Thursday, January 7, 2010

Thank you for the comment Anonymous on January 5th 2010! encouraged me.


I didn't know much about Andy Warhol before 1982 when I bought the Edie Sedgewick book by George Plimpton and Jean Stein. Of course I had grown up seeing the images of the Soup can, the Liz Taylor, Marilyn, Jackie O, in the pages of the Newsweek magazine our family received. And images of Andy himself. He was a celebrity artist. The Banana cover for the Velvet Underground album is another memory; during my high school years some of the SMH girls had a copy. And I frequently studied art books during that era as well and Andy's silkscreens again appeared.
After I read the Edie bio in 1982, I had a bad taste in my mouth for Andy. That Andy was a bit of a user and an asshole. Now I see the whole scene in context and how funny and insecure AH really was. Andy was a bit of a user and an asshole but again one has to look at the context of him, his actions, his art and his background and just him. Edie may have been used by Andy and the Factory but she was an equally bigger user of people, a desperate drug addict and had a tragically screwed up childhood.
In the years since I first encountered the Edie Sedgewick book, I have read several Andy Warhol documentaries and books. Like Bob Colacello's book, Steve Watson' book. The Diaries. And the excellent Ric Burns documentary American Masters. Studying his art with art books also. And I have come up with a deeper understanding and knowledge about Andy Warhol. He is much more influential on art history and culture and pop culture. What I found is that Andy Warhol the artist and the man is much deeper and more influential than the popular image of him and the popular images he created. Even though he said his art was all about surface. Oh god I could go on and on......

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!