Sadly I know almost nothing about Andy Warhol. I just know he's a cool artist. Can you tell us some stuff about him?
HI YES
I love him so much!! he's been my special interest since I was in 5th grade- when I saw a piece of his in person I cried smh
So a lot of people dont know that he was born to immigrant parents. He was Czech (at the time, Austrian/Hungarian) and even spoke his parents native language which I think he eventually lost. His parents were called Julia and Andrej (Ondrej/Andrew) Warhola! He also had two older brothers- and technically an older sister who was born before Julia had immigrated to the US and died shortly before. His brother's names were John and Paul.
Also! His last name was Warhola! The reason people know him as Andy Warhol was because early on in his commercial artist career someone had accidentally forgotten the A on his last name- he loved the look of it and decided to keep it- immediately taking to signing his work with the new spelling. His full birth name was Andrew Warhol Jr.
He got his education at Carnegie Mellon for Fine Arts in Pennsylvania (where his family lived). His father Andrej died when he was 14 (and because of the Czech funeral rituals, gave him a permanent fear of death), and his father told his oldest brother that no matter what- Andy needed to go to college. so his brother's made sure he had enough money to go. He was also almost kicked out. He wasn't very conforming to the harsh structure of Art School and had a hard time pleasing his professors and following the rules. In one instance he got in trouble because he painted a man picking his nose. it was originally titled: "The Lord Gave Me My Face, But I Can Pick My Own Nose" and it was later changed to "Nosepicker 1: Why pick on me?" they needed room for the soldiers coming back from the war that had been accepted before their deployment. Andy was one of the ones that they were gonna cut loose. One of his professors advocated for him to stay so strongly- he was able to finish his degree.
Also!Also! people don't know he was disabled and had been since he was around 5 years old! He had sydenham's chorea (or st. Vitus' dance if you're from the middle ages) which severely affected his body especially at a young age. it's a nervous system disorder that causes the involuntary movement of extremities. They think he developed it after a complication with scarlet fever- which is why he was very pale with blotchy/red skin. these things affected him until he died.
also did you know he was shot? on June 3rd 1968 he was shot by a radical feminist called Valerie Solanas who believed he was controlling her life and stole a film manuscript from her and planned to direct and produce it with no credit to her (he wasn't). She wrote a radfem manifesto called "S.C.U.M" (society for cutting up men). She shot him through the spleen, stomach, liver, kidney, and i think one of his lungs. The factory (his studio) was very open to the public so she had no problem getting to him. Anyway, when he was at the hospital someone (the other person who she had shot) had to basically bribe the doctor into saving his life. He was given a very very botched surgery but he survived with an even bigger fear of death and now also hospitals- which lead to his death.
