Chronology
In the 1960s, Andy Warhol was one of the most famous artists in the world, and by the time he died in 1987, he had churned out an enormous body of work. His commercial production, drawings, paintings, sculpture, portraits, photographs, the thousands and thousands of mechanically reproduced images, his books (more than twenty), and hundreds of films make him one of the most prolific artists of the century.
1928 6 August, born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, PA, to Andrej (Andrew)
Warhola and Julia Zavacsky. His father immigrated to the United Stated from
Czechoslovakia in 1913; mother followed in 1921. Brothers: Paul (born 1922) and
John (born 1925). Father works in construction, later as a coal miner in
West Virginia. Has a "nervous breakdown" (Saint Vitus's dance).
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Brillo Boxes, 1964 |
1942 Father dies 15 May after a three-year illness (tuberculous
peritonitis).
1945 Graduates from Schenley High School, Pittsburgh.
1945-49 Attends Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Meets Philip Pearlstein, a fellow student. Teaches art part-time at Irene Kaufman Settlement and during the summers works as a window decorator for Joseph Horne department store.
1947 Art editor of the student magazine.
1949 Graduates with a B.F.A. Moves to New York City and briefly shares apartment with Pearlstein. Begins using the name Warhol. Meets Tina Fredericks, art editor of Glamour. Does advertisements for magazines, department stores, record companies, including Tiber Press, Columbia Records, Vogue, Seventeen, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, and I. Miller. Also designs window displays, book jackets, cards, and stationary.
1950 His mother moves to New York to live with him.
1952 First solo exhibition held at Hugo Gallery, New York. Includes drawings to illustrate stories by Truman Capote. This is the first of seven individual exhibitions during the 1950s. Receives Art Directors' Club award for newspaper advertising art.
1953 Publishes Love is a Pink Cake and A is an Alphabet with Ralph Ward which he uses as promotional gifts.
1954 Publishes a limited edition of Twenty-five Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy. Receives Certificate of Excellence from American Institute for Graphic Arts.
1955 Publishes A la Recherche du Shoe Perdu with Ralph Pomeroy.
1956 Award for Distinctive merit presented by the Art Directors' Club. Travels around the world with Charles Lisanby.
1957 Receives Art Directors Club Award for Distinctive Merit
for I. Miller shoe advertisements. Publishes The Gold Book.
Has nose altered.
1959 Meets filmmaker Emile de Antonio.
1960 Makes first paintings of comic strips heroes: Dick Tracy, Saturday's Popeye, Superman.
1961 Creates window display for Bonwit Teller using his comic strip paintings. Sees Roy Lichtenstein's comic book paintings for the first time. Buys drawings by Jasper Johns. Meets Ivan Karp and Henry Geldzahler.
1962 Makes paintings of dollar bills, coke bottles, Campbell soup cans, Elvis, Marilyn, and other celebrities. Campbell's Soup Cans exhibited by Irving Blum at Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles. Makes first silkscreens. Begins Death and Disaster Series.
1963 Buys a 16mm movie camera. Shoots Sleep, Kiss, Eat, Blowjob and other films. Moves studio to 231 East Forty-seventh Street, which becomes the Factory. Meets Gerard Malanga, who becomes his assistant, and Jonas Mekas, director of the Film Makers' Cooperative. Begins wearing a silver wig.
1964 Shows Flower series at Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris. Thirteen Most Wanted Men displayed at New York World's
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Flowers, 1964 |
Fair is painted over for political reasons. Receives Independent Film Award
from Film Culture magazine. Makes Brillo boxes, self-portraits. Shoots first
sound film, Harlot. Also shoots other films, among them, Empire,
Couch, Thirteen Most Beautiful Women.
1965 Electric Chairs, Cow Wallpaper. Begins working with Paul
Morrissey, Lou Reed, and Ronnie Cutrone. Warhol announces his retirement from
painting. Selected films: The Thirteen Most Beautiful Boys, Vinyl,
Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, Hedy, My Hustler.
1966 Exhibits Cow Wallpaper and Silver Pillows (Clouds) with Leo Castelli Gallery. Produces the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a multimedia event featuring Nico and the Velvet Underground. Releases The Chelsea Girls, his first commercially successful film. Begins work on **** (Four Stars). Other films: Bufferin (Gerald Malanga Reads Poetry), Whips, Eating Too Fast (Blow-Job #2), The Velvet Underground And Nico, Nico (A Symphony in Sound).
1967 Designs album cover for the first Velvet Underground album which he also produced. Publishes Andy Warhol's Index. Meets Frederick Hughes, Joe Dallesandro, and Candy Darling. Hires Allen Midgette to impersonate him at various speaking engagements. Moves the Factory to 33 Union Square West. Selected films: I, a Man, Bike Boy, Construction–Destruction, Nude Restaurant, The Loves of Ondine (originally a segment of ****), Lonesome Cowboys.
1968 Publishes A: A Novel. Meets Jed Johnson. On June 3rd, Valerie Solanis, founder of Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM), shoots Warhol at the Factory. He nearly dies. Films: Blue Movie (Fuck), Flesh. With Flesh, Paul Morrissey becomes the de facto director of Warhol films.
1969 Blue Movie ruled obscene. Warhol undergoes further surgeries in connection with the shooting. First issue of Interview magazine appears. Morrissey directs Surfing Movie and Trash.
1971 His play Pork opens in London.
1972 Maos. Begins painting again, primarily portraits of
celebrities, a focus which continues with nearly one thousand commissions
during the remainder of his career. Mother dies.
Films: Women in Revolt, Heat.
1974 Moves Factory to 860 Broadway. Films: Andy Warhol's
Frankenstein and Andy Warhol's Dracula.
1975 Publishes the Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again). Major retrospective exhibition held at Kunsthaus, Zurich.
1976 Skulls, Hammer and Sickle series.
1977 Athletes, Torsos. Film: Andy Warhol's Bad (directed by Jed Johnson).
1978 Oxidations, Shadows.
1979 Retrospectives, Reversals. Publishes Andy Warhol's Exposures.
1980 Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century. Publishes POPism: the Warhol 60's with Pat Hackett. Produces Andy Warhol's TV.
1981 Dollar Signs, Knives, Guns, Myths.
1982 Goethes, Stadiums.
1983 Endangered Species series.
1984 Renaissance Paintings, Munchs, Rorschachs. Collaborates with Jean-Michel Basquiat.
1985 Ads. Publishes America.
1986 Camouflages, Cars, Flowers, Self-Portraits.
1987 Beethovens. February 22, dies following gall-bladder surgery in New York.