'The pop idea, after all, was that anybody could do anything,' Warhol explained. Hoping to further expand his influence on the arts, Warhol offered to manage the band.

Impressed, the artist invited the Velvet Underground to an exhibition of his films.

As recounted in Beyond the Velvet Underground by Dave Thompson, the band caught the attention of Andy Warhol in 1965 at a show at Greenwich Village's Café Bizarre. Although he didn't know it at the time, these sickbed activities foreshadowed his future.įronted by singer and songwriter Lou Reed, the eclectic group perfectly captured the attitude of New York's avant-garde. During his convalescence, he busied himself drawing, creating collages out of comic books and poring over movie magazines. The condition became so severe Warhol was left bedridden for weeks at time. Already considered a strange child, the condition exacerbated the bullying Warhol suffered at the hands of his classmates. Also known as Saint Vitus' dance, Sydenham's chorea is characterized by uncoordinated, jerking movements of the limbs. Although he seemed to make a full recovery, he developed complications in the form of Sydenham's chorea. In 1936, Andy Warhol contracted rheumatic fever. Warhol thrived at the Carnegie Institute, and the exposure to Pittsburgh's wealthier denizens introduced him to a lifestyle markedly different from his own. Young Andy Warhol's talent was apparent upon his entry to elementary school, and by the age of nine, he was taking art classes at the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art. By 1934, he was working as a construction worker and bringing in enough money to move his wife and children to a slightly more respectable neighborhood. Yet, the resourceful Ondrej kept his struggling family afloat. As detailed in Warhol by Eric Shanes, the Great Depression financially devastated the family.

Scum manifesto andy warhol