Art enthusiasts love Andy Warhol - but how much do they know about his life?

I recently visited the temporary Warhol exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum and read about Warhol's personal life behind the canvas and silkscreens.

Warhol was a person filled with love, and was considered "eccentric" by those who had become friends with him. An acquaintance of Warhol's, kept mentioning a play that was written to be produced by Warhol. Her name was Valerie Solanas; she was the feminist who founded the Society to Cut Up Men (SCUM).

Solanas consistently badgered Warhol into reading her script until the day he finally did. After Warhol read Solanas' play, he rejected her because it had allegedly been revolved around the idea of scatology, and viewed it as ridiculously salacious. Warhol even later stated that he believed Solanas was working with the police on "some kind of entrapment".

Solanas was angered by Warhol's decline and saw Warhol as a man who deserved death (which is also how she viewed almost every other man). On June 3, 1968, Solanas reached the Warhol's studio, went up the elevator with a gun covered by a paper bag, reached Warhol's designation, and fired at him.

Warhol was shot at three times during Solanas' attempt to assassinate him, but he was only hit once near the stomach. Solanas turned herself in, and Warhol spent months in the hospital, but was never able to fully recover. Solanas spent three years in prison, and was later announced schizophrenic.

Although many art lovers are not aware of what happened to Warhol, it affected him for the rest of his life, involving more surgeries, and eating troubles. Warhol died due to complications of a gall bladder surgery on February 22, 1987.

(If you're interested on learning more about what happened, American Horror Story's latest season "Cult" gives an episode reenacting the scene where Solanas shot Warhol)