A dozen newly discovered Andy Warhol images were discovered on old-school floppy disks by a university computer club – because the museum holding them didn’t have the technology to browse the files.
The computer disks, marked back to 1985, depict common Warhol subjects including the infamous Campbell’s Soup cans, self portraits, bananas and Marilyn Monroe as well as doodles and camera shots of a desktop.
The disks were only recently uploaded to computer screens in the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, uncovering the ‘trapped’ images.
Carnegie Mellon University’s art professor Golan Levin said the work was recovered following a YouTube video posted by a computer company, showing a 1985 infomercial of Warhol using an Amiga computer to create a digital portrait of singer Debbie Harry.
Warhol fan, artist Cory Arcangel, saw the YouTube video and in 2011 began investigating whether there was more computer art from Warhol to be found.
The newly uncovered art is owned by the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Warhol died in 1987, aged 58.
