Andy Warhol's Mother - University of Pittsburgh Press

While biographers of Andy Warhol have long recognized his mother as a significant influence on his life and art, Julia Warhola’s story has not yet been told. As an American immigrant who was born in a small Carpatho-Rusyn village in Austria-Hungary in 1891, Julia never had the opportunity to develop her own considerable artistic talents. Instead, she worked and sacrificed so her son could follow his dreams, helping to shape Andy’s art and persona. Julia famously followed him to New York City and lived with him there for almost twenty years, where she remained engaged in his personal and artistic life. She was well known as “Andy Warhol’s mother,” even developing a distinctive signature with the title that she used on her own drawings.

Exploring previously unpublished material, including Rusyn-language correspondence and videos, Andy Warhol’s Mother provides the first in-depth look at Julia’s hardscrabble life, her creative imagination, and her spirited personality. Elaine Rusinko follows Julia’s life from the folkways of the Old Country to the smog of industrial Pittsburgh and the tumult of avant-garde New York. Rusinko explores the impact of Julia’s Carpatho-Rusyn culture, Byzantine Catholic faith, and traditional worldview on her ultra-modern son, the quintessential American artist. This close examination of the Warhola family’s lifeworld allows a more acute perception of both Andy and Julia while also illuminating the broader social and cultural issues that confronted and conditioned them.

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Julia Warhola was more than just Andy Warhol’s mother. She was his mentor and his most unwavering supporter. An immigrant from Eastern Europe, she guided the Warhol family as they pursued the American Dream. At the same time, she provided Andy the opportunity to find his greatness, change the artworld, and redefine what art is and who it should be for. Andy Warhol’s Mother is a must read for those who want a thorough understanding of Warhol, his family, and the cultural influences that shaped his artistic genius.

Donald Warhola, vice president, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

"enlightening..."

Publishers Weekly

Julia Warhola was an artist in her own right. Naïve yet shrewd, traditional yet eccentric, and tender yet manipulative, this complex Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant led a purposeful life. However, she is often stereotyped in biographies of her famous son. Rusinko skillfully and sensitively narrates her life story from Miková to Pittsburgh and New York, offering a nuanced perspective that challenges conventional portrayals.

Bogdan Horbal, Curator for Slavic and East European Collections, the New York Public Library

For much of his adult life, Andy Warhol lived with his mother in New York City. Drawing upon a wealth of material, Elaine Rusinko takes us beyond the mythmaking surrounding this arrangement and brings to life Julia Warhola’s unique voice, chronicling her Carpatho-Rusyn background, her immigrant world in Pittsburgh, and her complex relationship with her famous son. This is an important book.

Reva Wolf, State University of New York at New Paltz

Elaine Rusinko shares the saga of Carpatho-Rusyn life in the first half of the twentiethcentury both in the Old Country and in immigration, with particular emphasis on the plight of women. Drawing on previously unexamined archives and unearthing new details, she offers a fresh perspective on the Warhola family’s immigrant experience that nurtured Andy Warhol as a person and an artist.

Patricia A. Krafcik, author of Witnesses to Interwar Subcarpathian Rus’: The Sojourns of Petr Bogatyrev and Ivan Olbracht

Andy Warhol’s Mother

The Woman Behind the Artist

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520 Pages, 7 x 9 in.

November, 2024

isbn : 9780822948407

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