Powerful Portraits of Andy Warhol Showing His Shooting Scars From 1969

In 1969, Richard Avedon photographed Andy Warhol’s shooting scars in one of the most stark and unsettling celebrity portraits of the 20th century. The photos were taken in New York City on August 20, 1969. Warhol is depicted wearing a black leather jacket, with one hand placed across his abdomen, highlighting the “almost tangible wounds.” These powerful images have been described as a tragic and powerful documentation of the violence he endured, leaving him with permanent injuries and requiring him to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life.

The scars were the result of life-saving surgeries after Warhol was shot and critically injured by radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas on June 3, 1968, at his studio, The Factory. Warhol was briefly declared dead at the hospital but was revived after a six-hour operation to repair damage to his stomach, liver, spleen, esophagus, and both lungs.

Not only did the attack affect Warhol’s physical health, but it also had an impact on his mental stability. After the incident, Warhol wrote in his 1968 biography: “When you hurt another person, you never know how much it pains. Since I was shot, everything is such a dream to me. I don’t know what anything is about. Like, I don’t know whether I’m alive or whether I died. I wasn’t afraid before. And having been dead once, I shouldn’t feel fear. But I am afraid. I don’t understand why.”

After being shot by Solanas, Warhol’s fear of dying was amplified. This incident caused him to revisit the themes of death and violence, but now by observing the possibility of his own mortality. Warhol created a series of Gun prints, which was created in reaction to his feelings around gun violence and his own personal experience with it. His Gun from 1981, shows a weapon similar to the .22 snub-nosed pistol that Solanas used to shoot him. He created these prints to reflect on his feelings towards his own mortality at the mercy of the weapon.

The shooting also intensified his fears of hospitals and illness, leading him to seek alternative medicine and treatments. This hesitance caused him to delay appointments and procedures, which may have eventually led to his demise. His doctor even said, “He was convinced if he was hospitalized he would die.” On February 21, 1987, Warhol suffered a heart attack after gallbladder surgery. He died the following day, while resting in the hospital. The bullet which hit Warhol’s gallbladder killed him 19 years after the attack.

This life changing event altered the course of Warhol’s career. The artist’s work shifted from colorful pop art images of soup cans and flowers, to skulls and freak accidents. Although this change in his career was brought forth by an extremely unfortunate event, the works he created after this incident have become some of the most famous and iconic modern works of art. As Warhol once said: “The idea is not to live forever, but to create something that will.”