Warhol’s Mother: The Woman Behind the Artist

While biographers of Andy Warhol have long recognized his mother as a significant influence on his life and art, Julia Warhola’s story has not yet been told. As an American immigrant who was born in a small Carpatho-Rusyn village in Austria-Hungary in 1891, Julia never had the opportunity to develop her own considerable artistic talents. Instead, she worked and sacrificed so her son could follow his dreams, helping to shape Andy’s art and persona. Julia famously followed him to New York City and lived with him there for almost twenty years, where she remained engaged in his personal and artistic life. She was well known as ＂Andy Warhol’s mother,＂ even developing a distinctive signature with the title that she used on her own drawings. Exploring previously unpublished material, including Rusyn-language correspondence and videos, Andy Warhol’s Mother provides the first in-depth look at Julia’s hardscrabble life, her creative imagination, and her spirited personality. Elaine Rusinko follows Julia’s life from the folkways of the Old Country to the smog of industrial Pittsburgh and the tumult of avant-garde New York. Rusinko explores the impact of Julia’s Carpatho-Rusyn culture, Byzantine Catholic faith, and traditional worldview on her ultra-modern son, the quintessential American artist. This close examination of the Warhola family’s lifeworld allows a more acute perception of both Andy and Julia while also illuminating the broader social and cultural issues that confronted and conditioned them.

Elaine Rusinko is associate professor emerita at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she taught Russian language and literature for thirty-five years.