Andy Warhol Bio
"I just paint things I always thought were beautiful, things you use every day and never think aboutÂ… I just do it because I like it. (Beckris 110) I just do it because I like it is Andy's philosophy on life. Andy might just be the most interesting and and at the same time the most confusing individual you will ever read about. Andy's work is like none others. His art brought common day people together and showed the impact of contemporary society and the idea of mass media on values.
Andy's father Ondrej Wharhola is best described as a bald, burly man with a bulging belly and massive upper arms, pudgy nose and bristling sideburns. Ondrej was born in 1889 in Minkova. (Bekris, 6) He was married and living with Julia Warhola, mother of Andy, for three years in Mikova. In order to avoid being drafted into the Balkan conflict in 1912 he immigrated to Pittsburgh without her at the age of seventeen to work in a coal field in the industrial district of Philadelphia. (Bekris, 7)
Julia Warhola was born in a small village in the Capathian mountains outside of Czechoslovakia. Julia was the oldest and prettiest of her fifteen other siblings. She was also said to be the artistic one of the bunch. (Bekris, 7) In 1914 Julia gave birth to a baby girl. Because of the conditions due to the war the infant contracted influenza six months later and died. Julia's mother was so depressed about the news of the infants death that she died one month later. (Bekris, 8-9) Julia was now reliable for her only two surviving sisters of ages six and nine. For the next four years Julia fled from the soldiers, hiding in woods and barns. She was supposed to be receiving money from Ondrej but because she was always on the run she never saw the money. From 1918-1921 she raised 160 dollars to go to the united states to find Ondrej. (Bekris, 9)
Andy Warhol was born on September 28, 1930 in Forest City, Pennsylvania. Or so we think. This is what the original birth certificate read...
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