Though his work often speaks for itself, it is worth learning more about the figure behind the art.

Learn all about Pop Art’s most famous figure with these six Andy Warhol facts.

Childhood illness allowed him to hone his craft at a young age.

He started out as a successful shoe illustrator.

Shoes played a prominent role in Warhols early career as a commercial artist, the Tateexplains.

Many of his most famous pieces made their debut at his first New York solo show.

His New York studio was known as The Factory.

Though his workspace changed locations several times between 1962 and 1984, each one was known affectionately asThe Factory.

Here, Warhol worked with an assembly line-like team of assistantsan approach he developed in the late 1950s.

At The Factory, he continued this method of production.

A radical feminist writer shot and seriously injured him in 1968.

Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist author with schizophrenia, met Warhol in the 1960s.

He died of cardiac arrest shortly after the procedure.

He managed a band, established a magazine, and co-founded a universityall while making art.