Andy Warhol: A Chronology

1959 Publishes his last promotional book Wild Raspberries.

1960 Makes, by hand, paintings of comic strip figures - Batman, Dick Tracey, Popeye, Superman. Also paintings of low grade newspaper advertisements. Moves to 1342 Lexington Avenue.

1961 Sees Lichtenstein comic strip paintings at Castelli and offers gallery his own. Declined because too close to Lichtenstein. Abandons comic imagery. Asks friends what he should paint and is told 'Money ? or something you see every day that everyone would recognise ? like a can of Campbell's Soup'. Starts the series of thirty-two Campbell's Soup Cans.

1962 Discovers photo-silkscreen as a method of making paintings. Also experiments with stamping and stencilling. After the suicide of Marilyn Monroe on 5 August begins series of silkscreen paintings of her. Late October included in The New Realists at Sidney Janis gallery, New York, which launches the Pop generation. In November, solo show at Stable Gallery from which Philip Johnson buys a Gold Marilyn for the Museum of Modern Art. Warhol finally gives up commercial art.

1963 Following exhibition of Mona Lisa at National Gallery. Washington, makes Mona Lisa series, then Electric Chairs and Race Riot series, latter from Life magazine photo of civil rights demonstration, Birmingham, Alabama. November 22, President Kennedy assasinated, Warhol starts series of portraits of Jackie. Works on Disaster pictures. Buys 16mm camera and makes first film Sleep. Establishes studio, called the Factory, East 47th Street, with silver walls.

1964 Commissioned by Philip Johnson to make work for New York World's fair. Makes Most Wanted Men which is banned from fair. Makes film Empire and a dozen more. Receives Independent Film Award from Film Culture magazine. Disaster pictures shown in Paris to acclaim. Makes Flowers series.

1965 More films including My Hustler. Rock band Velvet Underground frequent the Factory. Warhol announces will abandon painting for film. Meets Paul Morrisey who will collaborate on all his future films. Retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, University of Philadelphia. The opening is so crowded pictures have to be unhung for safety. Warhol is escorted out the back to avoid adulation of crowd.

1966 Produces multi-media shows called Exploding Plastic Inevitable with band Velvet Underground. Exhibits Silver Clouds and Cow Wallpaper at Castelli. Exhibitions in Los Angeles and Turin. Makes film Chelsea Girls.

1967 Makes series of Electric Chair paintings. Produces Velvet Underground's first album. Chelsea Girls rejected at Cannes Film Festival. Makes Lonesome Cowboys and other films. Makes Marilyn silkscreen print portfolio.

1968 First European retrospective Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and Amsterdam, Berne, Oslo. Publication of his novel A. Makes films Blue Movie and Flesh. On 3 June is shot in the Factory by Valerie Solanas, founder of SCUM (Society for Cutting up Men). Nearly dies and never fully recovers.

1969 First issue of Interview magazine; film Trash.

1970 Retrospective at Pasadena Art Museum tours to Chicago, Eindhoven, Paris, London (Tate) and New York.

1971 His play Pork is performed in New York and London. Designs Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers.

1972 First Mao paintings in which Warhol introduces thick painterly overworking of the silkscreened image. Film Heat.

1973 Makes film Flesh for Frankenstein; produces L'Amour.

1974 Series of portraits of his mother and others. Makes films Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Andy Warhol's Dracula. Begins to assemble Time Capsules, boxes of everyday objects.

1975 From A to B and back Again: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is published. Baltimore Museum of Fine Art stages comprehensive exhibition of his work since 1962.

1976 Skulls series. Major exhibition of his drawings Stuttgart then touring Europe.

1977 Torsos and Hammer and Sickle series. Portraits of American athletes. Numerous exhibitions America, Europe, Kuwait, include retrospective 1962-76 Washington.

1978 Oxidisation and Shadows series. Portraits of Lisa Minelli and Muhammed Ali.

1979 Retrospective and Reversal series. Andy Warhol Portraits of the 70s at Whitney Museum, New York.

1980 Portraits of Joseph Beuys. POPism The Warhol '60s is published based on his recorded diary entries. Has audience with Pope.

1981 Fate Presto series following Naples region earthquake. Crosses; Dollar Signs; Guns; Knives series. Print retrospective New York.

1982 Portraits of Goethe. Show of series of 1981 at Castelli, New York, then toured to Paris and Madrid. Travels to China where he visits Great Wall.

1983 Collaborative works with Jean-Michel Basquiat.

1984 Renaissance and Munch series, also Rorschach paintings.

1985 Ads series based on common advertising motifs.

1986 Cars silkscreen prints commissioned by Mercedes-Benz. Camouflage paintings, Lenin portraits, Last Supper paintings based on Leonardo da Vinci.

1987 Works on portraits of Beethoven and print series History of American TV. On 22 February dies unexpectedly in the Cornell Medical Centre, New York, following a gall bladder operation and complications arising from an allergic reaction to penicillin.