His Life in Pictures

Story: Matthew Hileman   Photography: Andy Warhol Museum Archives

Few names in American art immediately draw as many images as Andy Warhol. From his enigmatic portrayals of Campbell's Soup cans to iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, Warhol created what would become some of the most recognizable images of the 20th century. His fascination with fame began in childhood when he spent hours writing to movie stars or clipping photographs of Hollywood legends out of magazines. He considered celebrities "America's Royalty," capitalizing on our country's romance with fame and glamour, eventually rising to "superstar" (a word he invented) status hobnobbing with some of the most celebrated actors, writers and designers of his time.

Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928 to working class Czechoslovakian immigrants. The youngest of three brothers, his given name was Andrew Warhola. He was a precocious child graduating from high school by the age of 16 and entering the Carnegie Institute of Technology where he studied pictorial design with hopes of eventually becoming an art teacher in a public school.

After graduation in 1949, Warhol moved to New York City. According to Warhol's biographer, Victor Bockris, Andy took his inspiration from Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire." He wore chinos, white T-shirts, a pair of worn sneakers, and carried his portfolio wrapped in brown paper. The young, disheveled artist was shy and retiring, but within a week of arriving in New York, had landed a job as an illustrator with Glamour magazine.

Andrew Warhola at age eight	The young graphic artist	Hopper-esque Warhol