The concert proved to be very successful and they decided to take the show on tour. Once the tour ended, the band decided it was time to record their debut album. Pleased with how Warhol handled their live performances, they asked Warhol to produce the album. He also designed the album cover, which featured a yellow banana. The cover is noteworthy for being one of the first interactive album covers. The banana was a sticker that users could peel off. Under the yellow peel was a pink banana. They recorded the album, which was eventually titled The Velvet Underground & Nico, in Los Angeles and it was completed in just two nights. The cost for the studio time was $3,000, which was a lot of money at that time. Paul Morrisey recalled those sessions, “Andy never spent that much money on anything. The Warhol movies only cost a couple of hundred dollars apiece. So, for me to get that much money out of Andy…” Lou Reed said about the recording process, “Andy made a point in trying to make sure that on our first album the language remained intact. I think Andy was interested in shocking, in giving people a jolt and not letting them talk us into making compromises. He said, ‘Oh you’ve got to make sure you leave the dirty words in.’ He was adamant about that. He didn’t want it to be cleaned up and, because he was there, it wasn’t. And, as a consequence of that, we always knew what it was like to have your way.” The album was so different than anything that was made up to that point. It was so different that the record company had no idea what to with it. As a result, it wasn’t released until a year later. The album initially sold poorly, but over time it grew in popularity and was chosen by Rolling Stone as the thirteenth best album ever released. They said about the album in a 2012 review, “Much of what we take for granted in rock would not exist without this New York band or its seminal debut: the androgynous sexuality of glitter; punk’s raw noir; the blackened-riff howl of grunge and noise rock; goth’s imperious gloom… It is the most prophetic rock album ever made.”
Unfortunately for the group and Warhol, the album sold poorly and tension between them began to build. The band were tired of trying to give Nico a spot in the band. They felt she was never a good fit to begin with and the only reason she was there was because she was a part of the deal with Warhol. One day, Warhol had a talk with Reed and they discussed what the next direction for the band should be. Reed recalled, “He sat down and had a talk with me. ‘You gotta decide what you want to do. Do you want to keep just playing museums from now on and the art festivals? Or do you want to start moving into other areas? Lou, don’t you think you should think about it?’ So I thought about it, and I fired him. Because I thought that was one of the things to do if we were going to move away from that… He was furious. I’d never seen Andy angry, but I did that day. He was really mad. Called me a rat. That was the worst thing he could think of.” Firing Warhol (and Nico by default) was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Reed never discussed firing him with any of his bandmates. However, Reed and Warhol eventually reconciled and continued to be friends up until the time of Warhol’s passing. So, without the responsibility of managing the Velvet Underground, it was time for Warhol to look for something else to do and that something else was a return to what he became famous for: painting.
While Warhol did return to painting in 1967, it wasn’t an official return. He wasn’t very motivated at this time to paint and still focused primarily on filmmaking. Warhol established a print-publishing business called Factory Additions. It was through this business where he published a series of silkscreen portraits. His favorite subject was once again Marilyn Monroe. Warhol used the same photograph of Monroe as he did in his earlier artworks. “Each image was printed from five screens: one that carried the photographic image and four for different areas of color, sometimes printed off-register. Warhol also returned to making paintings of Campbell’s soup cans. This time, he made the cans using the silkscreen process, which he had not yet discovered during his original iterations in 1962. With the silkscreen process, Warhol was more successful in being able to capture the mechanized look to the cans that he wanted. Warhol named the series Campbell’s Soup I and the pieces have become some of the most popular artworks he created in his career. Just when Warhol was ready to make the next step in the art world, he was dealt a crucial blow when he suffered a near-death experience.
Valerie Solanas was a radical feminist who gained notoriety for her self-published book SCUM Manifesto in 1967. In the book, Solanas argued that men have taken over the world and it was up to women to rise up and overthrow the men. She pushed for the formation of SCUM, which stood for the Society for Cutting Up Men. Her proposed society advocated a world without men that called on “civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females” to “overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex.” Solanas turned out to be the only member of SCUM as no one else joined. Before June 3, 1968, not many people had heard about her or the book. It was a day that changed Warhol’s life forever. Warhol’s relationship with Solanas began in 1965 when she tried to get Warhol to produce one of her plays, titled Up Your Ass. Warhol told Solanas he would consider it, but he thought it was too vulgar, even by Warhol’s standards, so he ultimately decided not to make it. As compensation, Warhol offered Solanas a role in his film I, a Man, released in 1967. She took the role thinking that it would give her a better chance of Warhol accepting a different script. When Solanas finished writing SCUM Manifesto, she asked Warhol to help promote the book. She even wrote a letter to him asking if he would like to join the “Men’s Auxiliary,” which was a group within SCUM that consisted of sympathetic men “working diligently to eliminate themselves.” Solanas wrote a manuscript for SCUM and sent it to Warhol hoping he would produce it as a play. Warhol misplaced it somewhere and couldn’t find it. Solanas didn’t believe Warhol lost it and thought that he was trying to steal her ideas about SCUM. Solanas called Warhol’s office on a non-stop basis and demanded that he return the manuscript. Solanas called so much to the point where Warhol stopped answering his telephone. Solanas had enough and on June 3, 1968, she showed up at the Factory carrying a .32 Beretta pistol and shot Warhol twice along with a London art gallery owner Mario Amaya whom Warhol was meeting with. As soon as she shot them, she left the building. Amaya wasn’t badly wounded, but Warhol was in serious condition. The two bullets went through Warhol’s stomach, liver, spleen, esophagus, and both lungs. He was briefly declared dead, but the doctors refused to quit and were able to save his life. Solanas was arrested and charged with attempted murder, but a psychiatric evaluation revealed that she had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. She was sentenced to three years in prison and was released in 1971. While Warhol survived the attack, he was never the same after that. He had to wear a surgical corset for the remainder of his life so that his organs would stay in place. He also developed a fear of hospitals and loathed going to them. Furthermore, some people believe that the shooting was a contributing factor to his premature death nineteen years later as well as neglecting to go to hospitals for treatment.
Warhol was released from the hospital after a three month stay. The attempted assassination completely changed his outlook on his life and work. He was much more aware of his surroundings, almost to an extreme level. He banned outsiders from visiting the Factory, which was once a social hot spot for anyone who wanted to stop in and have fun. From that point on, Warhol treated art as a business and not as a creative outlet. He discontinued his filmmaking and avoided controversial topics in his art. Warhol’s new business mentality is what lead to the formation of Interview magazine in 1969. In partnership with John Wilcock, Warhol created Interview as a “clever way to receive invitations to screenings and meet celebrities in society and entertainment,” according to art director Charles Churchward. Besides that, it was a way for Warhol to explore the idea of fame. It was an idea that Warhol had been fixated with since the beginning of his career. The initial model of Interview was that Warhol would get celebrities to interview other celebrities, which is something that had rarely been done, let alone dedicating an entire magazine to it. The concept was later changed to the traditional interview format where celebrities were asked questions by writers, reporters, and editors. The magazine also featured captivating photographs to accompany the articles. Interview continued its operations beyond Warhol’s death in 1987, but announced its closure on May 8, 2018 based on insufficient funds and filing for bankruptcy. Fortunately, the magazine relaunched on September 6, 2018 when it was bought by Kelly Brant and Jason Nikic. With the exception of a four-month period, the magazine has continued its operations to this day from its inception in 1969.
Now that he avoided controversial themes in his art, Warhol focused on making silkscreen paintings of celebrities, friends, and people who paid him handsomely to do their portrait. At this point, Warhol photographed his own subjects instead of taking them out of newspapers. One of the friends and celebrities Warhol made portraits of was Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones. Warhol became friends with Jagger in the 1960s. At a party held in 1969, Jagger discussed the recording process of what eventually became the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers. The conversation eventually turned to the album cover and Warhol suggested using a real zipper on the cover. Warhol’s idea intrigued Jagger to the point where he asked Warhol to design the cover. Warhol finalized the idea of having a close-up shot of a male’s crotch where the user could pull down the zipper to reveal the man’s underwear. “Andy was sensible enough to know not to be pretentious when doing album covers. This was a realistic attempt at selling sex and naughtiness. It was done simply and cheaply, without the pretensions that seem to go with other covers,” said Paul Morrisey. The cover was incredibly experimental. As with most experiments, there are going to be unexpected issues that arise. When the record company shipped the albums to stores, they stacked the albums in boxes like they do with all albums. However, the weight from the stacked albums caused the zippers to dig into the vinyl, which resulted in dented records. The zippers essentially ruined the albums before they ever got a chance to be bought. Once the record companies heard about this, they figured out that if they unzipped the zipper just far enough, the zipper would not damage the vinyl during shipment. Later pressings of the album removed the zipper feature completely because it was expensive to produce and the record company didn’t feel like manually pulling down the zippers for every cover. Nonetheless, the cover was revolutionary and completely changed how bands, record companies, and designers packaged their music. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album cover and is widely considered to be one of the greatest covers ever created.
After seeing the success of the Sticky Fingers cover, Warhol began getting offers from various bands and musicians to design their album covers. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Warhol designed album covers for acts such as John Lennon, Diana Ross, former Velvet Underground member John Cale, a live album for the Rolling Stones, and Aretha Franklin. The Aretha Franklin cover is thought to be the final piece Warhol created before his death.
Even though Warhol kept himself busy making portraits and album covers, he hadn’t painted anything by hand for years. That changed when he met an emerging young New York artist by the name of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat was born in 1960 and had been a huge fan of Warhol since he was a little kid learning about art for the first time. His favorite book was Warhol’s penned, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again), which was published in 1975. In the book, Warhol shared his beliefs on a variety of subjects such as love, fame, money, and art, among other topics. The book is also noteworthy for featuring some of Warhol’s most famous quotes. Some of the quotes are thought-provoking such as, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself,” while others are humorous such as, “The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald’s.” Basquiat devotedly read this book multiple times and never got tired of it. When Basquiat began his professional career, he created colorful collages, which he then reproduced into postcards that he sold for $1 on the streets of New York. On one afternoon in 1979, Basquiat found Warhol having lunch with art critic Henry Geldzahler. Obviously excited to see his idol in person, he introduced himself to Warhol and offered to sell them one of his postcards. Geldzahler declined because he felt that Basquiat was too young and didn’t take him seriously. Warhol, on the other hand, was more than happy to purchase one of his postcards. Once the transaction was complete, Basquiat allowed Warhol and Geldzahler to continue with their meeting and Basquiat went his own way. It wasn’t until 1982 when Warhol and Basquiat formally met. Basquiat’s dealer Bruno Bischofberger took Basquiat to the Factory so that he could complete a photoshoot. Warhol and Basquiat got along swimmingly as they both took polaroids of one another. Warhol invited Basquiat to lunch, but Basquiat refused in order to go to his studio to do a painting. The painting was a portrait of Basquiat with Warhol, titled Dos Cabezas, which is translated to “Two Heads.” The painting was frivolously made with quick brushstrokes and simple, candid drawings that represented the childlike emotions Basquiat was feeling. Basquiat returned to the Factory that same afternoon and gave Warhol the painting as a gift. Warhol thought the painting was extraordinary and was shocked at how quickly Basquiat was able to complete it. Warhol felt that Basquiat had a unique style and the two became great friends.
Basquiat proved to be a positive influence in Warhol’s life and career as Basquiat was able to convince Warhol to return to painting by hand instead of using the mechanized silkscreen process. Warhol saw the potential in painting by hand again as it was a breath of fresh air. The two artists collaborated on several paintings, which Warhol had never done before. One of their best collaborations was Arm and Hammer II. The painting is significant for combining both Warhol’s mechanized yet hand done style and Basquiat’s slightly abstract and whimsical style. It’s almost reminiscent of Warhol’s earliest work when he was a commercial illustrator. Basquiat became one of America’s great artists and a big part of that can be attributed to Warhol.
In 1986, Warhol created his Last Supper series based on Leonardo da Vinci’s fifteenth-century painting of the same name. Warhol once again used the silkscreen process to create the series by using a reproduction of da Vinci’s piece and enlarged it. Warhol repeated the image so that it appeared twice on the canvas. Warhol used one color to tint the image and used different colors for each individual piece. It’s the same process he used for the Electric Chair series. What’s interesting about both the Electric Chair and Last Supper series’ is that both of them deal with the subject of death. The Electric Chair is an abstract representation of someone dying, while the Last Supper is the final meal Jesus had before He died on the Cross. In another way, whether Warhol was aware of this at the time or not, it represents Warhol’s imminent death. It is kind of full circle in that Warhol’s earliest discovery of art was when he was a child attending mass at the St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church as a child. Less than a year after the completion of the Last Supper series, Warhol found himself in the place he feared the most: the hospital.
Warhol had been having problems with his gallbladder for years, but never got it removed due to his fear of hospitals. It was a fear that began nineteen years earlier when he was shot by Valerie Solanas. While Warhol tried to console his pain by using healing crystals, the result was only temporary. “He could have gotten [the surgery] scheduled and done earlier, had he been more preventative about his health. But until the end, he avoided hospitals. He was always nervous about getting sick. I think death always made him nervous, but of course, having almost died once really escalated that,” stated Jose Diaz, curator of the Andy Warhol Museum. After years of pain, Warhol finally scheduled an appointment to have his gallbladder removed. The surgery was held on February 21, 1987 at New York Hospital. The operation was thought to have been a success, but during the following morning, Warhol passed away during his sleep due to a rapid post-operative irregular heartbeat. This had been the story for thirty years, but in 2017, Dr. John Ryan, who was a retired surgeon and medical historian, looked more deeply into Warhol’s medical records and came to the conclusion that Warhol’s death should have been expected considering the poor condition he was in. “This was major, major surgery — not routine — in a very sick person,” Dr. Ryan said. It was revealed that Warhol was having problems with his gallbladder for about fifteen years and members of his family dealt with the same problem. Warhol’s father had to have his gallbladder removed the year Andy was born. Warhol’s health deteriorated from putting off the surgery. Dr. Bjorn Thorbjarnarson, the surgeon who operated on Warhol, mentioned how afraid Warhol was at the possibility of having the surgery conducted in the hospital. After consulting with the doctor, Warhol decided it was time for the operation to take place. During the surgery, Dr. Thorbjarnarson found a gallbladder that was filled with gangrene, which is defined by the Mayo Clinicas “the death of body tissue due to either a lack of blood flow or a serious bacterial infection. Gangrene commonly affects the extremities, including your toes, fingers and limbs, but it can also occur in your muscles and internal organs.” Warhol’s organs fell apart as the surgeon removed the gallbladder. It was a sad, unfortunate death. Had he gotten the operation sooner, he likely would have lived much longer than he did. With that said, what Warhol accomplished in his life was truly remarkable. Not many people can say they are skilled artists, filmmakers, photographers, band managers, magazine founders, and writers. In fact, only one comes to mind. I’ll let you decide who you think that is.
“I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, and everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.’” Warhol is buried next to his parents at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His legacy continues to this day through the Andy Warhol Museum, which was founded in 1994 in Pittsburgh. Warhol has been depicted in various television shows and movies. He even made an appearance in a Burger King commercial during Super Bowl LIII eating a hamburger. There is a biopic about Warhol in the works starring Jared Leto. Interview magazine is still being published. His own books are still in print. Several biographies have been written about him and his story is being taught in art history classes around the world. Andy Warhol is a global icon and the impact he made in this world is still being felt to this day. “The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.”