Andy Warhol: Warholstars

About a year and a half ago Vanity Fair magazine assembled many of the surviving Warhol stars (Jane Holzer, Taylor Mead, Holly Woodlawn, Ultra Violet, Sylvia Miles etc...) for a photosession for their Art issue. The event was filmed and the video can now be seen on the Vanity Fair website at:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/video/2006/12/warhol_video200612.

Asylum presents a tribute to Andy Warhol

Asylum on Long Island is hosting a Warhol themed party on June 6, 2008. They are encouraging everyone to come "glammed out or trashy chic" like your favorite superstar with a prize for the best costume. According to the blurb for the party, events on the night will include "ariel sinclair with the asylum stars: djs decendant & sixx ny’s glamour kings brooklyn’s mystic underground jesse the pyro new york stage siren, madion mansfield goddess sahazha burlesque star sizzle dizzle and miss mary cyn of ny’s original cyn msdivine.net will be filming live from the aslyum confessional for on air interviews with all you lovely star fuckers. improvisational piece “living art sculptures” by peter bragino and kevin corcoran..."

Details on their myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/entertheasylum1.

or on the flyer at: http://www.warholstars.org/news/asylumflyer.html.

Free Download of Gene Youngblood's Expanded Cinema

Gene Youngblood's ground-breaking book, Expanded Cinema, can now be downloaded at no charge from two sites: Ubu.com and Vasulka.org.

The downloads are provided with the permission of Mr. Youngblood who is currently compiling his Los Angeles Free Press articles (including his interview with Andy Warhol) into a book and is also working on his memoirs with a detailed account of the time he spent with Warhol and Viva.

Expanded Cinema can be downloaded at:
http://www.vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_ExpandedCinema/ExpandedCinema.html

or at: http://www.ubu.com/historical/youngblood/expanded_cinema.pdf.

A Walk Into the Sea on DVD

Esther Robinson's award-winning film about her uncle Danny Williams and his experiences with Andy Warhol and the Factory will be available on DVD from May 6, 2008. Amazon is currently offering a 10% discount on pre-orders here.

Details on the film at: http://www.awalkintothesea.com.

Mark Rothko exhibition planned for the Tate Modern in September

The Tate Modern in London will be hosting a major Mark Rothko exhibition from September 26, 2008 to February 1, 2009. The show will include the Tate's nine Rothko Seagram murals grouped with a selection of the other Seagram mural panels in the permanent collections of the Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art in Japan and the National Gallery in Washington.

The murals (which were actually large paintings on canvas) were originally planned to be exhibited permanently in the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York. After accepting the commission for the murals, Rothko had apparently told a fellow passenger, John Fischer, on a cruise ship bound for Europe that he accepted the mural commission "with strictly malicious intentions" and that he hoped "to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room." Rothko told Fischer that he wanted to make the wealthy diners at the Four Seasons "feel that they are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked, so that all they can do is butt their heads forever against the wall."
(http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/timeline/abstractexpressionism59.html#m8uoxp)

After painting about 40 panels Rothko backed out of the Four Seasons deal after eating there - see http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/timeline/abstractexpressionism59.html#lmkjh.

Rothko was one of the Abstract Expressionists who resigned from The Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962 in protest at Janis' promotion of Pop Art in his gallery during the New Realists exhibition of 1962 - an exhibition that included 200 Campbell Soup Cans by Andy Warhol. When, in about 1963, Ruth Kligman reportedly attempted to introduce Rothko to Warhol, Rothko apparently blanked him.

From The Abstract Expressionism Chronology:

c. 1963: Ruth Kligman introduces Mark Rothko to Andy Warhol (sort of).

Ruth Kligman had apparently befriended Andy Warhol after his solo show at the Stable Gallery in November 1962. According to Kligman, she and Andy (who was, of course, gay) "had a terrific crush on each other and I think that it was sexual. We didn't act it out, but we spent a lot of time together, and we would hug sometimes."

Kligman recalled running into Mark Rothko on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 12th Street one Sunday afternoon when she was with Warhol. Ruth turned to Rothko and said, "Mark, this is Andy Warhol." Rothko walked away without a word.

Warhol (via Pat Hackett) also recalled attending a party where Rothko was one of the guests during the early sixties. Marisol, who was with the same gallery as Warhol, brought both Warhol and Robert Indiana to the party given by Yvonne Thomas. When they arrived Warhol apparently overheard Rothko say to Thomas, "How could you let them in?" Thomas replied, "But what can I do? They came with Marisol."
(http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/timeline/
abstractexpressionism63.html#ci9uy)

Details on the Tate Modern exhibition can be found at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/markrothko/default.shtm.

Piet (Mondrian) in Pittsburgh at The Warhol

The Warhol museum in Pittsburgh will be hosting an exhibition of Mondrian's paintings from May 3rd to August 31, 2008. The exhibition will include 24 works - some of which will be shown for the first time in the U.S. (Highly recommended.)

The website for The Warhol is at: http://www.warhol.org.

Velvet Underground: Exploding Plastic Inevitable at the ICA.

Ron Namath's film, Velvet Underground: Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966), will be shown at the ICA in London as part of the Secret Masterpieces of Cinema Pop! programme from April 27th.

Details at: http://www.icoessentials.org.uk/programme/pop.

Andy Warhol: Life and Death available to download

The documentary, Andy Warhol: Life and Death, is now available as a download from Amazon for $14.99. Details here.

Andy Warhol: China 1982

A new book of photographs by Christopher Makos of Andy Warhol's visit to China in 1982 is due to be published in August 2008. Amazon is currently offering a 37% discount on pre-orders here.

The Brillo Box Archive

Michael J. Golec's study on the aesthetics of the Brillo box, including an analysis of Warhol and Danto is due to be published in July 2008. Details here.

Robert Patrick honours the Caffe Cino

Robert Patrick, playwright and author of Temple Slave, is honouring the Caffe Cino with a plaque to be mounted on the site of the Caffe, now the home of Po Restaurant at 31 Cornelia Street in New York.

Details and photo at:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/showtime/viewblog.cfm?blogid=2081.

Robert Patrick's brilliant collection of more than fifty pages of photographs of the Cino can be found at:
http://hometown.aol.com/rbrtptrck/CINOCONTENTS.html.

On April 28th the The Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation will be sponsoring a discussion on the history of the Cino with Christine Karatnytsky from The Billy Rose Theatre Division of The New York Public Library.

Details at: http://www.gvshp.org/events.htm.

Abstract Expressionism

Before Pop there was Abstract Expressionism. I have added to the site a chronological account of the lives of the first generation Abstract Expressionists at:
http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/abstractexpressionism.html.

Benjamin H.D. Buchloh's "Anniversary Notes for Andy Warhol"

The exhibition catalogue for the Andy Warhol - Shadows and other signs of life show in Paris is now available from European booksellers. In addition to the reproductions of Warhol's photos and art, the well-designed book contains Buchloh's "Anniversary Notes for Andy Warhol" in both English and French.

Benjamin H.D. Buchloh [from Andy Warhol: Shadows and Other Signs of Life]:

"As in Duchamp's Tu m' (1918), Warhol's shadows not only expand the indexical sampling of the readymade (or rather, they point to the shadow's shared condition with the readymade's origin in the deixis), but they also increase the temporal tension between readymade objects and their shadows. While the objects emphatically assert their presence, their shadows announce, in the classical manner of the still life's memento mori, their imminent disappearance (an aspect that is of course made most explicit in the lapidary, yet all the more powerful photograph of the skull and its shadows)."

Ultra Violet in Dinah East

In 1970 a film was released, Dinah East, starring Jeremy Stockwell as a she who was really a he, which also featured a lesbian sex scene with Andy Warhol superstar Ultra Violet. Mae West, assuming the film was based on rumours that she [West] was a male, brought a successful lawsuit against the film which was pulled from distribution. West then bought and destroyed as many prints of the film she could find. It became an underground b-movie classic that few people ever saw.

The film is now available on DVD. Details on the Amazon page here.

Empire II at the Tribeca Film Festival in May

Empire II, a film by Amos Poe inspired by Andy Warhol's Empire, will be presented as part of the Tribeca Film Festival on May 2nd at Pace University and May 3rd at the Village East Cinema.

Details on the Tribeca Film Festival website at: http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org.

David Dawson to speak on Andy Warhol's prints at the London Original Print Fair

David Dawson will be giving an informal talk on Andy Warhol's prints on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 6 pm at The London Original Print Fair in conjunction with a show/sale of some of Warhol's original prints and drawings organized by Hilary and Georgie Gerrish in association with Dawson.

The print fair is being held at the Royal Academy in London from April 23 - 27, 2008. Dawson's talk will be held at the Gerrish's stand on the first floor at the top of the stairs in front of several rows of Warhol prints.

The website for The London Original Print Fair (at the Royal Academy in London from April 23 - 27, 2008) can be found at: http://www.londonprintfair.com.

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