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Andy Warhol

1928–1987

Little Red Book #257 1972
© 2025 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London
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Biography

Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century. 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, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67), and the erotic film Blue Movie (1969) that started the "Golden Age of Porn".

Born and raised in Pittsburgh in a family of Rusyn immigrants, Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s. After exhibiting his work in art galleries, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist in the 1960s. 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 directed and produced several underground films starring a collection of personalities known as Warhol superstars, and is credited with inspiring the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame." Warhol managed and produced the experimental rock band the Velvet Underground. Warhol expressed his queer identity through many of his works at a time when homosexuality was actively suppressed in the United States.

After surviving an assassination attempt by radical feminist Valerie Solanas in June 1968, Warhol focused on transforming The Factory into a business enterprise. He founded Interview magazine and authored numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975) and Popism: The Warhol Sixties (1980). He also hosted the television series Fashion (1979–80), Andy Warhol's TV (1980–83), and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes (1985–87). Warhol died of cardiac arrhythmia, aged 58, after gallbladder surgery in February 1987.

Warhol has been described as the "bellwether of the art market", with several of his works ranking among the most expensive paintings ever sold. In 2013, Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) (1963) sold for $105 million, setting a record for the artist. In 2022, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, which is the highest price paid at auction for a work by an American artist. Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, 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.

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Pop art

Artworks

Left Right
  • Man Ray

    Andy Warhol
    1974
  • Gilbert and George

    Andy Warhol
    1975
  • Alexandre Iolas

    Andy Warhol
    1972
  • Gun

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Robert Mapplethorpe

    Andy Warhol
    1983
  • Hamburger

    Andy Warhol
    1985–6
  • Repent and Sin No More!

    Andy Warhol
    1985–6
  • Map of Eastern U.S.S.R. Missile Bases

    Andy Warhol
    c.1985–6
See all 290

Artist as subject

Left Right
  • Andy Warhol

    Robert Mapplethorpe
    1986
  • Andy Warhol

    Robert Mapplethorpe
    1983
  • Andy Warhol

    Robert Mapplethorpe
    1983, printed 1990
  • Andy Warhol

    Robert Mapplethorpe
    1986, printed 1990
  • Self-Portrait

    Andy Warhol
    1976–86
  • Self-Portrait in Dark Suit

    Andy Warhol
    1977–8
  • Self-Portrait in Interview T-shirt

    Andy Warhol
    1977–8
  • Self-Portrait in Blue Shirt

    Andy Warhol
    1977–8
  • Self-Portrait with Hand to Cheek

    Andy Warhol
    1977–8
  • Self-Portrait in Dark Suit and Plaid Shirt

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Self-Portrait in a Dark Suit and Plaid Shirt

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Self-Portrait with Platinum Bouffant Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Self-Portrait with Reddish Blonde Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Self-Portrait with Platinum Pageboy Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Self-Portrait in Profile with Shadow

    Andy Warhol
    1981
  • Self-Portrait with Fright Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1986
  • Self-Portrait with Fright Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1986
  • Self-Portrait with Fright Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1986
  • Self-Portrait with Fright Wig

    Andy Warhol
    1986
  • Fur die Grunen

    Andy Warhol
    date not known
  • Andy Warhol - Fur die Grunen

    Andy Warhol
    date not known
  • Self-Portrait

    Andy Warhol
    1978
  • Self-Portrait Strangulation

    Andy Warhol
    1978
  • Self-Portrait with Skull

    Andy Warhol
    1978
  • Andy Warhol Joseph Beuys, Lucio Amelio Gallery, Naples, April 1980

    Associated with Joseph Beuys, associated with Andy Warhol
    1980
  • Thanx Andy

    Conrad Atkinson
    1987
  • Andy Warhol and Members of the Factory, 30 October 1969

    Richard Avedon
    1969
  • The Ring: Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat Boxing

    Thomas Kilpper
    2000
  • Self-Portrait

    Andy Warhol
    1967
  • Self-Portrait

    Andy Warhol
    1986

Film and audio

  • Podcast

    The Art of Persona

  • How To

    How to Print like Warhol

Features

  • Look Closer

    What Was Andy Warhol Thinking?

  • Tate Etc

    Andy Warhol's Mother

    Gilda Williams

  • Tate Etc

    Me and Andy Warhol... and Ronald Reagan

  • Tate Etc

    Andy Warhol Now

    Alison M. Gingeras

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