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Andy Warhol Blog
by gary c.

to 2015

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31 December 2014: Happy Birthday Joe Dallesandro.

Joe Dallesandro in Merry Go Round

Joe Dallesandro in Jacques Rivette's Merry Go Round (1981)

25 December 2014: Merry Christmas y'all.

andy warhol and truman capote

Truman Capote & Andy Warhol, NYC, 1979
(Photo: Mick Rock)

Warhol's 13 makes top ten

The 13 Most Wanted Men exhibition has made The Art Newspaper's top ten shows of 2014. Also on the list are the screening of Empire at the James Fuentes gallery, the Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney and the Malevich show at the Tate Modern. For the full list go here.

The 13 Most Wanted Men are on view at The Warhol museum until 4 January 2015. Details here.

Book on Andy Warhol's road trip to be published in July 2015

A book about Warhol's cross-country trip from New York to Los Angeles during the run of his second exhibition at the Ferus Gallery is going to be published in July. Accompanying him on the "drug-fueled" trip was the recently deceased author/painter Wynn Chamberlain,Taylor Mead and Gerard Malanga. The author of the book, Deborah Davis, is also the author of the excellent book on Truman Capote's Black and White Ball of 1966: Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black-and-White Ball.

The book about Warhol's road trip is called The Trip: Andy Warhol's Plastic Fantastic Cross-Country Adventure. About the book, Davis notes that "In 1963, up-and-coming artist Andy Warhol took a road trip across America.  This journey, which began as a madcap, drug-fueled romp, took Warhol on a kaleidoscopic, transcontinental adventure from New York, across the vast Heartland of the nation, all the way to Hollywood and back...

With locations ranging from a Texas panhandle truck stop to a Beverly Hills mansion; from the beaches of Santa Monica to a Photomat booth in Albuquerque; from Disneyland to the pulsating Las Vegas Strip, THE TRIP follows Andy on a whirlwind POP tour of America. Best known for capturing our culture in a series of iconic images, it was on this trip that Warhol saw - and experienced - so many of the things that would define both the artist and his era."

James Warhola at opening of Pop Art Centre in Prague

Andy Warhol's nephew, James Warhola, appeared as a special guest at the opening of the new Pop Art Centre in Prague. While in Prague he was interviewed for Novinky.cz, saying that Warhol was "amazingly industrious" and "painted from morning to evening." Photos here.

James Warhola interview here.

Grace Jones autobiography to be published by Simon and Shuster

Grace Jones' autobiography will be published in May 2015 by Simon and Shuster. According to the publisher's blurb, "Miss Grace Jones takes us on a journey from Grace's religious upbringing in Jamaica to her heyday in Paris and New York in the 70s and 80s, all the way to present-day London, in what promises to be a no holds barred tell-all for the ages."

More here.

Love is enough in Oxford

A dual exhibition of William Morris and Andy Warhol - "Love is Enough" - is taking place at Oxford Modern Art from 6 December 2014 to 8 March 2015. Curated by Jeremy Deller.

Details here.

Love is a Pink Cake at the A & D Gallery

Love is a Pink Cake, Warhol's promotional portfolio of the 1950s, is the subject of an exhibition at the A & D Gallery in London from 1 December 2014 to 10 January 2015.

Details here.

A Day at the Factory in Cavalier

Andy Warhol article in Cavalier

Full article here.

Alfredo Garcia, who does the Warhol Film Ads website, has added to the site an article that appeared in the men's magazine, Cavalier, in 1967 about Andy Warhol's factory, Four Stars, Ivy Nicholson, Susan Bottomly, Nico and others. To go to the site, go here. For the Cavalier article, scroll down to December 1967.

Deborah Kass joins the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation

Deborah Kass and Chuck Close

Deborah Kass with Chuck Close (2013)
(White Hot magazine)

11 December 2014: Artist Deborah Kass has joined the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Kass is well-known for her pop images of Barbra Streisand as Yentl from her series, The Warhol Project. The series was also the subject of the 1999 book, Deborah Kass: The Warhol Project, edited Michael Plante, with essays by Plante, Robert Rosenblum, Linda Nochlin, Maurice Berger and Mary Anne Stanszewski. Her current project is "Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times." A mid-career retrospective of her work was held at the Andy Warhol Museum in 2012. Images can be found on her website here.

Two other new members have also joined the board - Shana Berger and John Taft. Berger is an artist and curator and co-director of the Coleman Center for the Arts. Taft is CEO of RBC Wealth Management and has served as the chair of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The new board chairman - Lawrence Rinder - was also elected. Rinder is the director of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and was already on the board.

R.I.P. Wynn Chamberlain

Wynn Chamberlain

Wynn Chamberlain and Andy Warhol in Old Lyme, Connecticut
(Photo: Sally Stokes Chamberlain)

Wynn Chamberlain died in New Delhi on November 27th of heart failure. He was cremated on 1 December in Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganges.

Wynn was a painter, author, and filmmaker who went with Warhol on his cross-country trip to the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles during Warhol's second exhibition there. Some of Warhol's earliest footage was taken with a Bolex owned by the father of Wynn's partner, Sally Stokes. Some of the film that Warhol shot in Connecticut, including footage of Wynn, was recently included in Exposed: Songs for Unseen Andy Warhol Films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on 8 November 2014.

Sally and Wynn later married and gave birth to fraternal twins - Sam and Sarah. During the past few years, Wynn's son, Sam, has been showing the film that Wynn directed, Brand X, at various festivals and museums including the Tate Modern in London in 2012 - which included a panel discussion with Wynn and Taylor Mead. The website for Brand X, which includes a short biography of Wynn, can be found here. The film is currently being restored and re-released by the Cineteca di Bologna.

See "Wynn Chamberlain."

The E.P.I. and Expanded Cinema at the Tate Liverpool

Gary Needham and Glynn Davis, co-editors of Warhol in Ten Takes (London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), will be speaking on "Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable and Expanded Cinema" on 7 December 2014 as part of the Tate Liverpool's Warhol exhibition, "Transmitting Andy Warhol" which is running 7 November 2014 - 8 February 2015.

Expanded Cinema ad

The Village Voice, 28 October 1965, p. 28
Advert for the "New Cinema Festival I" festival which was later
erroneously referred to as the Expanded Cinema Festival.
(see: Expanded Cinema ?)

Although Jonas Mekas is often credited with coming up with the term, "expanded cinema," the festival he put on in 1965 which was later referred to as the Expanded Cinema Festival was actually called the New Cinema I Festival as per the above ad. It was also referred to by that name by Mekas in his columns at the time. Later, when a compilation of his Village Voice articles was published, the heading of "Expanded Cinema" was added to some of the columns about the festival. But that happened later. The original columns did not have the titles. When Mekas first announced the festival in his 3 June 1965 column for the Village Voice, he did it under a heading of "Expanded Cinema." But by the time the festival came to fruition, it was the New Cinema I Festival.

By "Expanded Cinema" Mekas meant cinema that extended beyond the boundaries of the screen - "happenings" that included film as part of the performance. The performances by USCO (pronouced Us Co.) at Mekas' festival included light shows and music in a way that would later be adopted by the E.P.I. In 2010 Michael Oren wrote in the Art Journal, "The USCO group, which combined the efforts of a poet, a painter, and an electronics innovator to produce immersive multimedia events, was based in an old church in the Hudson Valley but also performed in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, and at university campuses all across the United States. In the 1964-66 period of its most intense activity, the group projected slide and film collages, produced paintings that flashed and kinetic sculptures whose parts turned and scintillated or thrust up jets of water - all in an attempt to open audiences to nonlinear or even mystical experience...Perhaps because of its association with Andy Warhol, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (or Velvet Underground) has received the light of critical attention, while USCO has slipped into relative obscurity."

In 1970, Gene Youngblood's book called Expanded Cinema (with an introduction by Buckminster Fuller), was published.Youngblood's concept of expanded cinema was considerably more complicated than Mekas.' Under Youngblood, expanded cinema became expanded consciousness, influenced by the ideas of Fuller and John McHale. (An interview with McHale's son is here.

Gene Youngblood's book can be downloaded without charge here.

Details of the talk at the Tate Liverpool can be found here.

Andy Warhol's nephew issues statement about the Agusto Bugarin case

Andy Warhol's nephew, James Warhola, has issued the following statement in regard to the Warhol Foundation's legal action against Agusto Bugarin (scroll down for case details):

"Agusto Bugarin has the full support of the Paul Warhola Family. Agusto was a very trusted friend and assistant to my uncle for many years. I believe it's a huge mistake for the Warhol Foundation to label Agusto - 'a liar and a thief' in regard to his receiving the Liz Taylor painting as a gift. I remember Agusto being very devoted. It's an absolute disgrace that they would malign him that way. My uncle would be turning in his grave knowing his own Foundation was going after his most loyal assistant. I know my Uncle Andy was very generous with all of the Bugarin family. He loved that whole family as if they were his own."

Norman Glick directs Ron Tavel's plays

Norman Glick, the long-term partner of Harvey Tavel, is directing a production of two plays by Harvey's brother, Ron Tavel. (Ron wrote the script for many of Warhol's films in the sixties including the film version of The Life of Juanita Castro which included Harvey Tavel in the cast.)

The theatrical version of Juanita Castro and Kitchenette will run 28 November through 14 December 2014 at the Theater For The New City (tel: 212 254 1109). Cast includes Agusto Machado and Ruby Lynn Reyner.

Billy Name at the Milk

Billy Name photograph of the Velvet Underground

Lou Reed photographed by Billy Name

An exhibition of photographs by Billy Name - "Billy Name: The Silver Age" - will open at the Milk Gallery on 12 November and run until 7 December 2014. The exhibition is taking place in conjunction with the release of a book of the same title edited by Dagon James and Anastasia Rygle, with a foreword by John Cale and an introduction by Glenn O'Brien. (An interview of Billy by Glenn O'Brien also appeared in the Observer recently in the U.K. here.

More information about the book here.

Details of the exhibition at the Milk Gallery here.

Liz goes into storage

At yesterday's hearing, Wednesday 5 November, presided over by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern, it was agreed by both parties that the Liz painting of disputed ownership should go into storage until a final decision is made as to who owns it - Agusto Bugarin, the brother of Warhol's Filipino housekeepers, or The Warhol Foundation.

Bugarin, who is mentioned in the Diaries as a sort of bodyguard, claims that the painting was given to him by Warhol whereas the Foundation is claiming that he stole it. Judge Kern has told both parties that they can each appoint a representative to look after the painting while it is in storage.

Claire Henry and Geralyn Huxley to participate on BAM panel

Callie Angell's ex-assistant Claire Henry (now senior curatorial assistant the the Whitney) will be appearing with Geralyn Huxley at the Brooklyn Academy of Museum on 7 November 2014 in conjunction with their series of unseen Warhol films put to music by Tom Verlaine of Television fame, Martin Rev of Suicide and others. Having worked with Callie, Claire is one of the most knowledgeable authorities on Warhol's films around. Geralyn Huxley is the film and video curator at the Andy Warhol Museum. The event will be moderated by Blake Gopnik who wrote a rather interesting examination of Warhol's "Famous for 15 Minutes" essay here.

Putting music to Warhol's films has always been controversial. When Dean and Britta added a soundtrack to thirteen Screen Tests, some of the public loved it and some of the more serious underground film aficionados thought it a sacrilege. Was it an attempt to make the films less boring i.e. more "entertaining?" Should art be entertaining? "Boredom" is an important aspect of Warhol's films. There's the famous Warhol quote by Pat Hackett in Popism - "If they can take it for ten minutes, then we play it for fifteen... That’s our policy. Always leave them wanting less."A similar sentiment was expressed by John Cage: "If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." (See "Andy Warhol and Boredom.")

On the other hand, Warhol did show at least some of his films in the background of musical performances by the Velvet Underground as part of the light show for the E.P.I. gigs. So playing music while his films are shown is not without precedent. But as the BAM films are previously "unseen films" would it have been more interesting and more authentic to show them initially without the addition of music?

On the third hand, it will be interesting to see what Tom Verlaine comes up with.

Details of the film screenings are here:

Details on the panel discussion here.

From Nowhere to Up There

I have added to the site a new section, Andy Warhol: From Nowhere to Up There, an oral(ish) history of the life of Andy Warhol which you will find here. It's something I've been working on for awhile so I hope you will read it - in fact, you might be in it.

It's a work in progress. Currently it goes up to the Soup Cans. I am now working on the sixties and am especially interested in hearing from people who were around then but have been missed out in previous Warhol biographies - the nameless faces you see in photographs of the Factory. Email me at: garycom.now@gmail.com.

(The original pre-pop section is where it's always been at - here.

Agusto Bugarin denies stealing Liz painting

Ex-marine Agusto Bugarin has denied stealing a Warhol Liz painting despite protestations by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Chelsea gallery which is marketing the painting, the Taglialatella, has also been accused by the Foundation as "dealing in stolen goods" in court papers. The painting has not been reported as stolen to the police. According to the Courthouse News Service, "Taglialatella claims to have it checked with the Art loss Registry and confirmed that it had not been reported stolen before marketing the painting. Bugarin and the gallery both invited 'two senior employees' with the foundation to inspect the painting, and the foundation never raised objections until after it was slated for auction." Other artists handled by the gallery include Banksy, Jean Michel Basquiat, Jim Dine, Shepard Fairey, Helen Frankenthaler, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst and Roy Lichtenstein.

The full Courthouse News Service report can be found here.

Warhol Foundation sues the brother of Warhol's maids over Liz painting

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has launched a lawsuit against Agusto (aka Augusto) Bugarin for the return of a Liz painting that Bugarin claims was given to him by the artist for help with remodeling a New York apartment for Jon Gould. The legal action is a civil action. The Foundation has not reported Bugarin to the police for theft, although they have referred to it as theft in court documents.

Bugarin was the brother of Andy's maids - Nena and Aurora Bugarin.

In The Andy Warhol Diaries, Warhol describes Bugarin as a "small and adorable" ex-Marine:

Andy Warhol (30 April 1981):

"Nena and Aurora's brother, Agosto, came down to the office, the one who's small and adorable who was a Marine. Vincent talked to him about a job."

On 4 May, Warhol says, "A Detective Rooney or something like that from the NYPD came over. And Risa Dickstein, she's Interview's lawyer, said she has a detective we can hire, but I'm going to hire Agosto to be my bodyguard and go places with me." (p. 527-8)

Bugarin also, apparently, helped Warhol stitch his photographs together for Warhol's stitched or "Sewn Photographs."

Andy Warhol (29 April 1982):

"I had Brigid [Berlin] stitching away on the new sewing machine I bought because I want to sew my photographs together, but then it turned out that the best sewer is my bodyguard, the ex-Marine Agosto, because he worked in a sweatshop in Hawaii before he went into the Marines." (p. 616)

A Manhattan judge has issued a temporary restraining order in regard to the sale of the painting and a full hearing on the matter is to take place on Nov. 5. Details of the hearing will be posted here.

Herko article in the Guardian

The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. has published an article on Fred Herko and the Herko festival happening in New York (see below). The article can be found here.

David Weisman wins part of his lawsuit against Edie Sedgwick's husband, Michael Post

David Weisman, the producer of the non-Warhol (brilliant) movie, Ciao! Manhattan, starring Edie Sedgwick, has won the right to Edie's image on merchandising as long as the image is connected to the film. He was arguing that a section of his contract with Edie gave him the right to Edie's image in all circumstances.

Details in the Hollywood Reporter here.

Andy Warhol's porn cinema?

ad for porn films presented by Gerard Malanga

I have added to the site a short essay on "Andy Warhol's 'Porn Movie-House'" which you will find here.

The World Goes Pop at the Tate Modern

world goes pop at the Tate Modern

Ushio Shinohara, Doll Festival 1966
Doll Festival 1966
Photo courtesy of Tokyo Gallery+BTAP

"The World Goes Pop," an exhibition that examines Pop Art from an international perspective will run at the Tate Modern in London from 17 September 2015 to 24 January 2016. The exhibition includes Anthony Caro's commercial logo paintings as well as a large selection of art by women artists.

From the press release:

"Pop's comic-book blondes and advertising models have become familiar images of the idealised female body, but this exhibition will also reveal the many women artists who presented alternative visions. The Pop body could be complex and visceral instead, from Brazilian Anna Maria Maiolinoa brightly coloured sculpture of digestive organs Glu, Glu, Glu 1966, to the paintings of cut-up and isolated body parts by Slovakia's Jana Zelibska and Argentina's Delia Cancela."The World Goes Pop" will also showcase many other women artists who played key roles in the movement, including Evelyne Axell, Eulalia Grau and Marta Minujin, challenging the traditional cast of male figures who have come to dominate Pop's canon."

Previous exhibitions by the curator of the show, Jessica Morgan, include "John Baldessari: Pure Beauty," "Martin Kippenberger," and a survey of the work of Mona Hatoum. Earlier this year she was appointed the Artistic Director for 10th Gwangju Biennale in the Republic of Korea.

Details of the Tate show can be found here.

Fred Herko

Fred Herko

A series of events celebrating the life of the dancer (and Warhol star) Fred Herko, organized by Herko biographer, Gerard Forde, will take place in New York to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the dancer's death in October. Full details here.

The Hugo-Warhol Mannequin Sculptures?

hugo-warhol mannequin sculptures

On Vimeo here.

A video has appeared on Vimeo of a collection of mannequins which a Vimeo user called "Warhol Mannequins" claims were sculptures done by Andy Warhol and Victor Hugo. There are no details of who the uploader, "Warhol Mannequins," is.

They quote Warhol's colleague Stuart Pivar as saying, "Andy was talking and thinking for a long time of his wish to create sculptures, and creating the painted mannequins was the art project that he and Victor Hugo began with Andy running down to Victor's place almost every afternoon for a long time... This collaboration with Victor on the painted mannequins which I witnessed went on for a long time and Andy was happy and enthusiastic about them and, going back to the Factory, Andy was telling people how he thinks the mannequins are the greatest thing of art there ever was... Now, when I look at the painted mannequins I can see what Andy meant. Andy Warhol's painted mannequins are extremely beautiful things."

There a clip of Mr. Pivar in the video but he does not make the assertion that he witnessed Hugo and Andy working on the mannequins in the clip. He refers to the project as "like an art project." The visits to Hugo's place are not mentioned in the diaries, nor are the mannequins. There is no record of them being shown during Warhol's lifetime. Warhol's diary does mention painting during this period but not with Hugo and not on mannequins. In fact, many of the "painted mannequins" in the video appear to be unpainted.

The "sculptures" were previously shown at the Milk Gallery in 2007. At that time the Artnet listing described them as having been owned by Warhol and that they "may" have been a collaboration, but does not assert that they were a collaboration.

From Artnet News (dated "Sept. 13, 2006" although it refers to 2007 in text):

HUGO MANNEQUINS AT MILK

Caracas-born Victor Hugo (1948-1993) was known as one of the greatest window dressers of '70s and '80s New York - and as the life partner of fashion designer Halston - but it is his association with Andy Warhol that gets him his due at Milk Gallery at 450 W. 15th Street, Sept. 11-30, 2007. Catherine Alexander has organized a show of Hugo-dressed mannequins that were once in Warhol's collection, and may have been the result of a collaboration between the two men (Hugo was definitely in Andy's orbit - his urine was integral to Warhol's 'Oxidation Paintings.') According to the gallery, research into the exact nature of the mannequins' origin is ongoing. (Article here.)

It's unknown why the curator, Catherine Alexander, thought that these mannequins were once in Warhol's collection or how a claim could be made that they were a collaboration between Hugo and Warhol, just because Hugo and Warhol were friends. If Warhol had anything to do with these mannequins and meant them to be exhibited as works of art, he would have made them available during his lifetime.

London-based company MPC to help MoMA and The Warhol museum
to digitize previously unseen Warhol films

Paraphenalia by Andy Warhol

Paraphernalia by Andy Warhol

London-based company MPC is being utilized by MoMA and The Warhol museum to digitize what is being described on the BBC website as "hundreds of unseen Andy Warhol films." The BBC site also has the above picture from Paraphernalia which will be shown in October as part of the museum's 20th anniversary celebrations. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Some of the fruits of this project will be shown later this year when fifteen Warhol films that have never been seen by the public will premiere Oct. 17 at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. The event, “Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films,” will feature live musical performances by Tom Verlaine, Martin Rev, Dean Wareham, Eleanor Friedberger and Bradford Cox."

Details on BBC here and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.

New trailers for latest edition of Mary Woronov's Swimming Underground

mary woronov - swimming underground trailer

Two new trailers for the latest edition of Mary Woronov's Swimming Underground - her account of her time at Andy Warhol's Factory - has been posted to You Tube. The two trailers are here and here.

Fourth volume of the Warhol catalogue raisonne due in September 2014

Andy Warhol catalogue raisonne

The fourth volume of the Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne covering paintings and sculpture from late 1974-1976 will be published in September 2014. I can't rate the previous volumes of the Warhol cat. rais. high enough. Cataloging Warhol's prodigious output in a clear and concise manner is a major achievement. Given that both Sally King-Nero and Neil Printz have edited the fourth volume, it is bound to be as exciting and informative as the previous volumes they worked on. If you want to know Andy Warhol, read the catalogue raisonne. In the process of cataloguing his work, the authors have also created one of the most dependable and well-researched biographies of the artist. Highly recommended.

Andy Warhol: The Complete Commissioned Magazine Work
to be published in October 2014

Andy Warhol The Complete Commissioned Magazine Work front cover

Andy Warhol: The Complete Commissioned Magazine Work will be published in October 2014. The author, Paul Marechal, has previously written Andy Warhol: The Complete Commissioned Posters 1964-1987 and the catalogue raisonne of album covers, Andy Warhol: The Record Covers 1949-1987.

Ray Johnson exhibition at MoMA

An exhibition of Ray Johnson's design work is being held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 2 July to 29 September 2014. The exhibition, organized by David Senior, "focuses on Johnson's early printed materials, especially his promotional flyers for his work as graphic designer and illustrator."

MoMA has placed a considerable selection of information and work from the exhibition in one of its interactive online spaces here.

Images from Ray Johnson design exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Ray Johnson design images from
the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art

Viva exhibition in New York

Thousand Islands Arts Center

The Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton, New York

The Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton, New York will be hosting an exhibition of paintings by Warhol star Viva (Hoffman) this summer. "Viva, Viva! Landscapes Seascapes, East to West." will run at the gallery from 31 July to 29 August 2014. Viva will be at the opening. Details here.

to:

R.I.P. Ultra Violet

Film-Makers' Cinematheque

Holly Woodlawn auction

Gerard Malanga in Glasgow

The Brig

Jane Holzer

Holly Woodlawn interview

Bike Boy and My Hustler

The Andy Warhol Museum in Slovakia

Opening Party for the Piero Heliczer show

Gregory Battcock

Reading Warhol

Expanded Cinema Mach II

R.I.P. Rene Ricard

Paul Warhola

Whatever Happened to Naomi Levine?

William Burroughs' Son

Film Cat. Rais. v.2

L'Amour

Joe Dallesandro and Holly Woodlawn

Lou Reed Remembered

Expanded Cinema

The Velvet Underground

to 2015

to old news

home - news - about - superstars - interviews - articles - soup can - films - art - timeline - abstract expressionism - sources - citations