{"id":307856,"date":"2026-10-16T10:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307856\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T10:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:16:14","slug":"new-documentary-andy-warhol-and-jamie-highlights-the-icons-nephew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307856\/","title":{"rendered":"New documentary \u2018Andy Warhol and Jamie\u2019 highlights the icon\u2019s nephew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pop art icon and Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol remains an enigmatic figure to many, but a new documentary peels back the curtain and spotlights the artist\u2019s family. In particular, \u201cAndy<\/a> Warhol and <\/a>Jamie<\/a>\u201d is a compelling portrait of his nephew, James Warhola, an intriguing artist in his own right.<\/p>\n

The new documentary had its Pittsburgh premiere \u2014 and its second-ever screening \u2014 at the Andy Warhol Museum on the North Side on Wednesday night. It was previously screened in May at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York City.<\/p>\n

Bonnie Bien, the filmmaker behind \u201cAndy Warhol and Jamie,\u201d has plans to submit it to other festivals.<\/p>\n

Before the showing, Andy Warhol Museum director Mario R. Rossero delivered brief introductory remarks. He greeted the numerous members of Warhol\u2019s family who attended the screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so glad to welcome you here. We hope that everyone feels that this is your home and comes back often to talk to us,\u201d Rossero said.<\/p>\n

The 75-minute documentary begins with a section about Andy Warhol\u2019s life in Pittsburgh before he moved to New York City in 1949, and many of his family members\u2019 recollections of visiting him after he moved away.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Warhola\u2019s life mirrors his uncle\u2019s. The 71-year-old grew up in Pittsburgh, attended Carnegie Mellon University (where he had two of the same professors as Andy Warhol) and moved to New York upon graduation. He briefly worked for his uncle before striking out on his own to become an illustrator.<\/p>\n

He gained prominence for his work on science fiction book covers, MAD magazine and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents nurtured it in me, and that was really great,\u201d Warhola said in the documentary.<\/p>\n

Warhol had two brothers and 10 nieces and nephews. His mother, Julia, also moved to New York City to live with him, so the family visited often enough for Uncle Andy to teach them how to stretch canvases and give them different art projects to complete.<\/p>\n

Those family trips to New York were the inspiration for Warhola\u2019s illustrated children\u2019s book \u201cUncle<\/a> Andy\u2019s: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy <\/a>Warhol<\/a>,\u201d published in 2003. <\/p>\n

\u201cAndy Warhol and Jamie\u201d provides glimpses of the Warhola family\u2019s life in Pittsburgh, including a tour of the house where Andy and his brothers grew up on Dawson Street in South Oakland. It also looks briefly at Warhol\u2019s mother \u2014 James Warhola\u2019s grandmother \u2014 Julia, who was also a talented artist. The Warhol Museum has hundreds of her drawings and sketches in its archives.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulia was an incredible artist,\u201d Warhola said in a question-and-answer session following the screening. \u201cI loved watching her. She was an inspiration. She was very, very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documentary\u2019s latter half follows James Warhola as he participates in an exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts and his uncle\u2019s work, as well as at conventions and other exhibitions he has mounted in recent years. Bien said the documentary took about eight years to make.<\/p>\n

Bien and Warhola met at the Norman Rockwell Museum when Warhola was giving a lecture there, about a year before the exhibition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in film school, Andy was the man for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI used to watch all of his films, and in fact, my film teachers used to get mad at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she never encountered her idol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI dreamed of meeting him, but I was too scared to meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when she heard about Warhola\u2019s lecture at the Rockwell Museum, she went right away. It was then she realized the illustrator had a style and career of his own and was deserving of a spotlight outside of just his name.<\/p>\n

She was very excited to bring the film to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially because of the family. I really wanted the family to see it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pop art icon and Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol remains an enigmatic figure to many, but a new documentary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-307856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}