Julia Warhola

Julia Warhola (born Julianna Zavacka; November 20, 1891 – November 22, 1972) was an American artist of Rusyn descent. She is best known as the mother of Andy Warhol, a leading figure in Pop art.

Born in Mikó, Austria-Hungary (present-day Miková, Slovakia), she emigrated to the United States, settling in Pittsburgh, where she raised her family. She later moved to New York City to live with her son and contributed calligraphy and decorative elements to his early commercial illustrations.

Biography

Early life and ancestry

Julianna Zavacka was born on November 20, 1891, into a peasant family in the Rusyn village of Mikó, Austria-Hungary (now Miková in northeastern Slovakia). Her surname appears in various forms, including Zavaczky, Zavaczki, and Zavacka, and was later simplified to Zavacky in the United States. In her Hungarian-language birth record, her name is recorded as Julianna, while her family called her Ulia (Julia).

Her father Andrii Zavacky was a farmer. The Zavacky family had deep roots in Miková and were Greek Catholic Rusyns. While Julia's paternal family belonged firmly to the Rusyn community, her maternal ancestry was more diverse. Her mother, Justina Mrocsko, was Greek Catholic, though research indicates that her father, Mathias Mrocsko, was a Roman Catholic Pole from Galicia. Julia's maternal grandmother, Josephine Blau, was of Austro-German and Bohemian backgrounds and was also Roman Catholic, despite later family stories claiming Jewish ancestry. By the time Julia was born, however, the Mrocsko-Blau family had become assimilated into the local Rusyn community.left Warhola with her sons John (left) and Andy (right), 1930"My Momma had fifteen children," Julia told journalist Bernard Weinraub. Parish records document fourteen children, including multiple deaths in infancy or early childhood, that reflected the harsh living conditions and poor sanitation common in rural Eastern Europe at the time. Of the children who survived to adulthood, three brothers—Stephen, John, and Andrew—and three sisters—Mary, Julia, and Anna—eventually emigrated to the United States, while a brother, Yurii, and sisters Elena and Eva remained in Europe. The couple had three sons: Paul (1922–2014), John (1925–2010), and Andy (1928–1987). The family lived at several addresses in Pittsburgh, beginning in 1932 at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland neighborhood. They were Byzantine Catholic and attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church.

Around 1939, the abdominal illness that Andrew Warhola had suffered from for years worsened. Julia Warhola later recalled that her husband had drunk contaminated water from a coal mine in West Virginia and returned home ill. To support her children after the death of her husband, she worked cleaning homes and managed to save $11,000.

She was also skilled in embroidery and other crafts, including making bouquets from tin cans and crepe paper, which later inspired Andy's Campbell's Soup Cans. During the Easter season, she decorated eggs in the traditional Pysanka style.

Life and career in New York Warhola was especially close to her youngest son, Andy Warhol. In 1952, she moved to New York City to live near him while he worked as a commercial artist. Warhola later told a journalist that she spoke limited English and "Andy no talk Slovak, but he understands" the language. She also wrote and illustrated her own book called Holy Cats. Warhola was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for designing the album cover for The Story of Moondog, featuring the musician Louis Thomas Hardin in 1957. Warhola was featured in an article on the mothers of artists in the November 1966 issue of Esquire, in which she recounted her life story and discussed her son. In November 1966, he filmed The George Hamilton Story, also known as Mrs. Warhol, a 66-minute color film starring Warhola as "an aging peroxide movie star with a lot of husbands." Her latest husband was portrayed by Warhol's companion Richard Rheem. Johnson brought order to the household and accompanied Warhola to her weekly doctor's appointments. Andy kept the decision from his associates at the Factory, and Johnson was instructed not to discuss it. Although Andy covered the cost of her care, he never visited her at the nursing home. His longtime partner Jed Johnson learned of her death from one of Andy's brothers. According to his nephew George Warhola, a relative photographed Warhola in her coffin—a custom among older Carpatho-Rusyns—and sent the image to Andy, prompting Johnson to remark, "Your uncle was very upset about that."

In the years that followed, Andy felt remorseful about his inability to care for his mother. In a December 1985 diary entry, he said, "And at Christmas time I really think about my mother and if I did the right thing sending her back to Pittsburgh. I still feel so guilty."

Julia Warhola is buried with her husband Andrew at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, near their son Andy, who would be interred there in 1987. The portraits appeared on the cover of the Jan/Feb 1975 issue of Art in America.

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.