5 Facts About Andy Warhol
1. Andy Warhol's real name is not Andy Warhol. Born Andrew Warhola in 1928 to Slovakian immigrants in Pittsburgh, Warhol changed his name in the early 50's upon beginning his career as an illustrator in New York City. Fitting of an artist who would become obsessed with celebrity, fame and consumerist culture - the change in his name can be read as Warhol becoming the persona of Andy Warhol.
2. His first job as a commercial illustrator was for Glamour magazine and he went on to become one of the most successful commercial artists of the 1950 - paving the way for his work in pop-arts. So successful was Warhol that he won numerous awards for his uniquely dainty style, using his own blotted line technique and rubber stamps to create his illustrations.
3. Warhol's first show was considered to be a flop by many with one rival dealer deriding the artist by showing actual soup cans in their gallery. Staged by dealer and friend, Irving Blum at the Ferus Gallery, the exhibition confused many with it bold and unusual subject matter. Indeed, one critic at the time wrote that"This young 'artist' is either a soft-headed fool or a hard-headed charlatan,"
4. Warhol died for approximately one and a half minutes. Radical feminist Valerie Solanas Solanas intended to write a novel based on the SCUM Manifesto and believed that a conspiracy was behind Warhol's failure to return her Up Your Ass script. She suspected that he was coordinating with Girodias to steal her work leading to her shooting Warhol on 3 June 1968. Warhol was gravely ill and spent a long period recovering from the bullets which penetrated his oesophagus, liver, spleen, intestines and gallbladder.
5. Many are surprised to learn that Warhol held deeply religious convictions from his religious upbringing - his parents were devout byzantine catholics that brought their practices and beliefs with them when they immigrated to the USA from Slovakia in the 1920's Warhol regularly attended a church on Lexington Avenue and is said to have found comfort in the catholic practices. Indeed, death and religion are subjects that the artist explored across his career.
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