| Julia Warhola | |
| Native Name Lang: | rue |
| Birth Name: | Juliana Justina Zavaczki |
| Birth Date: | 20 November 1891 |
| Birth Place: | Mikó, Austria-Hungary[1] |
| Death Place: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Children: | 4, including John and Andy |
| Relations: | James Warhola (grandson) |
Julia Warhola (born Juliana Justina Zavaczki; November 20, 1891November 22, 1972) was the mother of the American artist Andy Warhol. She was an artist in her own right and provided the calligraphy to her son's artwork.
Julia Warhola was born Juliana Justina Zavaczki to a peasant family in the Rusyn village of Mikó, Austria-Hungary (now Miková in northeast Slovakia) and married Andrew Warhola (sk|Andrej Varchola) there in 1909. He emigrated to the United States soon after in 1914, and in 1921 she followed him to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2] The couple had four children: Maria (1912; died in infancy), Paul (1922–2014), John (1925–2010), and Andy (1928–1987).[3] The family lived at several Pittsburgh addresses, beginning in 1932 at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood of the city. The family was Byzantine Catholic and attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. Her husband Andrew was born in 1889 and died in 1942.
Julia enjoyed singing traditional Rusyn folk songs and was artistic. She loved to draw, and her favorite subjects were angels and cats. She also did embroidery and other crafts, such as bouquets of flowers made from tin cans and crepe paper. During the Easter season, she decorated eggs in the Pysanka tradition.
As a widow, she moved to New York City in 1952 to be near her son Andy. He often used her decorative handwriting to accompany his illustrations such as the book 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy (1954).[4] [5] In 1957, she also wrote and illustrated her own book called Holy Cats.[6] [7] She won awards for her lettering, including one from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for an album cover for The Story of Moondog, featuring the musician Louis Thomas Hardin in 1957.[8]
In 1966, Andy made a movie called Mrs. Warhol, which was filmed in color. The 66-minute film featured Julia in her basement apartment in Andy's house playing "an aging peroxide movie star with a lot of husbands," including the most current spouse, played by Andy's lover Richard Rheem.[9] Andy follows her with his camera as she goes about her daily domestic routines.
After Andy survived an assassination attempt by Valerie Solanas at the Factory in 1968, Jed Johnson, who became his longtime partner, moved into his Lexington Avenue home to care for him and Julia.[10] By 1970, Julia's health was rapidly declining and Jed felt that she would fare better in a nursing home but Andy was against that idea. In February 1971, already stricken with dementia, Julia suffered a stroke. Due to his busy work schedule, Andy decided it would be beneficial for Julia to return to Pittsburgh and live with his brother Paul in 1971. At Paul's home, she suffered another stroke, and after she was released from the hospital, she was put in a nursing home against Andy's wishes, but he paid for the bill.[11]
On November 22, 1972, Julia died at age 81 following a third stroke. Her funeral was held at the John N. Elachko Funeral Home in Pittsburgh.[12] Andy did not attend her funeral, but he paid for the expenses. He kept her death a secret and would tell anyone asking about her that she was shopping at Bloomingdale's.[13] Even his live-in boyfriend Jed found out about her death accidentally from one of Andy's brothers.
She is buried with her husband Andrew in the St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, near their son Andy, who would be interred there in 1987.
Andy Warhol created posthumous portraits of his mother Julia in 1974.[14] The portraits appeared on the cover of the Jan/Feb 1975 issue of Art in America. They were also displayed as part of his retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1979.[15]
Elaine Rusinko, a professor emerita of Russian language and literature at the University of Maryland, wrote the biography Andy Warhol’s Mother: The Woman Behind the Artist, which was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2024.[16]