Timeline

1928 6 August, born Andrej Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to working-class Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants (present-day Slovakia) Andrej and Julia Warhola. Youngest of three surviving sons.

1936 (age 8) Contracts strep infection, which leads to scarlet fever, followed by rheumatic fever, which progressed into a neurological condition called Sydenham’s chorea, resulting in many months absent from school.

1937–39 (age 9–11) Starts using the Warhola family’s new Baby Brownie Special camera. Mother buys him a home-movie projector, on which he screens films (including Mickey Mouse) over and over again.

1941 (age 13) Begins collecting photographs of movie stars.

1942 (age 14) Father Andrej Warhola dies aged 55.

1945 (age 17) Graduates from high school and is accepted to Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh.

1949 (age 21) Graduates from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a degree in graphic design.

Moves to New York and begins work as a commercial artist. His first assignment for Glamour magazine incorrectly credits his name as Warhol (not Warhola).

1950s Becomes a successful commercial artist, with a reputation as the leading magazine illustrator of women’s apparel. Uses the New York Public Library Picture Collection and popular magazines as source material for his drawings.

1950 (age 22) Purchases his first television set (the year colour TV is introduced in the US).

1952 (age 24) Julia Warhola moves to New York to live with her son, remaining there until 1971.

1954 (age 26) Begins working for high-end department store Bonwit Teller, doing illustrations and window displays.

1955 (age 27) Contracted to design illustrations for I. Miller Shoes, which gives him financial security for first time and the ability to employ studio assistants.

1956 (age 28) Meets photographer Edward Wallowitch, who becomes a collaborator, providing photographs of Campbell’s soup cans and other images for his work.

Travels to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Creates Andy Warhol Enterprises, listing himself and Julia Warhola as directors.

1957 (age 29) Has cosmetic surgery to reduce his nose. Produces the ‘before and after’ series of paintings.

From 1957 to 1963 uses a Polaroid camera, with black and white film, to record himself and his friends.

1960 (age 32) Starts his first hand-painted pop art paintings, drawing his source material from his archive of images, which include comic strips and newspaper advertisements.

1960–61 (age 32–3) Meets Henry Geldzahler, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, who becomes a close friend and early advocate of his works of art.

Begins the Campbell’s Soup Can series.

1961 (age 33) Makes his first photo-transfer silkscreen paintings, which combine photography and reproduction.

1963 (age 35) Moves to his first studio on East 87th Street. Hires Gerard Malanga as his studio assistant and begins paintings of Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor, using film publicity photographs as source imagery.

Warhol acquires 16 mm Bolex movie camera. He films his boyfriend John Giorno sleeping, to create Sleep, a six-and-a-half hour epic with no soundtrack.

Begins making experimental film portraits with Gerard Malanga, called ‘screen tests’, producing around 500 by 1966.

Makes 18 films, including Haircut.

1964 (age 36) Moves to second studio at 231 East 47th Street, a former hat factory. Hires Billy Linich (Billy Name) to decorate it with silver paint and aluminium foil. The space becomes known as the Silver Factory. Gives Name a 35 mm SLR camera to record the daily activities of the studio.

Employs British photographer David McCabe to follow him for a year and document his activities.

Warhol acquires his first tape recorder and begins to tape thousands of everyday conversations, gossip and telephone calls.

1965 (age 37) Meets Edie Sedgwick, who becomes his most prominent superstar.

Meets documentary photographer Nat Finkelstein, who photographs Warhol and the activities of the Factory over the next three years.

Introduced to Paul Morrissey, who becomes the film director and screen writer on his subsequent film projects. Makes 25 films including Camp.

1966 (age 38) Begins collaborating with the Velvet Underground. Presents them in a multimedia show Andy Warhol, Uptight at a psychiatrists’ convention, which he develops into The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Produces the Velvet Underground’s first album.

Creates over 40 films, including The Chelsea Girls, the first to be a financial success.

1967 (age 39) Meets Fred Hughes, who becomes his agent and business manager for more than 25 years.

Publishes Andy Warhol’s Index book.

1968 The Factory moves to the sixth floor of 33 Union Square West (the third Factory).

The Moderna Museet in Stockholm hosts Warhol’s first European museum retrospective. The catalogue includes hundreds of photographs by Nat Finkelstein and Stephen Shore.

Hires new studio assistant, Jed Johnson, who becomes his partner.

Shot and nearly killed by Valerie Solanas at the Factory. Surgery results in large stitch wounds, which Warhol photographs during his hospitalisation. His injury requires that he wear a corset for the rest of his life.

1969 (age 41) Launches Interview magazine.

Richard Avedon makes photographic portraits of Warhol’s scarred body.

Inspired by his friend Brigid Berlin, Warhol buys a new Polaroid camera and begins to document his social milieu with colour film.

1970 (age 42) Makes first commissioned portrait from Polaroid of art dealer Alexandre Iolas, and seeks out rich and famous sitters for commissions to underwrite his TV and other productions.

Acquires a Sony Portapak and begins to work regularly with video technology.

1971 (age 43) Polaroid releases Big Shot camera. Begins to use this camera for the majority of his portraits.

1972 (age 44) Removes all of the films he had directed from circulation due to lawsuits.

Julia Warhola, the artist’s mother dies.

1973 (age 45) First exhibition of commissioned portraits at Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles. Produces between 50 and 100 portraits a year until his death.

Warhol, Brigid Berlin and Robert Mapplethorpe hold a joint exhibition of Polaroid photographs at Gotham Book Mart gallery, New York.

1974 (age 46) Hires Ronnie Cutrone to be studio assistant, a position he retains until he resigns in 1982.

Moves to his fourth studio, at 860 Broadway. This new space includes the headquarters for Interview magazine and becomes known as the ‘Office’ instead of the ‘Factory’.

Holds a solo exhibition of his Polaroid photography at Gotham Book Mart gallery, New York.

1975 (age 47) Publishes The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), co-authored by Pat Hackett.

1976 (age 48) Buys the small, portable Minox 35 EL camera and takes it everywhere, capturing candid moments.

Hires Pat Hackett to type their daily phone conversations. These transcripts are edited and published posthumously as The Andy Warhol Diaries (1989).

Annie Leibovitz includes him in her Rolling Stone magazine photo essay on seven master photographers

Exclusive nightclub Studio 54 opens in New York. Warhol frequently socialises and photographs there.

Meets photographer Christopher Makos who becomes a key photographic collaborator with Warhol.

1979 (age 51) Publishes first book of his photographs Andy Warhol’s Exposures.

Exhibition Andy Warhol: Portraits of the 70s, opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

1980 (age 52) Publishes Popism: The Warhol ‘60s, co-authored by Pat Hackett.

Vincent Fremont produces Andy Warhol’s TV, which runs between 1980 and 1982 for Manhattan Cable, a total of 27 episodes.

Bruno Bischofberger Gallery, Zurich, publishes Warhol’s first photography portfolio, Exposures, followed by a second, 40 Photographs. Both portfolios are exhibited in multi-venue tour Social Disease in Germany between 1992 and 1994.

1981 (age 53) Collaborates with Christopher Makos to produce a photographic portfolio Altered Image, in which Makos photographs Warhol dressed in wigs and makeup.

Becomes a fashion model and product spokesperson throughout the 1980s.

Meets artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, which results in artistic collaboration over next two years.

Paints portrait of Loti Smorgon, his first Australian sitter.

1985 (age 57) MTV broadcasts Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes television program from 1985 to 1987.

Publishes his second photography book Andy Warhol’s America.

Paints portrait of Henry Gillespie, his second Australian sitter.

1986 (age 58) Hold exhibition of self-portrait paintings at Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London.

1987 Andy Warhol: Photographs exhibition opens at Robert Miller Gallery, New York. Comprising stitched photographs, the exhibition is a critical success.

Warhol dies on 22 February, aged 58, due to complications from a gallbladder operation.

1989 Retrospective exhibition organised by the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1994 The Andy Warhol Museum opens in Pittsburgh.