Andy Warhol: how an immigrant with Ukrainian roots became a legend in American pop culture

Andy Warhol, the founder of pop art, whose parents emigrated to the United States, is returning to help Ukraine. His foundation began to support Ukrainian artists, reports TSN.

Фото: Depositphotos

May 2022 Andy Warhol's portrait of Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe is selling for a record $195 million at Christie's! The son of poor emigrants from the Lemkivshchyna becomes the most expensive artist of the XNUMXth century.

“In addition to his vision, there is also a market that appreciated this vision and raised it to the level of a modern icon. Yes, Andy Warhol is an icon of contemporary art,” explains the Warhol phenomenon, collector and philanthropist Dmitry Pirkl.

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During his lifetime, the king of pop art bequeathed most of his fortune to help artists. So far, the Andy Warhol Foundation has only supported US artists. But after the start of a full-scale invasion of Russia, the organization made an exception for the first time ... For the sake of artists from Ukraine.

“Our colleagues from the Andy Warhol Foundation found us and wrote to the foundation’s email,” says Olga Balashova, co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art NGO. – They wanted to support Ukrainian artists. And we asked: “Do you know that Ukrainians believe that Andy Warhol is actually our artist?” And they said, “Yes, we know.”

Andy Warhol's parents come from the Lemko village of Mikova. Today it is the territory of Slovakia. Why is a pop art icon considered Ukrainian?

“Then, when Warhol was born and his parents came to America, everyone called themselves Rusyns. And Ukrainians in Galicia, and Ukrainians in Transcarpathia, and Ukrainians just in this part in Lemkivshchyna. I have several cousins ​​- Ukrainians, by the way, ”says Alexander Motyl, a professor at Rutgers University in the USA.

Alexander Motyl is also from a family of Rusyn emigrants. The scientist grew up in the Ukrainian quarter, like his legendary countryman Andy Warhol: “He lived in this Ukrainian-Rusyn ghetto in Pittsburgh for a good 20 years. Where everything was Ukrainian-Rusyn. Language, celebration - well, everything! They sang carols, painted Easter eggs - in principle, it’s like our people.”

At the age of twenty, Andrey Vorgola comes to New York. At first he paints for advertising and subsequently decides to do high art. Silk-screen printing becomes his corporate style - stencil transfer of images of objects or pop stars onto paper. Andy Warhol borrowed this non-standard technique from the advertising industry.

“Everything parasitizes on high art: cinema is popular, serials, advertising, clips,” says Olga Balashova. Andy Warhol turned this system around for the first time. Because he brought advertising and pop culture standards into art territory. And no one else succeeded in such a trick. ”

Andy called his New York studio “The Factory.” After all, the artist produced about a hundred silk-screen prints every day. His paintings, simple at first glance, shocked at first, then became iconic, and in the end - symbols of the era. Warhol made art understandable and accessible to everyone.

“I created a masterpiece from a can of soup. He said that a can of soup could also be a piece of art,” recalls Dmitry Pirkl.
2010 Andy Warhol's "Big Campbell's Soup Can" was sold at Christie's for $23 million! “A large bottle of Coca-Cola sold for $35 million. The painting “Green Car Crash” sold for $75 million. And “Eight Elvises” – for $100 million.

“I don’t know if Coca-Cola will exist, but its image, created by Andy Warhol, will outlive us all,” Olga Balashova is sure. - Like Marilyn Monroe, like all the other characters he portrayed. He is one of the five most important authors of the 20th century because he is not as simple as he seems.”

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Contemporaries marveled at Andy's indefatigable imagination. Few guessed how significant the influence on the artist was his mother, Yulia Zavadskaya. A simple woman from the Carpathians embroidered pictures, painted Easter eggs and encouraged her son to art. Unaware that the colorful colors of Ukrainian Easter eggs will become part of the global pop culture. The mother of the king of pop art never mastered the English language. Therefore, I spoke with Andy in the Lemko dialect of Ukrainian.

“Imagine, she herself travels from Pittsburgh by bus to save her son from godless New York. Because he's a mother's boy, you know? – Professor Alexander Motyl smiles. “They published some books together, painted together. It is simply impossible that he was not influenced by this Ukrainian or Russian heritage. Warhol, who lived with the so-called superstars in his “Factory”, is very well known to everyone. But Warhol is Ukrainian, or Rusyn - people actually don’t know this Warhol.”

“They had an iconostasis in their house. This image, I think, had a great influence on Andy Warhol, - says Olga Balashova. – The saints to whom his mother addressed, that is, Christ and Mary, are historical figures who were able to survive a very powerful time and remain in the minds of people. That is, these are the people who have overcome death.”

Andy Warhol was often sick as a child and was very afraid of poverty and death. Contemplating the icons of his mother, one day he realized how to achieve immortality with the help of art. The artist came up with the idea of ​​creating “pop icons” in which he immortalized the cult phenomena of the era. And finally, he himself became one of the world icons.

“He was struck by the death of Marilyn Monroe. Perhaps there was no more famous, desirable person in America than Marilyn. Now, when I give a lecture, I talk to students, they don't know who Marilyn Monroe is. They know the image that Andy Warhol created. And he is for all time,” Olga Balashova is convinced.

One of the support scholarships from the Andy Warhol Foundation for 25 Ukrainian artists was received by an artist from Donetsk Sergey Zakharov: “They sent me a link that there is some kind of support for artists in this difficult time. I wrote and filled out this form. You think - wow! That's so cool!".

In 2014, after the Russian occupation of Donetsk, Sergei remained in the city. And as a sign of protest, he began to decorate the streets with caricatures of the leaders of the terrorist “DPR”: “I lived in the center, walked along the streets, saw where you could hang something, because there were no cameras there. For example, I can park my car here and go out through the yards there. The most poignant moment is when you post your work and understand that if anyone sees it now, they will detain you – that’s it.”

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In the end, the invaders figured out the rebel. But together with other patriots, they were sent to the so-called basement: “At that time in Donetsk, every basement, every garage was a prison. The first interrogation is broken ribs, because there they start beating. Yes, severely beaten. You see this man, what kind of head of this prison is, and you understand that he just enjoys it.”

After the exchange, Sergei created a series of works where he recorded the terrible “conveyor belt of death” through which he passed in captivity. Today it is impossible to imagine what the fate of Andy Warhol himself would have been like if his parents had not emigrated to the United States, but instead found themselves under the rule of Moscow.

“In the conditions of the Soviet Union, he had no chance. Creativity, free opinion - it was also a crime. And if you allowed yourself to do this, you either got into an unpleasant situation that the special services arranged for you, or you were injected in a psychiatric hospital, ”says Dmitry Pirkl.

Following the Andy Warhol Foundation, other art organizations from the United States also joined in supporting war-affected Ukrainian artists.

“We are supported by several American foundations, but the Andy Warhol Foundation was the first,” notes Olga Balashova. – And now he is coming back here in order for the Ukrainian dream to appear. And so that artists can realize it.”

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