10 things you didn´t know about Andy Warhol

Pop art. Multimedia. Celebrities. With every year that passes, Andy Warhol’s stature as the silver-haired

prophet of our contemporary culture only increases. To celebrate a new exhibit of Warhol’s photographs of his

famous friends, here are 10 things you didn’t know about modern art’s greatest guru:

1. To give some of his paintings a unique look, Warhol used copper paint that he then oxidized with urine, appointing his friend, artist Ronnie Cutrone (right), to walk by the paintings and urinate on them.

Above, Cutrone with Lou Reed

2. An obsessive collector, Andy collected everything, including airplane menus, unpaid invoices, pizza dough, pornographic pulp novels, newspapers, stamps, supermarket flyers, and cookie jars. One item found in Warhol's boxes was a mummified human foot from Ancient Egypt.

3. Which makes sense: Warhol had a serious foot fetish.

Above, torso, by Andy Warhol.

4. Warhol hated going to restaurants, and found the experience “abstract.” When he did eat out, he was often heard saying, “What are these people sitting here watching?” He would eat at home before going out so he would never have to dine on food other people prepared.

5. Warhol's The Last Supper is the largest series of religious-themed works by any American artist. He painted one version in glow-in-the-dark paint.

Above, Polaroid pictures of crosses by Warhol.

6. The Rolling Stones rented Warhol’s Montauk estate in the summer of 1975 to practice before going on a World Tour with Tina Turner. Montauk was inundated with over 100,000 stones fans, filling up all the motels, and campgrounds and sleeping on the beach.

Above, Mick Jagger in Montauk, photographed by Warhol.

7. Other famous celebrities who rented Warhol’s Montauk estate include Lee Radziwell, sister of Jacquelin Kennedy O’Nassis, and Elizabeth Taylor. Above, Elizabeth Taylor, photographed by Warhol.

8. Long before Nixon got the idea, Warhol used to record and take pictures all of his encounters. He referred to his tape recorder as his wife. His Polaroid was his date.

9. The first sale of Warhol soup can paintings was in 1962. A collector named Irving Blum paid Warhol $1,000 for a set of 32 small paintings, which he sold to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for $15 million in 2011.

10. Warhol was the top-grossing artist by auction revenue in 2012. Annual sales of Andy Warhol’s artworks are now measured in the billions of dollars.

Above, Warhol with his Rolls Royce.

“I’ll be Your Mirror” 1stdibs and Hedges Projects put together an exhibition of photographs by Andy Warhol titled I'll Be Your Mirror. The collection of 150 black and white silver gelatin and Polaroid photographs are from the private collections of Warhol's diarist, Pat Hackett. With the additional inclusion of never-before-seen photographs by Sam Bolton, the exhibition offers a candid, inside view of Warhol's private life. I'll Be Your Mirror will be on view through October 7, 2013 at the 1stdibs Gallery in the New York Design Center.