Andy Warhol

Here is a revised and improved memorial biography based on verified sources. I've retained only well-supported facts:

Andy Warhol (born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist and filmmaker whose innovative work reshaped the landscape of 20th-century art. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Carpatho‑Rusyn immigrant parents and baptized in the Byzantine Catholic tradition, he studied pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), graduating in 1949, before moving to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial illustrator (en.wikipedia.org).

In New York, Warhol quickly established himself in advertising and illustration, before emerging as a foundational figure in the Pop art movement. By the early 1960s, he began producing his trademark silkscreen paintings, including Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Monroe portraits, as well as works focusing on Elvis, flowers, and public figures (nga.gov). His subjects from mass media and consumer culture, presented with repetitive, mechanical precision, challenged traditional distinctions between popular imagery and fine art (nga.gov).

Warhol’s multidisciplinary practice extended beyond painting. He produced experimental films such as Empire, capturing prolonged scenes of New York’s Empire State Building, and underground features that turned figures from his Factory into “superstars” (moma.org). In 1968, he survived a shooting at his studio, the Factory, when Valerie Solanas injured him in an attempted assassination (en.wikipedia.org). During the 1970s, Warhol began to shift focus, launching Interview magazine in 1969 and engaging in a profusion of commissioned portraits and series paintings, including Mao and Last Supper themes, culminating in late‑career works exhibited in Milan in 1987 (warhol.org).

On February 22, 1987, Warhol died in New York City following complications from gallbladder surgery (warhol.org). His legacy endures through The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, founded after his death, and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, established in the early 1990s as the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist (warhol.org).

This revised biography focuses strictly on well-documented facts about Warhol’s life, work, and lasting influence, ensuring accuracy and respect.