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Andy Warhol's drawing of the painting The Birth of Venus, in 1985 ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum
pixel drawings

Lost Andy Warhol artwork recovered from old Amiga floppy disks

The artwork, which include a pixelated version of The Birth of Venus, was produced by Warhol back in 1985 when the Amiga 1000 first launched.

A COLLECTION OF new artwork from Andy Warhol has been found and recovered after they were discovered on 30 year old Amiga floppy disks.

The saved files, which were stored on Amiga floppy disks held by The Warhol’s archives, was part of a commission by Commodore International to demonstrate the computer’s graphics arts capabilities.

The collection was only discovered and rescued after artist Cory Arcangel viewed a YouTube clip of Warhol promoting the release of the Amiga 1000. The clip, which took place in 1985, involved him tweaking and manipulating an image of Blondie’s Debbie Harry, which is also part of the collection.

theisotope / YouTube

Wondering where the artwork went, he followed it up with a curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art while he was in Pittsburgh in 2011. After much work from Arcangel, the floppy disks holding the collection were found.

The files were extracted by members of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Computer Club and its Fran-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

After extracting the files, they found doodles, photographs, and experiments with Warhol’s existing artworks such as a crude drawing of his famous Campbell’s soup can.

The images, and the process of recovering them, are documented in a new exhibition called The Invisible Photograph series at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

1_Andy_Warhol_Andy2_1985_AWF Andy Warhol, Andy2, 1985 ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum

2_Andy_Warhol_Campbells_1985_AWF Andy Warhol, Campbell’s, 1985 ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum

4_Commodore_Amiga_computer_equipment_used_by_Andy_Warhol_1985-86 Commodore Amiga computer equipment used by Andy Warhol 1985-86 ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum

Read: The sweetest lamppost art you’ll see in Dublin today >

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