#aow13

May 13, 2013 New York Magazine cover via

Photo from Regarding Warhol show via

"What a balloon dog or a puppy made of flowers or a shiny hanging-heart sculpture offers is a picture of industrial perfection, a naïve piece of uncomplicated beauty that can be appreciated without using words like discourse. Which is one very clear reason why he is held in such unsteady regard by critics and curators and is so beloved by spectators. As a reflection of the world in which it was made—a Pop universe of digestible wealth—it is perhaps as profound a picture as the work of Warhol’s was of his."

"I imagine Warhol, standing before the two paintings, in the final moment he was to spend in his studio, looking at both the dishes as if they were cognate Grails." (Danto 147)

"It was as if the message of saviors had been translated into the universal language of cheap American advertising. The Bonwit Teller show testifies to what remains perhaps the most mysterious transformation in the history of artistic creativity - Warhol's before and after." (146)

Andres Serrano's Piss Christ

Danto poses an interesting question when considering religious iconography in Warhol's work; when describing Serrano's piece, he asks, "Is the crucifix not an object of worship as much so as the person crucified?" 

"I'm still a commercial artist. I was always a commercial artist."

- Warhol in his final interview, I'll Be Your Mirror 

Seven American Death and Disasters

Warhol, from The Diaries, Thursday, September 20, 1979

"I had to go to a screening of that movie Anti-Clock that Jack Kroll's friends made...it was out of focus, it only went into focus about four times. It was a double screen, filmed in video and transferred onto film, it had a girl masturbating in a shower. Then the film looked like it broke and we didn't know if it had or if it was the end of the movie, and none of us dared to ask..."

It sounds a lot like Warhol's films. I find it really interesting that this is how he reacted - maybe he's finally getting a taste of his own medicine?

Also interesting to see the contrast in responses and interpretations of the film, from the British Film Institute:

“A complex and fascinating experimental exploration of time and identity. Anti-Clock is a film of authentic, startling originality. Brilliantly mixing cinema and video techniques, Arden and Bond have created a movie that captures the anxiety and sense of danger that has infiltrated the consciousness of so many people in western society. Filled with high tension and high intelligence, Anti-Clock is mysterious, disturbing, fascinating and exciting.” Jack Kroll, Newsweek

“Anti-Clock is great!” Andy Warhol

"I had a talk with Rick Li Brizzi at the office, told him he was selling my Maos and Soup Cans too cheap. Went home to change, picked up by Catherine, went to Nina Isham's for a birthday party...I was playing around, attaching some of the helium balloons to people who didn't know it. Bob kept getting annoyed, brushing his balloon away, he didn't know it was tied to him. After the dinner two cakes were brought out and somehow the whole table collapsed and both cakes went on the floor. 

And Ronnie and Gigi are back together."

- Andy Warhol, March 11, 1977, The Andy Warhol Diaries

An entry exemplary of the image the Diaries evoke of Warhol's life at this point: characterized by making money, social drama, and boredom resulting in juvenile pranks.