Submitted by Rusty Baker, PA Museums

When personal computer companies began to market home computing systems, Commodore International reached out to artist Andy Warhol to contribute artwork and celebrity to their launch of the “Amiga” system. Computer experts have lauded this system as being ahead of its time with advance graphics and the potential to make art.

Andy Warhol, “Andy2″ (1985) (©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum)

Andy Warhol, “Andy2″ (1985) (©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum)

Andy Warhol’s digital files, trapped on Amiga floppy disks held in the archives of the Andy Warhol Museum (AWM) in Pittsburgh, were extracted by members of the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club and its STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. The team found more than 20 images among Warhol’s 41 disks. The files show the mature artist struggling with digital imaging tools and encountering a learning curve familiar to anyone who remembers picking up a mouse for the first time—squiggly lines and paint-fill covering half of the screen.

Warhol’s Amiga experiences were the result of a commission by the computer company to demonstrate the computer’s graphic arts capabilities. They vary from doodles and video stills of the keyboard to playful variants on Warhol’s classic images of a banana, Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s soup cans, and some of his portraits. One piece of art resulted from the series—a portrait of pop star Debbie Harry. This portrait has been part of the AWM collection since it opened.

This exciting discovery spread through the art and museum world very quickly. Collections in museums in the Commonwealth are full of unsolved mysteries, and what may look like a useless part of a nearly forgotten technology can bring to light the struggles, talents, and accomplishments of those who came before us. For more information about this project, visit http://www.warhol.org/uploadedFiles/.