I remember quite well, my parents shaking their heads & saying- " that is notart... it is a painting of a soup can!", when I expressed my appreciation for the work of Andy Warhol at a very young age. The point of the matter was, I really "got him", even at age 8... or especially at age 8. Andy Warhol was the subject of much scorn & derision from the critics, the public & my parents, but he was arguably the most important artist of the 20th century.
Andrew Warhol, sometimes referred to as the "Pope of Pop," embraced pop art, fascinated with the commercialism of popular icons in media & in everyday life. Warhol helped to shape pop culture & foresaw our fascination with the media to the extreme extent to which it is now accessible. Claiming that each individual would have his or her "15 minutes of fame," Warhol would certainly not be surprised by the popularity of such venues as YouTube, MP3 music downloads, American Idol, The Facebook, Reality TV, or blogs.
A master & practitioner of multiple creative forms of expression, Warhol was a painter, writer, music producer, avant-garde filmmaker, magazine creator, sculptor, & photographer. Focusing on diverse & contrasting interests at once, he was fascinated with all forms of media, a blurring of gender identities, & the contrast between a sense of celebrity & privacy.
He was a ground breaker in the idea of self as product. He even set up his studio as "The Factory", overseeing a staff that turned out prints, silkscreens & products of his work. He was still a remarkable & transcendent artist & a commanding craftsman. The Husband & I once saw an enchanting exhibit of his commercial drawings from the early 1950s, mostly of ladies shoes, produced for advertising. These works predated his huge fame, but the essence of what he was to bring was already there. I have allot of material by & about him, including the very readable Andy Warhol's Diaries where he writes about his relationships with several men. His long time lover was interior designer Jed Johnson.
Warhol died after successful gall bladder surgery from a heart arrythmia in 1987. Johnson died in the TWA flight 800 explosion off the coast of Long Island in 1996. Warhol remains my favorite artist.
"An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have."
I met him at a holiday party hosted by my acting teacher- Austin Pendelton & I figured that we might possibly become friends & he would be my entrance to Andy Warhol's Factory, another step closer to fame.
Tennessee Williams: "All art is a scandal. Life tries to be. Taylor Mead succeeds. I come close". It took a long time for any one to have any reason to think of Taylor Mead as something other than a lonely old barfly living in a squalid apartment, feeding cats & mining mumbled memories.
In fact, Mead has been at the heart of the American avant-garde and counterculture for over 6 decades. A bridge between the Beat movement & the New York art world of the 1960s, he has remained an important creative force, as a writer, a performer & a muse for filmmaker Jim Jarmusch who featured Mead affectionately in Coffee &Cigarettes (2003).
Mead was initially discovered as a poet, but he soon became a leading onscreen figure in American experimental & independent Film, as well as an important collaborator off-screen, contributing to the editing & soundtracks of the films in which he appears.
Born in 1924 to a prominent Grosse Point family, Mead grew up gay at a time when it was not just scandalous but dangerous. He was disowned by his family & he left & fled to the freedom of NYC’s bohemian circles in the 1940s where he became a fixture on the poetry scene. He relocated to San Francisco like so many The Beats. In California, Mead began a collaboration with aspiring filmmaker Ron Rice, starring role in the sensitive The Flower Thief (1960). The film’s tremendous success brought Mead to the attention of artists working in NYC experimental film & theatre. Mead began to appear onstage with major roles in plays by LeRoi Jones & Frank O'Hara, eventually landing a "contract" as one of Andy Warhol's first superstars.
Mead's raunchy & droll performances, are completely unsophisticated & sincere. He has made over 100 movies, 10 with Warhol.
Those who think American indie film began with Quentin Tarantino in the 1990s will be surprised to know that it was the1960s underground cinema that laid the groundwork of what would become the entire independent film movement.
Mead turns 87 years old today. He lives in NYC, & still performs & read poetry regularly at The Bowery Poetry Club. His latest book of poems is called A Simple Country Girl. He was the subject of a documentary- ExcavatingTaylor Mead, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005. The film shows him engaging in his nightly habit of feeding stray cats in an East Village cemetery after bar-hopping, & features a cameo by Jim Jarmusch, in which Jarmusch explains that once, when Mead went to Europe, he enlisted Jarmusch's brother to feed the cemetery cats in Mead's absence.
Mead is a beloved icon of the downtown NYC art scene since the 1960s. He continues to be charming, with a wry outlook & dry delivery Mead: “Warhol was a genius. Of course, Hitler was a genius, too ...".
In the mid 1970s, Gary Weis made a short film of Mead for Saturday NightLive that featured Mead talking to his cat in the kitchen of his Ludlow Street apartment on the Lower East Side. The film is titiled- Taylor Mead's Cat.
Before George Platt Lynes, Horst, Bruce Webber, or Richard Avedon, there was Wilhelm von Gloeden. Famous in his own day, his work was mostly forgotten for close to a century, only to rediscovered in recent times as the most important gay visual artist of the pre–WW I era.
Because of ill health, von Gloeden left his native Germany in 1877, moving to Taormina in Sicily, where he remained until his death in 1931. The mayor of Taormina was the German landscape painter Otto Geleng, who had moved there in 1863. Through him von Gloeden soon became acquainted with the locals. He set up his photographic studio in Taormina, & was exhibiting his work internationally by1890.
Today von Gloeden is mainly known for his male nudes, but in his time he was also famous for his landscape photography that helped popularize tourism to Italy. He took over 7000 images, which after his death were left to one of his models- Pancrazio Buciunì, von Gloeden's lover from the age of 15. In 1933 some 1000 glass negatives from von Gloeden's collection & 2000 prints were confiscated by Mussolini's Fascist police under the allegation that they were pornography & destroyed; another 1000 negatives were destroyed in 1936, although Buciuni was tried & cleared of possessing pornographic images. Most of the surviving pictures are now in the Fratelli Alinari photographic archive in Florence.
The images that survive are startling for their technical accomplishment: his controlled use of lighting & elegant, classical poses of his models, innovative use of filters & special body makeup to disguise skin blemishes contribute to the artistic perfection of his works, & to their sexual heat. They became popular as postcards in Europe & the USA, often “under the counter”. Von Gloeden was wealthy & shared his profits with his models & funded small businesses in the area, which critics say may explain why the locals tolerated his homosexuality & the increasing tourist trade interested in the young dark skinned young men.
I see connection between the centuries from Von Gloeden to Warhol.
I was familiar with this image for years without knowing
Andy Warhol had a passion for party animals animals, especially canines. He brought his dachshund- Archie along to his many events & travels. I have lived a life filled with regrets, including not trying to infiltrate the Factory crowd when I lived in Manhattan in the 1970s... but then again, it might have done me in.
I admire the way dead celebrities continue to make more money than ever. Elvis Presley was one of the highest paid entertainers of 2010, & he has been gone for 24 years, yet he made $60 million last year.
Andy Warhol knew that he would one day be the stuff of legend. Warhol: “Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.”
Last week, another dead celebrity was the toast of NYC. At Phillips de Pury & Company, Elizabeth Taylor stole the show. The 1963 painting, one of 13 made of Elizabeth Taylor in various colors, was titled-Liz #5 (Early Colored Liz), & it sold to the bidder for $24 million, or $26.9 million including Phillips fees.
The price was not far off the $23.5 million that the actor Hugh Grant got for his turquoise Liz at Christie’s in 2007.
I guess because we feel the need to be engaged in 3 wars, I have been attempting to gain a simple working knowledge about what is happening in the Middle East & North Africa. It is so complicated with such a complex history: colonialism, East VS West, religious fundamentalism, oil, interesting fashion choices. I get most of my material from the Internet. Sometimes it is the magic of music that can bring people to understand each other. This video reached out to me from a contrary culture & spoke to me like no news pundit could:
She was born on January 19, 1946, the fourth of twelve children, to "dirt poor" parents in the mountains of Tennessee -- all fourteen living in a one-room cabin. Today, she is the undisputed Queen of Country Music, a crossover superstar, a pop culture icon, and the idol of drag queens, trannies and hookers everywhere. She is, of course, Miss Dolly Parton; and she was also our latest Mystery Guest!
Parton's flight from poverty began with her successful association with country music star Porter Wagoner, who featured Parton on his syndicated television series and recorded a string of hit duets with his talented protege. By 1971, Parton was establishing herself as a solo star to be recknoned with: "Coat of Many Colors" became a huge country hit, as well as her signature song; until it was topped by the even more-indelible "Jolene"; and then that was topped by the future standard, "I Will Always Love You."
"I Will Always Love You" was written by Parton as a kiss-off to Wagoner as their professional union came to an end; although she was now a bona fide country queen, Parton had her eye on greener pastures. She switched to a high-powered Hollywood PR firm, with Sandy Gallin acting as her personal manager. Her music was specifically tailored for "crossover" pop appeal, and suddenly, Parton wasn't just on Hee Haw and its ilk; she was everywhere, crooning with Cher, camping it up with Carol Burnett, being candid with Barbara Walters, and going chest to chest with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Here You Come Again" became Parton's first pop Top 10 smash in 1977; within a few years, Dolly was doing disco ("Baby I'm Burnin'," 1978); recording #1 hits written by Donna Summer ("Starting Over Again," 1980) and the Bee Gees ("Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers, 1983); and becoming a bona fide movie star, stealing 9 to 5 (1980) right out from under a stellar ensemble cast headed by the formidable Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin -- and scoring another #1 hit with the theme song for good measure.
From the beginning, Parton cultivated a flamboyant, eye-catching image: her impossible-to-ignore curves were accentuated by over-the-top gowns, while her huge bazooms were matched by even bigger hair. But what really set Parton apart was her remarkable talent: that heartfelt, heartbreaking soprano would have been as achingly gorgeous no matter the song, but the fact that much of Parton's best material is from her own pen is truly impressive. Even more impressive: in spite of her outrageous appearance, Parton is genuinely admired and respected by her audiences, peers and critics for her achievements and accomplishments. The talent is first and foremost; the boobs, wigs and plastic surgeries are secondary -- tabloids be damned.
It hasn't been one smooth road, of course; a glitzy attempt to revive the variety television show format in 1987 (creatively titled Dolly) was a major flop; and while another ensemble film, Steel Magnolias (1988), was a hit, the Dolly-driven vehicles Rhinestone (1984) and Straight Talk (1989) were not. Parton's pop music success also bottomed out by the mid-1980's, as she recorded such irresistibly campy, synthesized fluff as "Potential New Boyfriend" (1983) and "Dump the Dude" (1987). Guilty pleasures, yes; critically acclaimed, no.
A return to her roots briefly restored Parton to the top of the country charts in the late 1980's; but then the 1990's saw the veteran diva veering all over the musical map, chasing popular trends with varying degrees of success -- "Romeo" (1993) featured a cheesy cameo by mullet-of-the-moment Billy Ray Cyrus, while a retread of "I Will Always Love You" done as a duet with the smarmy Vince Gill (1994) had none of the delicacy of the 1974 original; nor the panache of Dolly's 1982 re-recording; nor even the bombast of Whitney Houston's zillion-selling 1992 cover for The Bodyguard soundtrack. Indeed, Houston's caterwauling rendition was probably the best thing for Parton's visibility and bank account during that bleak decade.
In more recent years, Parton thankfully returned to her bluegrass roots with a string of critically-acclaimed albums: The Grass is Blue (1999), Little Sparrow (2001), and Halos & Horns (2003). She was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar in 2005 for "Travelin' Thru," which Parton wrote for Transamerica, a film about a transsexual woman and her son. This venture brought Parton hate mail from some of her less enlightened fans; an irony, considering Parton's longtime standing as not only a gay icon, but also gay-friendly. Hell, she even once opined, "If I'd have been born a man, I'd have been a drag queen!"
A successful venture back to mainstream country, Backwoods Barbie (2008), took its title track from the score of 9 to 5: The Musical, which had a fairly disastrous bow on Broadway in 2009, but proved successful on its national tour. And that's the continuing saga of Dolly Parton: like all true legends, she bounces back after every fall -- and she never seems to muss her wig or break a nail in the process. Neither does soyons-suave, our man in Paris; naturally, he was the only one to guess correctly! Perhaps he and Dolly will form their own bluegrass jug band? As always, thanks for playing, darlings!
I remember quite well, my parents shaking their heads & saying- " that is not art... it is a painting of a soup can!", when I expressed my appreciation for the work of Andy Warhol at a very young age. The point of the matter was, I "got him", even at age 8... or especially at age 8. Andy Warhol was the subject of much scorn & derision from the critics, the public & my parents, but he was arguably the most important artist of the 20th century.
Andrew Warhola, sometimes referred to as the "Pope of Pop," embraced pop art, fascinated with the commercialism of popular icons in media & in everyday life. Warhol helped to shape pop culture & foresaw our fascination with the media to the extreme extent to which it is now accessible. Claiming that each individual would have his or her "15 minutes of fame," Warhol would certainly not be surprised by the popularity of such venues as YouTube, MP3 music downloads, MYSpace, American Idol, Facebook, The Real Housewives, or blogs.
A master & practitioner of multiple creative forms of expression, Warhol was a painter, writer, music producer, avant-garde filmmaker, magazine creator, sculptor, & photographer. Focusing on diverse & contrasting interests at once, he was fascinated with all forms of media, a blurring of gender identities, & the contrast between a sense of celebrity & privacy.
He was a ground breaker in the idea of self as product. He even set up his studio as "The Factory", overseeing a staff that turned out prints, silkscreens & products of his work. He was still a great artist & craftsman. The Husband & I once saw an enchanting exhibit of his commercial drawings, mostly of ladies shoes, produced for advertising. These works predated his huge fame, but the essence of what he was to bring was already there. I have allot of material about him, including the very readable Andy Warhol's Diaries. He remains my favorite artist.
"An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have."
