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POPism: The Warhol Sixties
A cultural storm swept through the 1960s - Pop Art, Bob Dylan, psychedelia, underground movies - and at its centre sat a bemused young artist with silver Andy Warhol. Andy knew everybody (from the cultural commissioner of New York to drug-driven drag queens) and everybody knew Andy. His studio, the Factory, was the where he created the large canvases of soup cans and Pop icons that defined Pop Art, where one could listen to the Velvet Underground and rub elbows with Edie Sedgwick and where Warhol himself could observe the comings and goings of the avant-guarde.
392 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Andy Warhol
392 books606 followersAndy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important American artists of the second half of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
July 3, 2023
Мемуаристика тоже может быть андеграундной, попистской и контркультурной.
Уорхоловские 60-е были весёлыми, с бесконечными тусовками, свободным сексом, лёгкостью, доступностью и изобилием наркотиков, которые считалось нормальным романтизировать, и от которых много талантливых людей умерли молодыми.
Это было время, когда наркотики были модными, их принимали и светские львицы, и отвязные тусовщики, артисты употребляли их, чтобы оставаться бодрыми 24 часа в сутки, недобросовестные врачи прописывали амфетамины, как средство для похудения.
60-е были временем сексуальной революции, поэтому также как свой фильм, эту книгу Уорхол мог бы запросто назвать "Трах".
Эта книга про то, как жил Уорхол, как творил, и не только в изобразительном искусстве, но и кино, музыке. Мне кажется, что он был талантлив в общении - кажется, что он лично знал всех более-менее значимых людей в кино, музыке и искусстве в США и Европе. Он умел коммерциализировать искусство и понимал важность галерей и кураторов в раскрутке художников и целых направлений. Художника в нем разглядел Эмиль де Антонио или Де. Как-то Энди спросил, отчего его другие художники не любят.
"Во-первых, пост-абстрактно-экспрессионистская чувственность, конечно, гомосексуальна, а они оба носят классические костюмы – то ли в армии, то ли на флоте служили! Во-вторых, их нервирует, что ты коллекционируешь картины: обычно художники не покупают работы других, так не делается. И в-третьих, – заключил Де, – ты коммерческий художник, а это совсем в их голове не укладывается, потому что это они занимаются рекламой – витринами и прочими заказами, что я для них нахожу, – они этим занимаются, чтобы заработать на жизнь. Они даже своими именами не пользуются. В то время как ты за рекламу призы получаешь! Знаменит благодаря ей!" Мир абстрактного экспрессионизма был мачистским, и Энди туда не вписывался. Поп-арт возник из ниоткуда. Одновременно несколько художников начали работать в этом стиле.
Книга дала импульс узнать и о других сторонах таланта Уорхола, в частности, творчества группы Velvet underground. Его фильмы что-то не решаюсь посмотреть.
Уорхоловские 60-е были весёлыми, с бесконечными тусовками, свободным сексом, лёгкостью, доступностью и изобилием наркотиков, которые считалось нормальным романтизировать, и от которых много талантливых людей умерли молодыми.
Это было время, когда наркотики были модными, их принимали и светские львицы, и отвязные тусовщики, артисты употребляли их, чтобы оставаться бодрыми 24 часа в сутки, недобросовестные врачи прописывали амфетамины, как средство для похудения.
60-е были временем сексуальной революции, поэтому также как свой фильм, эту книгу Уорхол мог бы запросто назвать "Трах".
Эта книга про то, как жил Уорхол, как творил, и не только в изобразительном искусстве, но и кино, музыке. Мне кажется, что он был талантлив в общении - кажется, что он лично знал всех более-менее значимых людей в кино, музыке и искусстве в США и Европе. Он умел коммерциализировать искусство и понимал важность галерей и кураторов в раскрутке художников и целых направлений. Художника в нем разглядел Эмиль де Антонио или Де. Как-то Энди спросил, отчего его другие художники не любят.
"Во-первых, пост-абстрактно-экспрессионистская чувственность, конечно, гомосексуальна, а они оба носят классические костюмы – то ли в армии, то ли на флоте служили! Во-вторых, их нервирует, что ты коллекционируешь картины: обычно художники не покупают работы других, так не делается. И в-третьих, – заключил Де, – ты коммерческий художник, а это совсем в их голове не укладывается, потому что это они занимаются рекламой – витринами и прочими заказами, что я для них нахожу, – они этим занимаются, чтобы заработать на жизнь. Они даже своими именами не пользуются. В то время как ты за рекламу призы получаешь! Знаменит благодаря ей!" Мир абстрактного экспрессионизма был мачистским, и Энди туда не вписывался. Поп-арт возник из ниоткуда. Одновременно несколько художников начали работать в этом стиле.
Книга дала импульс узнать и о других сторонах таланта Уорхола, в частности, творчества группы Velvet underground. Его фильмы что-то не решаюсь посмотреть.
September 28, 2008
I fucking love Andy Warhol.
July 31, 2015
This is a good introduction to books produced by Andy Warhol because it's light tone and optimism, interesting details and how easy it is to read. My father had the first copy of this book that I read many times. An introduction to the strange world of the Factory from its earliest days, the people come and go, the music (including the Velvet Underground plays), the cameras film on and tinfoil and the 1960s are everywhere, in fashion, drugs, people and art. Beautiful and interesting to read. Recommended.
March 24, 2010
Easy read but fascinating. Warhol's style is very conversational, very gossipy, and if it weren't for the tragic ends of so many of the individuals featured, Popism would be almost fluffy. The name dropping got to be a little much, as if he were trying to stuff as many big names as possible into the pages, and certain instances were quite clearly sugarcoated to downplay the drama and make himself look better by minimizing his involvement (example: Edie Sedgwick). Not much of a narrative, just vivid memories that Warhol does manage to interweave and bring together into an intriguing tale. I'm neither a Warhol nor New York in the 60s fanatic, but I still found myself interested. Popism definitely held my attention. Recommended.
October 21, 2024
Andy Warhol wrote Popism with Pat Hackett. Probably dictated it to her. His book about the 70s and 80s, the Andy Warhol Diaries, is also written with, probably dictated to, Pat Hackett. I mean, I think Pat’s female. Possibly Pat is a man.
Warhol died in 1987 of complications from Valerie Solonas shooting him in 1968. He did not do drugs and he did not have AIDs. But everyone in the factory was on amphetamines.
I read this when I was 19 and utterly loved it then, carried away by the glamour of the scene. Thirty years later I don’t care as much, just see it as interesting history.
Warhol died in 1987 of complications from Valerie Solonas shooting him in 1968. He did not do drugs and he did not have AIDs. But everyone in the factory was on amphetamines.
I read this when I was 19 and utterly loved it then, carried away by the glamour of the scene. Thirty years later I don’t care as much, just see it as interesting history.
October 10, 2011
I read The Philosophy of Andy Warhol many, many years ago but still quote that "McDonald's is Beautiful" phrase today. I like Andy Warhol's ideas and some of his work but fall short of being a fan. POPism is an interesting chronological record of the founding of the Pop Art movement from its widely accepted father, Andy Warhol.
Andy's penchant for gossip and name dropping helped me make new connections that were completely obvious but ignored because I never thought to put the personalities together. For example, mentions of Tennessee Williams are sprinkled throughout the book. I guess he was friendly with the Factory. Up until POPism, I would never have thought the two seemingly, radically different artists knew each other.
It's also interesting to read what the "enigmatic" Andy felt he had to explain. The biggest one being why he didn't try to save Edie personally. He makes the rationalization that people have to want to do things on their own. If you try to force them you might drive them further into their addiction or lose them entirely.
You also see an unseemly side of Andy when he talks about how he wished Ondine stayed on drugs. He said the new clean Ondine was unimaginative and boring compared to the unpredictable high Ondine. It really gave credence to the commonly heard criticism that Andy treated people like toys.
If you are interested in the rise of Pop Art and the life of Andy Warhol, I believe you'll like this book.
Andy's penchant for gossip and name dropping helped me make new connections that were completely obvious but ignored because I never thought to put the personalities together. For example, mentions of Tennessee Williams are sprinkled throughout the book. I guess he was friendly with the Factory. Up until POPism, I would never have thought the two seemingly, radically different artists knew each other.
It's also interesting to read what the "enigmatic" Andy felt he had to explain. The biggest one being why he didn't try to save Edie personally. He makes the rationalization that people have to want to do things on their own. If you try to force them you might drive them further into their addiction or lose them entirely.
You also see an unseemly side of Andy when he talks about how he wished Ondine stayed on drugs. He said the new clean Ondine was unimaginative and boring compared to the unpredictable high Ondine. It really gave credence to the commonly heard criticism that Andy treated people like toys.
If you are interested in the rise of Pop Art and the life of Andy Warhol, I believe you'll like this book.
October 18, 2013
An incredible and mesmerising portrait of 1960's New York and all of the beautiful people that lived in Warhol's exclusive world. Junkies, supermodels, it girls and drag queens swarm the Factory, whilst Warhol watches and often documents. I could read this book again and again, Warhol is such a sublime oddball.
April 22, 2017
I liked the part about Andy himself, the Factory and the overall '60s vibe, but I didn't like the rest that much. He talked about lots of other people I didn't know and care about, so that made it very flat for me. Sadly that was what he talked about most, so that's why I can only give it 2 stars.
November 27, 2007
The 60's in New York City via the eyes of Andy Warhol. A very much straight forward memoir of what was happening at the time. Not hard to believe considering Warhol photographed every person he met or at the very least tape-recorded their conversations. Speed-like obsession over objects and people. One can argue if Warhol is truly the great artist of the 20th Century (no, Duchamp is) but without a doubt he is the 'recorder' of his time - and that makes him a historian of sorts. Essential book. Read it!
August 26, 2020
I'd say I'm more intrigued by Warhol's work rather than a hardcore fan. I find him far more fascinating conceptually than aesthetically. That said, I thought this book would be a bit of light gossipy fun about all the characters that went in and out of The Factory which it is, but he's also surprisingly candid and dare I say it endearing. Talking about his insecurities starting out and his fears after getting shot, we get a fuller picture of the man and his humanity.
May 31, 2016
This was a Munson Williams Proctor (MWP) book club book. As with many book club books it is probably not a book I would have read on my own. This book illustrates why I love book clubs. The book was difficult to read in that it was very disjointed. He (Andy Warhol) mentioned so many people and many people were in and out of his circle quickly that it was very confusing. Also, most of the people around Andy Warhol were taking drugs- a lot of drugs. Andy talked a bit about his art but mostly he described his movies, which I didn't think very highly of. There were a few words that I had to look up "Seconal"-Andy described a "seconal sleep". Seconal is a barbiturate. Catafalque-a wooden frame or ornamental structure used in funerals.
I learned a lot. I learned that Jackson Pollack art is about movement. Instead of a painting being a still, stationary object, Jackson Pollack paintings capture that sense of movement and color. Andy also said that art is determined by who wants your work. If your art is desired by someone with money or in the art world, then its considered "art"
Now, we get to the discussion. The museum had a facilitator who had a PowerPoint. I learned that the point of Andy Warhol's paintings were the repetition and the packaging of everyday things in our lives. He realized that people don't really want the real reality, which he tried to show, they want the sanitized, cleaned up and put in a neat package tied with a bow version. He was also fascinated by the mechanical reproduction of things. He love coke because coke is a great equalizer: it doesn't matter who you are-the pope, royalty, a artist, a factory worker, a kid-coke tastes the same to everybody.
I also realized while we were talking that even though I didn't appreciate the movies he made, those movies had a big influence on film and maybe to a lesser extent but still very powerful to the evolving culture of the time.
On an aside, Andy lived his life true to himself at a time when it was dangerous to be out. Even though I believe that the over-the-top behaviors of the extroverted "out" crowd he hung around with helped to give gay people a bad name.
I learned a lot. I learned that Jackson Pollack art is about movement. Instead of a painting being a still, stationary object, Jackson Pollack paintings capture that sense of movement and color. Andy also said that art is determined by who wants your work. If your art is desired by someone with money or in the art world, then its considered "art"
Now, we get to the discussion. The museum had a facilitator who had a PowerPoint. I learned that the point of Andy Warhol's paintings were the repetition and the packaging of everyday things in our lives. He realized that people don't really want the real reality, which he tried to show, they want the sanitized, cleaned up and put in a neat package tied with a bow version. He was also fascinated by the mechanical reproduction of things. He love coke because coke is a great equalizer: it doesn't matter who you are-the pope, royalty, a artist, a factory worker, a kid-coke tastes the same to everybody.
I also realized while we were talking that even though I didn't appreciate the movies he made, those movies had a big influence on film and maybe to a lesser extent but still very powerful to the evolving culture of the time.
On an aside, Andy lived his life true to himself at a time when it was dangerous to be out. Even though I believe that the over-the-top behaviors of the extroverted "out" crowd he hung around with helped to give gay people a bad name.
March 2, 2022
Warhol’s tumultuous corner of that decade provides a read so interesting I had to come back to it (and I enjoyed it even more the second time.) This book left an aching aftertaste; a desire for the New York creative industry to regress back to before it was fragmented and a desire to experience it. Back to when The Velvet Underground would practice in the factory basement, as Andy Warhol had dinner with Mick Jagger upstairs, and a voicemail from Judy Garland was waiting on the studio answering machine. Anyone and everyone using art to engage with the world ended up in the creative whirlwind spinning around New York City in the sixties. It’s not like that anymore, and any future creative will never get to experience a community that intersected in such a mind-boggling way.
August 2, 2008
Warhol's personal account of the 1960s Pop phenomenon/culture...
You have to either love Warhol, or be really into the NYC 60s social scene to enjoy this book. Being both, I thought it was great. This memoir is filled with interesting and oddly insightful stories/ observations that could only come from the unique perspective of Warhol. I used it for my thesis so I read it more than once.
You have to either love Warhol, or be really into the NYC 60s social scene to enjoy this book. Being both, I thought it was great. This memoir is filled with interesting and oddly insightful stories/ observations that could only come from the unique perspective of Warhol. I used it for my thesis so I read it more than once.
April 22, 2017
If you're not interested by Andy Warhol or his factory mates, then you won't enjoy this book. It's not a guide to pop art, it's a glimpse into the life of an icon and the people he surrounded himself with. A great read for Warhol fans.
February 14, 2019
I read it a couple of years ago. Great fun. There is art talk, there is a lot of name dropping and reminiscing, there is a very candid look at his whole crazy crew of protégées and cool kids drawn in by his fame and fortune.
March 1, 2020
talented brilliant amazing как сказала бы гага всем рекомендую крысинг в виде книги. еще и про искусство
June 15, 2023
7/10
Nothing astounding on the prose level and rarely a page-turner (with the exception of when The Velvet Underground enters the scene and when Warhol gets shot), but I loved learning about the underground art world of the ‘60s. Name drops galore: Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Nico, Robert de Niro, Judy Garland, Jefferson Airplane, etc etc etc. The kind of book you can pick up and read a few paragraphs of whenever you have a minute and want to know some fun bits of ‘60s gossip.
“If I’d gone ahead and died ten years ago, I’d probably be a cult figure today.”
Nothing astounding on the prose level and rarely a page-turner (with the exception of when The Velvet Underground enters the scene and when Warhol gets shot), but I loved learning about the underground art world of the ‘60s. Name drops galore: Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Nico, Robert de Niro, Judy Garland, Jefferson Airplane, etc etc etc. The kind of book you can pick up and read a few paragraphs of whenever you have a minute and want to know some fun bits of ‘60s gossip.
“If I’d gone ahead and died ten years ago, I’d probably be a cult figure today.”
March 6, 2024
Fascinating life in the 60’s. Everyone knew everyone and reading this book allows you to feel a part of the scene.
January 26, 2010
Loads of fun to read! I took copious notes on artists, writers, fashion designers, dancers, models and musicians to Google and films to see, etc, etc. Read it!
Spoilers/Quotes:
"I've been quoted a lot as saying, "I like boring things. ...if I'm going to sit and watch the same thing I watched the night before, I don't want it to be essentially the same-I want it to be EXACTLY the same. Because the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel." -pg. 50
"As I said before, that had always fascinated me, the way people could sit by a window or on a porch all day and look out and never be bored, but then if they went to a movie or a play, they suddenly objected to being bored. I always felt that a very slow film could be just as interesting as a porch-sit if you thought about it the same way. And now all these kids on acid were demonstrating the exact same thing." -pg. 207
now, this is really saying something...
"People say that you always want what you can't have, that "the grass is always greener" and all that, but in the mid-sixties I never, never, never felt that way for a single minute. I was so happy doing what I was doing, with the people I was doing it with." -pg. 220
referencing the 1st screening of his 24 hour film, ****...
"The strange thing was, this was the first time I was seeing it all myself - we'd just come straight to the theater with all the reels. I knew we'd never screen it in this long way again, so it was like life, our lives, flashing in front of us - it would just go by once and we'd never see it again." -pg. 252
Spoilers/Quotes:
"I've been quoted a lot as saying, "I like boring things. ...if I'm going to sit and watch the same thing I watched the night before, I don't want it to be essentially the same-I want it to be EXACTLY the same. Because the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel." -pg. 50
"As I said before, that had always fascinated me, the way people could sit by a window or on a porch all day and look out and never be bored, but then if they went to a movie or a play, they suddenly objected to being bored. I always felt that a very slow film could be just as interesting as a porch-sit if you thought about it the same way. And now all these kids on acid were demonstrating the exact same thing." -pg. 207
now, this is really saying something...
"People say that you always want what you can't have, that "the grass is always greener" and all that, but in the mid-sixties I never, never, never felt that way for a single minute. I was so happy doing what I was doing, with the people I was doing it with." -pg. 220
referencing the 1st screening of his 24 hour film, ****...
"The strange thing was, this was the first time I was seeing it all myself - we'd just come straight to the theater with all the reels. I knew we'd never screen it in this long way again, so it was like life, our lives, flashing in front of us - it would just go by once and we'd never see it again." -pg. 252
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2013
Let's start with the understanding that I am really intrigued by Mr. Warhol, that I used to watch his movies back in the day when you had to get video stores to order them on VHS tape, and that I have listened to far more than my fair share of the Velvet Underground. Does that make me an expert? No. Does it make me a fan? Undoubtedly. And yet, I both didn't expect a lot from this, and didn't quite know what to expect as well (which, not that I think of it, is probably the proper way to encounter any work by Warhol).
Boy was I pleasantly surprised. "Popism" is well-written and tells a truly inside story of Warhol's rise, the factory, the people around both, and even makes some subtle observations about it all. Worth reading if you're interested in the sixties, the art world, or American culture. And it's a must-read if you're a fan of Andy.
[you can also see a longer review of at http://theagencyreview.wordpress.com/...]
Boy was I pleasantly surprised. "Popism" is well-written and tells a truly inside story of Warhol's rise, the factory, the people around both, and even makes some subtle observations about it all. Worth reading if you're interested in the sixties, the art world, or American culture. And it's a must-read if you're a fan of Andy.
[you can also see a longer review of at http://theagencyreview.wordpress.com/...]
July 15, 2018
For anyone who has ever wondered about Andy Warhol as I have, this is an excellent book, told by the man himself. Although so shy in interviews that he often dressed up doppelgangers to go in his place, he was incredibly insightful and perceptive. This book dishes all kinds of gossip on the people that flocked to be around him and his scene kids, the celebrities they encountered along the way and all the decadence that came with the New York pop culture scene. it does not focus much on his art but it does reveal a lot about what made him creative and also has the story in his own words of how he got shot and how the NY doctors were just going to let him die until one of his friends told them "He's famous and has lots of money". Excellent read.
March 17, 2013
Warhol is so insightful, clever and an absolute riot of a character! I adored every word of this book and found myself agreeing with so many of Warhol's sensibilities, like I was hanging out with a good friend. I'll read this again eventually, just like I'll eventually re-read the diary of andy warhol eventually. Warhol as the Proust of the 20th century!
October 10, 2007
You have to really love andy Warhol to get through this because it is sooo boring.
Andy Warhol wrote it himself and I don't think he is a very good writer. He just tells it like it is which is not my kind of book.
But hey
it might be yours.
Andy Warhol wrote it himself and I don't think he is a very good writer. He just tells it like it is which is not my kind of book.
But hey
it might be yours.
February 8, 2016
This book was so good. It is such an interesting perspective on life in the 60s and Warhol name drops pretty much every important name in the entertainment business at the time. I really want to read all the Andy Warhol books now.
September 4, 2016
Andy Warhol Nice
This book sews together many disparate strands of pop history. I found Warhol's voice to be surprisingly nice, candid and sensitive, but maybe that was the co-author's invisible hand at work.
This book sews together many disparate strands of pop history. I found Warhol's voice to be surprisingly nice, candid and sensitive, but maybe that was the co-author's invisible hand at work.
March 24, 2008
Reads like a tabloid article.
March 10, 2009
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the life and works of Warhol.
January 3, 2016
Literal doggerel. It took me two years.
February 23, 2021
My obsession with Warhol’s writing continues. His history of the ‘60s is as entertaining and superficial as one of his paintings. Think I’ll take a long break before I attempt to read his novel A.
Read
December 6, 2013Got this book out of the library, I forget why, I think I just felt that Andy Warhol was a huge and basic gap in my art/culture knowledge. By accident I started taking notes on my phone about the book as I was reading, which is the best method for not forgetting anything that I want to remember, but also sometimes gets so fun that it interrupts my reading. And invariably gets too long...
"a thousand New York names and where to drop them" -a novelty book that Andy says he got a big kick out of seeing his name in (at the very beginning of this book's timeline, so I guess the advertisement that it will constitute his "humble beginnings" is false)
I've read 33 pages of this book and so far I've been repeatedly thinking "yes, this is a good idea for how to act in life, I should start acting like this". Andy has ideas that appeal to me on who to be friends with, how to get famous, being openly hungry for fame in a non-embarrassing way, openly asking people what he should do for his next art project, dismissing an inherent difference in merit between "low" art and "high" art, taking amphetamines in order to be happy and lose weight and stay awake longer and be productive. I wonder if he's "convincing" me of the value of these things with persuasive personality, or if I'm inclined to imitate him because I am aware of the level of his success, or if these are genuinely ideas that appeal to me on their own
Openly, self-consciously following fads seems like a funny thing to do and a way to be perceived as attractive, haha
Hearkening back to the past seems almost completely pointless
As I'm reading this my friends are texting me over and over again trying to figure out what we should do tonight and it seems like we're leaning towards doing nothing. Andy Warhol's factory was 50 years ago this year
From this book it feels like Andy Warhol has a perfect sense of humor and thinks a lot of things are funny, which goes against the sense I had and still have of him which is sort of humorlessly "stylish," like he's widely photographed, his own image being a huge part of the brand, but I don't think I've ever seen a posed picture of him where he's smiling- maybe just self-serious to a dour fault like most egomaniacs. I've always felt he was extremely creepy-looking.. For all his funniness and social ease I retain the feeling that hanging out with him in person would be fairly unbearable for me, and I feel certain anyway that he would find me boring
Andy says he thinks even the act of "picking out certain scenes and pieces of time and putting them together" in a movie makes it unlifelike and corny
I'm now 110 pages into the book and it's less gripping than at the beginning. The factory doesn't seem as exciting to me as the pre-factory scene. One of his art scene friends tells him, "you have a group of people around you now that's essentially destructive." I'm having a hard time with Edie Sedgwick, who seems like she's supposed to be the big focus of this chapter, but isn't very clear or "present". She does look extremely beautiful, smile in posed pictures, and have very good eyebrows
Andy is of the same ethnicity as me, rusyn
The book and the "60s scene" and Andy seem to focus mostly on men as creators of cool or interesting work, and women as beautiful and interesting objects... maybe that's wrong... But I also feel that these women are doing better than me because they harness and control the way they look and always look good... Advertise and self-author the Self... Why shouldn't looking beautiful be important? I guess it always just feels like a trap to me because it's a game that men are in charge of and demand that you play but will never let you win
imagine being so pretty that you could cut your hair as short as you wanted or wear any clothes that seemed cool to you... What an impossible dream.. feel pissed at edie
Imagine going to an art opening and looking at something and saying "wow. I hate this" in a loud voice. I don't have any strong, gut-felt opinions that I would say loudly when I contemplate art, especially art that consensus has already decided is good. Imagine going on a hip lit crit website and writing an essay describing why you feel a canonized 20th century writer actually sucks
I'm concerned that Andy has retired from art in favor of full-time filmmaking and society schmoozing and I have more than half the book left
"Everything is good"
Andy says he can only be very good friends with unattached people, that he would become distant from a friend once they got married or started living with someone, "that's just how I am," which is how I feel too sometimes, people in relationships often seem less interesting, or less relatable, seems like they're kidding themselves by not being cripplingly lonely. Andy's romantic life has not appeared in this book at all, I think he's concealing it
Another concealing aspect of the book is that, more and more, he's using "we" a lot, "another thing we had in mind," "we liked the idea," "we were still seeing Edie." I think one aspect of his brand he isn't happy about and is trying to revamp in this book is the idea of him as a cynical puppetmaster of the scene and its people, so he's concealing how much factory decision-making was him, the specifics of who came up with what ideas, how aesthetic disagreements were ironed out, in favor of depicting the factory as this unanimous hive mind collective. For my part, it's less fun to read about things done vaguely by a vague "we"
Feel like I'm turning on Andy... The book is less and less interesting to me, I feel that he's uncaring towards the people in his life, especially women, I still have half of this book to go... he seemed less like this at the beginning, with his art scene friends... he's older than everyone he collects around him at the factory and he positions himself as this voyeur/curator of them, not a friend. it even makes his gossip about them less satisfying
Bill Murray said in the oral history of snl that fame turns people into really bad versions of themselves for about the first two years, then they learn how to handle it and become themselves again
People always say "Andy Warhol would love [something about current culture that seems openly shallow, amoral, or narcissistic]"... just yesterday I read someone saying that Andy Warhol would love Kim Kardashian. I feel like people who say this are probably right about it no matter what it is they're talking about ("everything is good")
so far in this book he hasn't really expressed any negative feelings about anything, although I think that's coming somewhat from the fact that it's a memoir, and he's doing this sort of magnanimous looking-back-at-it affect when he talks about things. I dont think I really believe people who act like they don't have any negative feelings about anything, of whom, in art and literature, I've encountered quite a few.. I think they act that way in service of having a "positivity" brand, which I do think is sort of creepy and cynical
I think Andy is struggling throughout this book with the fact that he has been branded as cynical. His best defense against it, to me, is when he seems genuinely enthusiastic (not necessarily in a "peppy" way- just meaning strongly drawn to certain things, opinionated about liking something. "Signs of life"), funny, and creative- which is, to me, heavy towards the beginning and less and less as we get deeper into the factory. It seems like he has a strong agenda of wanting to acquit himself regarding Edie, which is why he gives her such a boldface introduction ("in January 65 I met Edith Minturn Sedgwick") followed by so much vagueness concerning what their friendship actually was, followed by a lot of nothing concerning how and why she "faded" out of the group
There's a guy named paul whose last name I've lost track of- Andy almost never repeats a last name once he's introduced someone- but paul is always funny when he appears
Paul talks about San Francisco flower children- boring, pretentious, humorless, hypocritical. "People are always so boring when they band together. You have to be alone to develop the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting." I agree that almost all "hippies" I've met have been very boring
Paul's last name is morrissey, and Wikipedia says Andy was claiming to be a virgin in the 80s, so I'm sorry I said he was concealing
"I always felt that a very slow film could be just as interesting as a porch-sit if you thought about it the same way"
If hearkening back to the past is pointless, why am I reading this? Being "into" the 60s is such a disease
At a low point of enthusiasm around page 200, then I watched an interview with Andy and merv griffin, and then some episodes of "Noel fielding's luxury comedy," in which Andy is a character, I find him lovable again. Ready to keep going
"If you didn't smile a lot out there, they got hostile toward you" -San Francisco 1967
Today (Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday) I've felt too stressed out to read so I've Beene watching tv
"The United States has the worst AND the best" -paul... I wonder whether that's right anymore. There's some art by American people on American subjects that does make me feel kind of "patriotic," I guess. Or just proud to have something in common...
Sometimes my mom insists that i can't really understand the 60s revolution in culture because I'll never know really, REALLY, what it had been like before. Andy phrases it as a "youth cult," part of which was that "kids weren't really growing up anymore," "when they graduated from college they could become executive groupies if they wanted to." I tend to think of the reagan years up through today, my lifetime basically, as overall a slipping back into reactionary politics, proto-fascism even, but I wonder whether that core personality change is still in effect. The much-think-pieced concept of the "twentysomething" would point to yes. If I'm kiddish, I'd have to say I like myself this way. Makes me wonder what "young adults" were like in the 50s, feel like I don't know (does one read Richard Yates to find out? look to the Beats?)... these cool hipsters of Andy's do make me feel like I'm not L-I-V-I-N enough. Then again so do people on my Facebook feed. On the other hand, I think some of the 'cool hipster party lifestyle,' and even more generally "don't think just LIVE" carpe diem type shit, supports itself through behaving as if other people aren't real people. And I just hate that pretty terribly
Core division in underground/counterculture- those who want to bring their stuff to the mainstream and those who want to stay outsiders. Saying and doing radical things in a conservative format vs. saying and doing radical things in a radical format
Valerie solanas says she shot Andy because "he had too much control over my life." Meanwhile Andy makes a point of saying "I didn't know Valerie very well" when he introduces her, which is only 2 pages before she shoots him. This confirms and provides a strongest-yet reason for why he's been working hard against his "puppetmaster" image throughout the book. It's a tough thing to allege... Women who buck violently against men who control them in a dangerous way, in theory I support it, but to hear Andy tell it they hardly knew each other, and she demolishes the benefit of the doubt, for me, when she calls him up and threatens to try again unless he gets her on Johnny Carson. What's troubling is that I think I first learned her name independently of Warhol, on a Wikipedia binge clicking various links about radical feminism. I don't like it that we don't distance ourselves from someone like her. "SCUM" is a funny and interesting concept but idk. To call her a heroine of radical feminism.... I really question it. She seems like a delusional manifesto-toter, not a radical
Andy describes everybody taping everything in 68-69. That's how I feel lately, wanting to photograph everything or, even better, have a rolling camera filming everybody all the time. Seems like a related impulse to instagram, fb, twitter- documentation of your life that becomes your entire life. Well to any old fogies who insist its a millennial vanity problem invented after y2k: Andy describes, in 1968, a running joke where everyone he knows would say "hello, wait a minute" when you called them so they could set up their tape recorder to catch anything good.
Jackie Curtis, a drag queen, on why she "went all the way" with it (i.e. transitioned from performing in drag to living her whole life as a woman): "it's much easier to be a weird girl than a weird guy." I have always felt the total opposite. Grass is always greener, I guess. (Sike. Everything is easier for guys than for girls)
The end of the book is abrupt and enunciates well a feeling I have about the 60s, related to what my mom talked about: "all the morality and restrictions that the early superstars had rebelled against seemed so far away--as unreal as the Victorian era seems to everybody today. Pop wasn't an issue or an option for this new wave: it was all they'd ever known." Naturally in the last sentence he goes ahead and gives himself total credit for all post-hippie culture. I think I came out of this book liking Andy, enjoying his storytelling, and basically trusting his openly biased perspective. A smart and modern man of whom I see a lot of echoes in the 'scene' today. he gives me inspiration for how to act when reality is too horrible to take seriously, how to make art about a horrible reality, how to have fun, how to avoid being pretentious, and more
there's a resemblance in the writing style, gossiping style, winking shallowness between andy and bret easton ellis, especially BEE's twitter presence. some people hate BEE's twitter presence and "professional troll" attitude and I really like it. I wonder if they have quotes on each other- Andy was still alive when less than zero came out.
quick internet research tells me that they met at a less than zero launch party and that andy loved the title but hadn't read the book yet, and that andy is mentioned a lot in BEE's work, especially glamorama, which i read half of but apparently remember none of.
And who is Pat Hackett. I just read a long article that said nearly 100% of celebrity memoirs are ghostwritten and the ghost is extremely lucky if they get their name on the cover. I guess maybe Andy didn't write any of this himself. In keeping with his style- letting other people answer the phone as him, go to parties as him, deliver his university lectures for him. Why not
Things still to consume to get a deeper understanding: movies midnight cowboy, easy rider, factory girl, basquiat (played by david bowie!). The novel a, the Andy Warhol diaries. The factory movies I'm torn on... Despite the time I've spent with Andy and my fondness of his opinions on film, they seem like a trial to watch
i think this was a good and successful method of taking notes on a book. i didnt forget any of the tiny things i liked because i made sure to save them, and i can read this 2500-word summary anytime i want to have a strong memory of the book!
editing to add that i watched the movie "factory girl" and i can see why, if this is someone's or a lot of people's interpretation, andy would be frantic to acquit himself. bob dylan threatened to sue because the movie made him look so bad. seems crazy that edie is on the cover of this book (although i think only starting with the edition that came out after andy's death- he'd never have stood for it). her minimal appearance feels more and more like a huge elephant in the room, and i feel more unsatisfied than ever with andy's version of things. shallowness is his specialty, though, and if i take the book as part of his oeuvre, it's in keeping with his style that he doesnt dwell more on the innards of why edie was the way she was. i do find his offhand comment that maybe her childhood wasn't such a nightmare as she liked to have people believe to be extremely ugly
this movie depicted andy as having this kind of disconnected extreme lack of empathy for people, inborn, autistic-esque... like "why would anyone be self-destructive when they could, instead, not be." reminded me of haley joel osment in 'richard yates.' i just dont know about that. from his book and his work... i dont feel that way about him... it is true, and i think his "cult of youth" side has tried to make me forget, that he's at least 10 years older than most of the people he hangs around with. edie being only 22 or 23, and a coddled rich 22-23 at that, maybe he expected more self-reliance from her (or non-leaning-on-him, at any rate) than she was capable of. i dont know. i mean, the movie was plainly pretty biased and seemed to skip or twist a lot of facts. but andy's silence on her in "popism" felt pointed before and now seems, to me, to stink of guilt, at least somewhat
"a thousand New York names and where to drop them" -a novelty book that Andy says he got a big kick out of seeing his name in (at the very beginning of this book's timeline, so I guess the advertisement that it will constitute his "humble beginnings" is false)
I've read 33 pages of this book and so far I've been repeatedly thinking "yes, this is a good idea for how to act in life, I should start acting like this". Andy has ideas that appeal to me on who to be friends with, how to get famous, being openly hungry for fame in a non-embarrassing way, openly asking people what he should do for his next art project, dismissing an inherent difference in merit between "low" art and "high" art, taking amphetamines in order to be happy and lose weight and stay awake longer and be productive. I wonder if he's "convincing" me of the value of these things with persuasive personality, or if I'm inclined to imitate him because I am aware of the level of his success, or if these are genuinely ideas that appeal to me on their own
Openly, self-consciously following fads seems like a funny thing to do and a way to be perceived as attractive, haha
Hearkening back to the past seems almost completely pointless
As I'm reading this my friends are texting me over and over again trying to figure out what we should do tonight and it seems like we're leaning towards doing nothing. Andy Warhol's factory was 50 years ago this year
From this book it feels like Andy Warhol has a perfect sense of humor and thinks a lot of things are funny, which goes against the sense I had and still have of him which is sort of humorlessly "stylish," like he's widely photographed, his own image being a huge part of the brand, but I don't think I've ever seen a posed picture of him where he's smiling- maybe just self-serious to a dour fault like most egomaniacs. I've always felt he was extremely creepy-looking.. For all his funniness and social ease I retain the feeling that hanging out with him in person would be fairly unbearable for me, and I feel certain anyway that he would find me boring
Andy says he thinks even the act of "picking out certain scenes and pieces of time and putting them together" in a movie makes it unlifelike and corny
I'm now 110 pages into the book and it's less gripping than at the beginning. The factory doesn't seem as exciting to me as the pre-factory scene. One of his art scene friends tells him, "you have a group of people around you now that's essentially destructive." I'm having a hard time with Edie Sedgwick, who seems like she's supposed to be the big focus of this chapter, but isn't very clear or "present". She does look extremely beautiful, smile in posed pictures, and have very good eyebrows
Andy is of the same ethnicity as me, rusyn
The book and the "60s scene" and Andy seem to focus mostly on men as creators of cool or interesting work, and women as beautiful and interesting objects... maybe that's wrong... But I also feel that these women are doing better than me because they harness and control the way they look and always look good... Advertise and self-author the Self... Why shouldn't looking beautiful be important? I guess it always just feels like a trap to me because it's a game that men are in charge of and demand that you play but will never let you win
imagine being so pretty that you could cut your hair as short as you wanted or wear any clothes that seemed cool to you... What an impossible dream.. feel pissed at edie
Imagine going to an art opening and looking at something and saying "wow. I hate this" in a loud voice. I don't have any strong, gut-felt opinions that I would say loudly when I contemplate art, especially art that consensus has already decided is good. Imagine going on a hip lit crit website and writing an essay describing why you feel a canonized 20th century writer actually sucks
I'm concerned that Andy has retired from art in favor of full-time filmmaking and society schmoozing and I have more than half the book left
"Everything is good"
Andy says he can only be very good friends with unattached people, that he would become distant from a friend once they got married or started living with someone, "that's just how I am," which is how I feel too sometimes, people in relationships often seem less interesting, or less relatable, seems like they're kidding themselves by not being cripplingly lonely. Andy's romantic life has not appeared in this book at all, I think he's concealing it
Another concealing aspect of the book is that, more and more, he's using "we" a lot, "another thing we had in mind," "we liked the idea," "we were still seeing Edie." I think one aspect of his brand he isn't happy about and is trying to revamp in this book is the idea of him as a cynical puppetmaster of the scene and its people, so he's concealing how much factory decision-making was him, the specifics of who came up with what ideas, how aesthetic disagreements were ironed out, in favor of depicting the factory as this unanimous hive mind collective. For my part, it's less fun to read about things done vaguely by a vague "we"
Feel like I'm turning on Andy... The book is less and less interesting to me, I feel that he's uncaring towards the people in his life, especially women, I still have half of this book to go... he seemed less like this at the beginning, with his art scene friends... he's older than everyone he collects around him at the factory and he positions himself as this voyeur/curator of them, not a friend. it even makes his gossip about them less satisfying
Bill Murray said in the oral history of snl that fame turns people into really bad versions of themselves for about the first two years, then they learn how to handle it and become themselves again
People always say "Andy Warhol would love [something about current culture that seems openly shallow, amoral, or narcissistic]"... just yesterday I read someone saying that Andy Warhol would love Kim Kardashian. I feel like people who say this are probably right about it no matter what it is they're talking about ("everything is good")
so far in this book he hasn't really expressed any negative feelings about anything, although I think that's coming somewhat from the fact that it's a memoir, and he's doing this sort of magnanimous looking-back-at-it affect when he talks about things. I dont think I really believe people who act like they don't have any negative feelings about anything, of whom, in art and literature, I've encountered quite a few.. I think they act that way in service of having a "positivity" brand, which I do think is sort of creepy and cynical
I think Andy is struggling throughout this book with the fact that he has been branded as cynical. His best defense against it, to me, is when he seems genuinely enthusiastic (not necessarily in a "peppy" way- just meaning strongly drawn to certain things, opinionated about liking something. "Signs of life"), funny, and creative- which is, to me, heavy towards the beginning and less and less as we get deeper into the factory. It seems like he has a strong agenda of wanting to acquit himself regarding Edie, which is why he gives her such a boldface introduction ("in January 65 I met Edith Minturn Sedgwick") followed by so much vagueness concerning what their friendship actually was, followed by a lot of nothing concerning how and why she "faded" out of the group
There's a guy named paul whose last name I've lost track of- Andy almost never repeats a last name once he's introduced someone- but paul is always funny when he appears
Paul talks about San Francisco flower children- boring, pretentious, humorless, hypocritical. "People are always so boring when they band together. You have to be alone to develop the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting." I agree that almost all "hippies" I've met have been very boring
Paul's last name is morrissey, and Wikipedia says Andy was claiming to be a virgin in the 80s, so I'm sorry I said he was concealing
"I always felt that a very slow film could be just as interesting as a porch-sit if you thought about it the same way"
If hearkening back to the past is pointless, why am I reading this? Being "into" the 60s is such a disease
At a low point of enthusiasm around page 200, then I watched an interview with Andy and merv griffin, and then some episodes of "Noel fielding's luxury comedy," in which Andy is a character, I find him lovable again. Ready to keep going
"If you didn't smile a lot out there, they got hostile toward you" -San Francisco 1967
Today (Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday) I've felt too stressed out to read so I've Beene watching tv
"The United States has the worst AND the best" -paul... I wonder whether that's right anymore. There's some art by American people on American subjects that does make me feel kind of "patriotic," I guess. Or just proud to have something in common...
Sometimes my mom insists that i can't really understand the 60s revolution in culture because I'll never know really, REALLY, what it had been like before. Andy phrases it as a "youth cult," part of which was that "kids weren't really growing up anymore," "when they graduated from college they could become executive groupies if they wanted to." I tend to think of the reagan years up through today, my lifetime basically, as overall a slipping back into reactionary politics, proto-fascism even, but I wonder whether that core personality change is still in effect. The much-think-pieced concept of the "twentysomething" would point to yes. If I'm kiddish, I'd have to say I like myself this way. Makes me wonder what "young adults" were like in the 50s, feel like I don't know (does one read Richard Yates to find out? look to the Beats?)... these cool hipsters of Andy's do make me feel like I'm not L-I-V-I-N enough. Then again so do people on my Facebook feed. On the other hand, I think some of the 'cool hipster party lifestyle,' and even more generally "don't think just LIVE" carpe diem type shit, supports itself through behaving as if other people aren't real people. And I just hate that pretty terribly
Core division in underground/counterculture- those who want to bring their stuff to the mainstream and those who want to stay outsiders. Saying and doing radical things in a conservative format vs. saying and doing radical things in a radical format
Valerie solanas says she shot Andy because "he had too much control over my life." Meanwhile Andy makes a point of saying "I didn't know Valerie very well" when he introduces her, which is only 2 pages before she shoots him. This confirms and provides a strongest-yet reason for why he's been working hard against his "puppetmaster" image throughout the book. It's a tough thing to allege... Women who buck violently against men who control them in a dangerous way, in theory I support it, but to hear Andy tell it they hardly knew each other, and she demolishes the benefit of the doubt, for me, when she calls him up and threatens to try again unless he gets her on Johnny Carson. What's troubling is that I think I first learned her name independently of Warhol, on a Wikipedia binge clicking various links about radical feminism. I don't like it that we don't distance ourselves from someone like her. "SCUM" is a funny and interesting concept but idk. To call her a heroine of radical feminism.... I really question it. She seems like a delusional manifesto-toter, not a radical
Andy describes everybody taping everything in 68-69. That's how I feel lately, wanting to photograph everything or, even better, have a rolling camera filming everybody all the time. Seems like a related impulse to instagram, fb, twitter- documentation of your life that becomes your entire life. Well to any old fogies who insist its a millennial vanity problem invented after y2k: Andy describes, in 1968, a running joke where everyone he knows would say "hello, wait a minute" when you called them so they could set up their tape recorder to catch anything good.
Jackie Curtis, a drag queen, on why she "went all the way" with it (i.e. transitioned from performing in drag to living her whole life as a woman): "it's much easier to be a weird girl than a weird guy." I have always felt the total opposite. Grass is always greener, I guess. (Sike. Everything is easier for guys than for girls)
The end of the book is abrupt and enunciates well a feeling I have about the 60s, related to what my mom talked about: "all the morality and restrictions that the early superstars had rebelled against seemed so far away--as unreal as the Victorian era seems to everybody today. Pop wasn't an issue or an option for this new wave: it was all they'd ever known." Naturally in the last sentence he goes ahead and gives himself total credit for all post-hippie culture. I think I came out of this book liking Andy, enjoying his storytelling, and basically trusting his openly biased perspective. A smart and modern man of whom I see a lot of echoes in the 'scene' today. he gives me inspiration for how to act when reality is too horrible to take seriously, how to make art about a horrible reality, how to have fun, how to avoid being pretentious, and more
there's a resemblance in the writing style, gossiping style, winking shallowness between andy and bret easton ellis, especially BEE's twitter presence. some people hate BEE's twitter presence and "professional troll" attitude and I really like it. I wonder if they have quotes on each other- Andy was still alive when less than zero came out.
quick internet research tells me that they met at a less than zero launch party and that andy loved the title but hadn't read the book yet, and that andy is mentioned a lot in BEE's work, especially glamorama, which i read half of but apparently remember none of.
And who is Pat Hackett. I just read a long article that said nearly 100% of celebrity memoirs are ghostwritten and the ghost is extremely lucky if they get their name on the cover. I guess maybe Andy didn't write any of this himself. In keeping with his style- letting other people answer the phone as him, go to parties as him, deliver his university lectures for him. Why not
Things still to consume to get a deeper understanding: movies midnight cowboy, easy rider, factory girl, basquiat (played by david bowie!). The novel a, the Andy Warhol diaries. The factory movies I'm torn on... Despite the time I've spent with Andy and my fondness of his opinions on film, they seem like a trial to watch
i think this was a good and successful method of taking notes on a book. i didnt forget any of the tiny things i liked because i made sure to save them, and i can read this 2500-word summary anytime i want to have a strong memory of the book!
editing to add that i watched the movie "factory girl" and i can see why, if this is someone's or a lot of people's interpretation, andy would be frantic to acquit himself. bob dylan threatened to sue because the movie made him look so bad. seems crazy that edie is on the cover of this book (although i think only starting with the edition that came out after andy's death- he'd never have stood for it). her minimal appearance feels more and more like a huge elephant in the room, and i feel more unsatisfied than ever with andy's version of things. shallowness is his specialty, though, and if i take the book as part of his oeuvre, it's in keeping with his style that he doesnt dwell more on the innards of why edie was the way she was. i do find his offhand comment that maybe her childhood wasn't such a nightmare as she liked to have people believe to be extremely ugly
this movie depicted andy as having this kind of disconnected extreme lack of empathy for people, inborn, autistic-esque... like "why would anyone be self-destructive when they could, instead, not be." reminded me of haley joel osment in 'richard yates.' i just dont know about that. from his book and his work... i dont feel that way about him... it is true, and i think his "cult of youth" side has tried to make me forget, that he's at least 10 years older than most of the people he hangs around with. edie being only 22 or 23, and a coddled rich 22-23 at that, maybe he expected more self-reliance from her (or non-leaning-on-him, at any rate) than she was capable of. i dont know. i mean, the movie was plainly pretty biased and seemed to skip or twist a lot of facts. but andy's silence on her in "popism" felt pointed before and now seems, to me, to stink of guilt, at least somewhat
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