The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

About the book

The autobiography of an American icon 'I never think that people die. They just go to department stores' Andy Warhol - American painter, filmmaker, publisher, actor and major figure in the Pop Art movement - was in many ways a reluctant celebrity. Here, in his autobiography, he spills his secrets and muses about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, success, New York and America and its place in the world. But it is his reflections on himself, his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the explosion of his career in the Sixties and his life among celebrities - from working with Elizabeth Taylor to partying with the Rolling Stones - that give a true insight into the mind of one of the most iconic figures in twentieth-century culture. Andy Warhol (1928-1987), was an American painter, filmmaker, publisher, actor, and a major figure in the Pop Art movement. He also produced a significant body of film work, including the famous Chelsea Girls; characterised the epoch with the now-famous expression 'fifteen minutes of fame'; produced the first album by The Velvet Underground; and was nearly killed just two days before the assassination of JFK. If you enjoyed The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, you might like 100 Artists' Manifestos, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Acute. Accurate. Mr Warhol's usual amazing candor. A constant entertainment and enlightenment' Truman Capote

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Andy Warhol Biography

Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. 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. 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. 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". In the late 1960s he managed and produced the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine. 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. 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 City. 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.

Biography

Early life and beginnings (1928–1949)

Warhol was born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the fourth child of Ondrej Warhola (Americanized as Andrew Warhola, Sr., 1889–1942) and Julia (née Zavacká, 1892–1972), whose first child was born in their homeland of Austria-Hungary and died before their move to the U.S. His parents were working-class Lemko emigrants from Mikó, Austria-Hungary (now called Miko ... Read full biography