Chronicle archives Andy Warhol at the Factory in New York, 1964.

Andy Warhol‘s brush with death 40 years ago last week shook up the New York art world but was overshadowed by the assassination of Robert Kennedy a few days later.

On June 3, 1968, Warhol was shot three times at his Factory in New York by a woman who was angry that he would not make a movie from a book she had written, which had a name that cannot be mentioned here. That evening, his assailant Valerie Solanas turned herself in to the police and was charged with attempted murder and other offenses, according to a New York Times story the next day.

Warhol was shot at about 4:15p.m. Here’s an account from “The Shooting of Andy Warhol” from a Web site called Warhol Stars: Andy Warhol Films, Art and Superstars:

“(At) 4:51 p.m. Andy Warhol is pronounced clinically dead. The doctors cut open his chest and massage his heart. They are amazed by the damage caused by the bullet which went through his lung, then ricocheted through his oesophagus, gall bladder, liver, spleen, and intestines before exiting his left side, leaving a large hole. He is dead for 1½ minutes before they revive him. They operate for five and a half hours, removing his spleen. He is in critical condition, but survives.”

Mario Amaya, a London art dealer who was visiting Warhol at the Factory, also was shot, but his wounds were not life-threatening.

Warhol was hospitalized for nearly two months. Warhol for the rest of his life had to wear a corset to prevent his injuries from worsening. Years later, his wounds would still occasionally bleed after he overexerted himself.

Chronicle archives Valerie Solana’s S.C.U.M. Manifesto

Valerie Solanas had a small role in Warhol’s I, a Man. She wrote a screed called S.C.U.M. Manifesto, which was an essay on patriarchal culture advocating the creation of an all-female society. According to Time magazine, Solanas formed the Society for Cutting Up Men in 1967. Her S.C.U.M. Manifesto begins:

“Life in this society being at best an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex.”

Filmmaker Ric Burns produced, wrote and directed Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, which aired on the PBS American Masters series in 2006, He said that before the shooting, “the Factory was like the most porous social creative environment ever created, 24 hours a day, people in and out, anybody, socialites, contessas, drag queens, drug addicts, Walter Cronkite, Judy Garland, you name it.”

After the shooting, Burns said:

“. . . the doors were locked at the Factory. Now it was, ‘Who are you? Why are you here?’ You had to show your identity papers, in some sense metaphorically. And that meant that the cast of characters in the Factory changed. In large part the transvestites were driven out. It was quite bad for the drug addicts and it became a straighter place, and he became more business-like, and he didn’t want to die. . . . It is a miracle he lived through (the shooting). His life changed, and the life of the culture changed.”

Solanas pleaded guilty to shooting Warhol on Feb. 26, 1969. A year and a week after the shooting, she was sentenced to up to three years in prison. She was released from prison in 1971.

In a 1977 interview with the Village Voice, she denied that the manifesto was ever meant to be taken seriously. She died in 1988 at age 52.

Warhol died in 1987 while recovering from a routine gallbladder operation. He had a heart attack in his sleep. He was 58.