Happy Birthday Andy Warhol

Born on the 6th of August 1928, today we celebrate the internationally renowned American Pop artist Andy Warhol with five unusual facts about his art and life.

 

Andy Wahol, Untitled, from 25 Cats Name[d] Sam and One Blue Pussy, 1954

 

 

 

 

1. Andy Warhol and his mother, Julia Warhola, lived in a New York apartment with a rather large collection of cats. The obsession started when Warhol was gifted a cat named Hester and from there his collection grew to 25 cats! This is the inspiration behind his well known portfolio, '25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy'. 

Andy Warhol, Lincoln Center Ticket, 1967

 

2. As a young boy, Andy Warhol contracted a rare neurological disorder, that at times left him bed bound for weeks and unable to go to school. In an effort to bring some normalcy back into his life, he turned his childhood bedroom into a pop culture sanctuary filled with the radio, celebrity magazines, comic books and drawings. He unknowingly laid the foundations for what was to become a lifelong fascination.

Andy Warhol, Queen Ntombi Twala, 1985

 

3. When picturing Warhol, his characteristic spiky silver hair may come to mind. When Warhol was in his 20s, he began to lose his hair, forcing him to turn to wearing custom hairpieces. He eventually collected over 100 of his signature silver/grey wigs!

 

Andy Warhol, One Plate from, In the Bottom of my Garden, 1956

 

4. During the 1950s, Warhol hosted colouring parties. Warhol would bring along his own elegant line drawings and then hand out vibrant sets of watercolours for friends and family to colour them in with. This allowed Warhol to experiment and see how each piece could be approached in different hands.

Andy Warhol, Henry Geldzahler, from The Geldzahler Portfolio, 1964

 

5. In 1979, Andy Warhol founded Interview Magazine, a magazine that unintentionally changed pop culture journalism forever. Significantly, Warhol changed the approach to celebrity interviews. Instead of hiring professional journalists he simply brought a tape recorder and skipped over the deep topics, choosing to ask his own simple questions like “what do you eat for breakfast?”. This humanised celebrities and inspired how modern celebrity journalism works today. Decades later in 2026, Interview still remains a pop culture powerhouse, faithfully keeping Warhol's signature unfiltered tone alive today.