Known for his eccentric lifestyle including diverse social acquaintances, avant-garde films and visual art, Andy Warhol was perhaps the most famous, innovative and influential artist of the 20th century.

From the start of his art career until his death in 1987 from complications following gallbladder surgery, Andy was an ironically revered figure in the mainstream.

Andy was born Andrew Warhol in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. Due to a childhood illness affecting his central nervous system, Andy’s extremities began to move sporadically and he developed hypochondria and always feared something was wrong. As a child that stayed mostly to himself and lived in fear, Andy’s artistic light began to shine.

After studying at the School of Fine Arts and at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Andy moved to New York in 1949 and started a successful career as a magazine illustrator. Soon after, he became famous in the advertising circle for his pencil drawings, and he was quickly hired by RCA Records to design album covers.

By 1960, Warhol was a legitimate artist whose work was wholly original. He opened his first one-man gallery exhibition in 1962 in LA, and also opened in New York the same year. Andy’s art was referred to as “pop” art, due to his paintings of soup cans and various famous celebrities like Liz Taylor, Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley.

However, it wasn’t all wine and roses for Warhol and his new brand of art. Critics blasted him for essentially selling out to the consumer with art that they felt required little talent to pull off. The art culture disagreed, however, and Warhol spearheaded a new pop art movement that witnessed many new artists following in his footsteps.

His workshop, named The Factory, was lined in aluminum foil and silver paint. It was an unconventional place to work, but perfectly fit the whimsical personality of the artist. He gathered up a team of bohemians with unusual names like Candy Darling, Viva and Ultra Violet and shot films in The Factory. Warhol was also a minor film star in the 1960s.

In 1968, one of Warhol’s Factory regulars, Valerie Solanas, attempted to assassinate him. Solanas injured curator Mario Amaya in the attack, who suffered only minor injures, and seriously wounded Warhol, who suffered complications from the attack until his death.

During the 1970s, Warhol’s focus shifted from the pop art to more commissioned portraits. He began painting famous people like Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and even Chinese Communist dictator Mao Zedong.

Warhol would again immerse himself in the art mainstream in the 1980s. Befriending artists like David Salle, Jean-Michel Basquiat and other Neo-Expressionists of the era, Warhol again found he was critically and financially successful. He also befriended many Hollywood celebrities and appreciated the culture.

Although Warhol was never fully appreciated by most critics in his time, he is part of an ultra exclusive club. Andy is one of the only artists to ever have a painting sell for $100 million. His painting of the Eight Elvises earned that, placing him alongside artists like Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Gustav Klimt.