Muhammad Ali

April 1977

A regular at Studio 54

Studio 54 opened in April 1977 and Warhol became a regular, often seen there with Halston, Bianca Jagger and Liza Minnelli. Jed Johnson, who disliked that scene, said that things changed with Andy when it opened and that he was wasting his time.

c. 1979

“Portraits of the 70s” at the Whitney

The Whitney Museum mounted Andy Warhol: Portraits of the 70s, the decade's commissioned portraits, among them Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Agnelli, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and Mick Jagger. Reviews were mixed: the New York Times critic Hilton Kramer wrote that Warhol's art belonged less to the history of painting than to the history of publicity.

1980

Co-founder of the New York Academy of Art

In 1980 Warhol co-founded the New York Academy of Art, a school devoted to restoring traditional approaches to artistic training. Fellow co-founder Stuart Pivar later observed that Modernism had become boring for Warhol.

March 1980

The memoir “POPism” is published

POPism: The Warhol '60s is a retrospective account of his 1960s career and of the cultural environment of the Factory.

early 1980s

The end of his relationship with Jed Johnson

After the end of his relationship with Johnson, his only sustained romantic partnership, Warhol went through depression and significant weight loss. He turned to modelling, signing with the Zoli Agency in 1981 and later being represented by Ford Models.