Andy Warhol Amiga images (found digital artwork by pop artist; 1985)

American pop artist Andy Warhol experimented in creating pop art images with the use of a Commodore Amiga 1000, a computer given to him by the Commodore International computer company when he became an ambassador for the brand in 1985. Following Warhol's death in 1987, the computer and tools used to create the pieces went into storage at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The digital artworks fell into obscurity and became lost until a group of artists and retro computer hobbyists in Pittsburgh recovered the images in 2014. In July 2024, more image files on a floppy disk belonging to Andy Warhol were discovered.

Warhol and the Amiga

Commodore International released the Amiga 1000, the first Commodore machine in the Amiga family, in 1985. As part of the release, Commodore brought Andy Warhol to demonstrate the new machine at New York City's Lincoln Center on 23 July 1985, at which Warhol used the Amiga's digital camera and paint software to create a portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry in Warhol's signature pop art style. Warhol created a number of image files as he learned how to use the Amiga, including what were likely modifications of some demonstration images for the Amiga 1000. Warhol expressed a desire to print and publicize other artworks created on the Amiga in Amiga World magazine, but only the portrait of Debbie Harry was visible to the public prior to the 2010s recovery project. Following Andy Warhol's death in 1987, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stored the Amiga and the floppy disks containing the digital art files.

Recovery Project

In 2011, artist Cory Arcangel approached the Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Club to request assistance from retro computer experts in extracting data from the floppy disks and Amiga 1000 owned by Andy Warhol. Arcangel and club members worked together between 2011 and 2013 to extract the images. The Warhol Museum made the discoveries public in 2014.

2024 Findings

Debbie Harry's 2019 memoir, Face It, included a claim by Harry that she owned a floppy disk containing one of two known digital copies of her portrait created by Andy Warhol at the Amiga event in New York City. At the time, she did not disclose the identity of the owner of the second copy. In 2024, former Commodore employee Jeff Bruette came forward as the owner of the second copy. Bruette announced plans to put a floppy disk containing nine digital Warhol works, including the portrait of Harry, up for sale.