Summary

One in this weekly arts series. This program charts Andy Warhol's artistic development from his earliest ventures as a commercial artist to his evolution as one of the great heroes of American pop culture. Interspersed with footage of Warhol's films are interviews with his friends and associates. They include art dealer Ivan Karp, film director Emile de Antonio, filmmaker Paul Morrissey, Warhol's art assistants Brigid Berlin and Gerard Malanga, actress Viva, and biographer Victor Bockris. Topics include the following: Warhol's birth in 1928 and childhood in Pittsburgh; his graduation from Carnegie Institute of Technology; his arrival in New York in the late 1940s and his successful graphic arts career; his early work with the silk-screening technique; the formative days of his studio, The Factory; the formation of the rock group, Velvet Underground; his ascendancy in the avant-garde cultural scene; Warhol's career as filmmaker; his relationship with Edie Sedgwick and his other proteges at the Factory; the 1968 attempt on his life by one of his actresses; the inception of Interview magazine in the 1970s and his move from the avant-garde to more conservative projects; his revived interest in rock music and his affiliation with MTV; and his death in February 1987, at age fifty-eight.