In Memorium: Andy Warhol (1928-1997)

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

In the 1960s, Andy Warhol gained virtually instant fame as one of America's most innovative artists.  Although he came to be a most public figure, his natural shyness served to obscure the fact that he was of Carpatho-Rusyn background.  Most of his work was done in New York City, but he never left his Pittsburgh roots or his Carpatho-Rusyn heritage far behind.  His unique sensibility was shaped by Pittsburgh influences, including ethnocultural ties, religious life, Byzantine iconography, art classes at Schenley High School, Hornes department store display windows, and the artist and teacher Robert Lepper at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University).

As an internationally recognized painter, photographic craftsman, film maker, and pop art celebrity, Warhol appeared reluctant to discuss his origins.  Once when asked about his background, he replied, "Why don't you make it up?"  In dealing with the media, he liked to be mysterious, provocative, and even something of a riddle.  Perhaps this is why a number of contradictory statements from reputable reference books and newspapers have appeared.

The facts of Andy Warhol's background were revealed through discussions between the Warhola family and Dr. Paul R. Magocsi who wrote: "Andy Warhol was born as Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928.  Both his parents came from Miková, a tiny Carpatho-Rusyn mountain village just west of Medzilaborce in the Prešov Region of northeastern Slovakia." (Carpatho-Rusyn American, Vol. III, No. 2, 1980, p. 3)

Family ties were important, because brothers John, Paul and Andy had lived through some hard times.  Their family was always close to the church.  John Warhola commented on Andy: "When Andy was a boy, we thought he was going to be a priest.  Even under pressure, he never swore.  He believed in working hard." Paul and John Warhola vacationed with Andy nearly every year in New York City, where Andy attended church and was a supporting member of St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic parish on East 15th Street in Manhattan.  Among his New York staff it is common knowledge that at 1 p.m., for 15 minutes everyday, he stopped to pray at a nearby Roman Catholic Church, St. Vincent Ferrer.  Finally, we recall that in 1968, when Andy was shot, he called upon a Byzantine Catholic priest from Manhattan for annointing and the last rites.

After Andy Warhol died in a New York hospital on February 22, 1987, the older brothers, John and Paul Warhola, came to take his body home to Pittsburgh.

From listening to the family, one can easily gather that the Warhola clan would hope that Andy Warhol is rememebred as a creative sensibility whose art made a social commentary which was provocative and artistic enough to justify its existence.  They hope that his work will endure as a continuing influence.

As for being accused of indulgence in self flattery and being an elitist, Warhol had a sense of humor about the artist's image.  He gave an insight into his thinking when he said in a 1979 interview, "You can do anything you want, anytime."

A number of writers about contemporary art have used the fascinating expression "pop icon" to describe much of Warhol's art.  Perhaps Warhol's religious and ethnocultural roots can help to explain some of the energy behind the leap from Warhol's early commercial art to his pop iconography.  His idealization and interpretation of secular images from show biz selections, comic strips, ad pages, and television were prefigured in an ancient yet classic style of Eastern Christian art emanating from the Byzantine era.

Warhol was raised in a religious Carpatho-Rusyn family that practices Byzantine Rite Catholicism.  In his formative years from 1928 to 1949, he was exposed to the many icons which were so common in Rusyn-American homes, prayer-books and churches: icons depicting a matter-of-fact yet other worldly presence in just two dimensions de-emphasizing the flesh and pointing to the dominance of the spirit.  These were the images of Andy's youth.

On Thursday, February 26, 1987, Andy Warhol received a traditional Byzantine Catholic funeral service with a liturgy that hails back to the Christian centers of Byzantium.  The service was in English, but some Church Slavonic was also sung.  Internment was at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Castle Shannon, a suburb of Pittsburgh.  Andy was buried next to his parents.  There, at the gravesite, his associates from New York mourned together with family and friends over the passing of a great man whose personality, talent, energy and passion for work had inspired them.  The burial ended with the chanted prayer:
This grave is being sealed until the second coming of Christ, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.  Grant eternal memory, O Lord, and give him blessed repose.  Vičnaja pamjať, blažennyj pokoj, vičnaja jemu pamjať, Andreju.

Jerry Jumba

MLA Citation: Jumba, Jerry. "In Memorium: Andy Warhol (1928-1987)." Carpatho-Rusyn American X, no. 1 (1987): 4