Warhol - "Flowers" Silkscreened pop art of 4 flowers, 2 pink and 2 blue

Andy Warhol • american (1929-87)

Flowers • Silkscreen on Canvas 24” x 24”

Few people thought Valerie Solanas was right in the head. Her most notable claim to fame before June 3, 1968 was founding the radical Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM). She was the only member.

Many people also thought Andy Warhol was a bit far out on a limb. Once one of New York’s leading magazine and advertising illustrators, he had become a cultural litmus test beneath a platinum wig and legendary nights at Studio 54, the famed New York celebrity magnet. Warhol moved through life surrounded by a cloud of celebrities, wannabes and never-gonabes. Valerie Solanas was a shadowy presence on the fringes of this cloud. Ironically, she once appeared in his movie, “I a Man.”

In 1966 Solanas began badgering Warhol to produce a play she had written. It was too far out, even for a cultural acrobat as fearless as Warhol. The play was so obscene Warhol actually feared it was part of a police plan to entrap him. Soon the script was lost in the jumble of Warhol’s eclectic studio, known as The Factory.

(story continues below break)

INTERESTING STORIES FROM OUR SPONSORS

In Solanas’ mind, racked by undiagnosed schizophrenia, Warhol had assumed too much control over her life and slighted her work. Soon she stood along the silver-foiled walls of The Factory, gun drawn. There were three shots. Within the hour, Warhol lay clinically dead on a hospital surgical table as doctors massaged his heart back to life. Bullets had ricocheted through his esophagus, lungs, liver, spleen and intestines.

The actual wounds were healed by a two-month hospital stay, but Andy Warhol was never the same. Forced to wear a surgical corset the rest of his life, he sometimes was unsure if he was really dead or alive. The chaotic scene at his Factory studio became somber. Eighteen years later, his increasing fear of hospitals caused a normal gall bladder infection untreated for too long. He died the day after emergency gall bladder surgery.

The shooting that led to his eventual downfall occurred only three days before the assassination of Robert Kennedy. It was an interesting time.

Today a large, chrome statue of Warhol stands in New York’s Union Square alongside George Washington and Mahatma Gandhi. In his native Pittsburgh stands the largest museum in America dedicated to a single artist. The Warhol.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Courtesy of the Canton Museum of Art. 7231.A&.B

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“In 1968 Warhol was shot by a radical feminist artist who says ‘He had too much control over my life.’”

2.
“Warhol started his art career as a commercial illustrator and celebrated mass produced products throughout his life.”

3.
“You know, he managed Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground. ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ was written about characters who hung around Warhol’s studio.”

4.
“In 2008 his painting ‘Eight Elvis’” was resold for over $100 million. Wow.”

Warhol Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1928

Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Slovakian immigrant parents. His father Ondrej was a construction worker and his mother Julia an embroiderer. They were devout Byzantine Catholics.

1937

Young Andrew contracted Chorea (St. Vitus’s Dance), a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system. While recovering Andrew enjoyed drawing lessons from his artistic mother.

1942

Ojdrej Warhol died of a jaundiced liver. Young Andrew was so upset he could not attend the funeral, hiding under his bed. The elder Warhola had seen his son’s artistic talents and in his will dictated that his entire life savings were to go toward Andrew’s college education.

1945

Began studying Pictorial Design at the Carnegie Institute for Technology (Carnegie Mellon University).

1949

Moved to New York City and dropped the “a” from his last name. The awkward, sickly young Andrew Warhola from the heavily ethnic neighborhoods of Pittsburgh was now Andy Warhol, the leading magazine and advertising illustrator in New York City.

1961

This was the year “Pop Art” debuted with a showing of Warhol’s paintings of mass-produced commercial goods. According to Warhol “Once you ‘got’ pop, you could never see a sign the same way again. And once you thought pop, you could never see America the same way again.”

1964

Opened The Factory, his own art studio. This silver-painted warehouse near Union Square in New York City became one of the city’s premier cultural hotspots.

1968

Valerie Solanas shot Warhol while in his studio. She was described as a radical feminist writer. Warhol was seriously wounded and almost died. Art critic and curator Mario Amaya was also wounded in the attack, but far less seriously. When captured, Solanas said that Warhol “had too much control over my life.” The shooting had a profound effect on Warhol’s life and work.

1972

Lou Reed released “Walk On The Wild Side,” a song written about characters he met in Warhol’s Factory studio. Warhol managed Reed’s band, The Velvet Underground, for a number of years.

1979

His celebrity portraits caused Warhol to be criticized as an artist who cares more about commercial than artistic success.

1980s

Warhol regained both critical and financial success as he aligned himself with a series of young artistic lions, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and David Salle.

1987

Died in New York from complications after gallbladder surgery. His fear of another hospital stay caused him to refuse treatment for a gallbladder infection traced to his 1968 shooting. His brothers took his body back to Pittsburgh for burial. His will left the bulk of his estate to create a foundation for the advancement of visual arts.