Facts for Kids about Andy Warhol

I bet you’ve seen Andy Warhol’s famous piece of art with the Campbell’s Soup cans. There is so much more to learn about Andy Warhol. Check out these interesting Andy Warhol facts for kids.

Quick Facts

Andy Warhol’s Full Name: Andrew Warhola

Birth Date: August 6, 1928 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Died: February 22, 1987 in New York City, New York

Andy Warhol is an American artist. His work is a type of art called Pop Art.

Getting Started with Art

Andy Warhol’s parents migrated from Eastern Slovakia. They had three boys, Andrew and his two older brothers. Their dad was a construction worker.

When Warhol was eight years old, he got Chorea which is a disease in his nervous system. That meant that he often felt sick and had to stay in bed for long periods of time. His mother, Julia Warhola, was an artist herself. So she would spend time with Andy and gave him his first drawing lessons when he was in bed.

His mother gave Andy his first camera at nine years old. She wanted to encourage him to be creative

His father died when he was 13 years old. The family used the money they were given from his death to send one of the brothers to college. The family felt like Andy had the most talent so they picked him to send to college.

College and First Job

Graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now called Carnegie Mellon University) where he studied pictorial design.

In the 1950s, Warhol began to work for magazines (like Glamour Magazine) with commercial illustration. Being a commercial artist was his first job. That means he used his art to made advertisements and logos. He also used his talents to make window displays and advertising for stores in New York.

Pop Art

Andy Warhola shortened his name to Andy Warhol when he decided to focus on becoming a great artist. He began painting in the late 1950s.

He worked with many forms of media like painting, printmaking, photography, drawing, sculpture, film and music. He started a magazine (called Interview Magazine) and he wrote a few books.

In the early 1960s, Andy was a part of the visual arts movement by creating pop art. In the late 1960s, Warhol made a series of paintings with everyday objects and famous people. They were displayed at the Museum of Modern art. This was a big deal in the world of art.

You will still see these famous works today. They are an important part of the pop art movement. They include Campbell’s Soup cans, dollar bills, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley and Coca-Cola bottles.

Then, Warhol started mass production of the subject matter with a silkscreen technique. Silkscreening is like using a stencil to quickly make the image over and over again. It is also called screen printing.

Fun Facts about Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol had an art studio where famous artists and famous people would hang out together. He called it The Factory.

He founded the New York Academy of Art in 1979 for young artists to study.

The highest price for Warhol’s art was $105.4 million for the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) in 2013.

The Andy Warhol Museum is in the United States (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania). It is the largest museum to have art from a single artist. The museum has Warhol’s paintings which were an important part of pop culture.

– Pictures of Andy Warhol’s Art courtesy of Art Life