Warhol Art Recovered from Floppies
Try to imagine how much poorer we would be without this work. I think you will agree with me that the answer is "not at all."
What We Almost Lost
9 responses to “What We Almost Lost”
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Warhol grew up here in Pittsburgh and thus The Warhol Museum is a fairly big deal in these parts. It’s celebrating its 20th anniversary next week. I’ve never been inside, and most probably never will be.
http://www.warhol.org/museum/ -
I guess he wasn’t the first (Marcel Duchamp?) but he must have been the most successful to turn the significance of art away from the thing made to the statement made in displaying it. I’ve heard that he remained a practicing Catholic throughout his life, but I’m not sure whether that’s true or what “practicing” would mean in that context.
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About his faith — this could, of course, have just been Warhol doing Warhol, but for what’s it worth, an excerpt from “Lee” by Andy Warhol (Interview magazine, March 1975, v. 5 no. 3):
Lee Radziwill: “Did you go to Church today Andy?”
Andy Warhol: “Yes, but I only stayed a minute.”
Lee Radziwill: “Why?”
Andy Warhol: “Because I thought I was going to be late. I got there right before it started and left right as it was starting.”
Fred Hughes: “Well in these times, any boy who goes every Sunday, even if he only stays a minute is a devout Catholic.”
Lee Radziwill: “This is pretty personal, but do you ever take Communion?”
Andy Warhol: “Well – I never feel that I do anything bad. But I do take Communion sometimes.”
Lee Radziwill: “And you go to Confession before? Do you give up things for Lent?”
Fred Hughes: “He gives up things for his figure.”
Andy Warhol: “I think it’s really pretty to go to church. The church I go to is a pretty church. They have so many masses.”
Lee Radziwill: “I think they’ve almost all made it too easy for Catholics – you can go to Saturday mass and that counts for Sunday. And Sunday if you miss the morning you can go in the evening and you don’t really have to go to Confession now.”
Fred Hughes: “The divorce thing is one of the cruelest things the Church ever did, caused the most heartache.”
Lee Radziwill: “It’ll change. Everything takes forever.” -
That image! O my Lord!
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“It’s really pretty to go to church.” That’s certainly Warhol being Warhol. But who knows what exactly that is?
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It’s pretty hard for me to understand how a practicing Catholic could have made the movies he made. If you aren’t familiar with them, you can read about them here. Most were semi-pornographic and all celebrated decadence.
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According to wikipedia he grew up attending this parish:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_Chrysostom_Byzantine_Catholic_Church_(Pittsburgh)
He was buried from this church, which happens to be on the same street I lived on when I lived in the city:
http://www.archpitt.org/component/zoo/item/PittsburghPA-HolyGhost
According to wikipedia he remained a practicing Byzantine Catholic, but would attend RC services in New York. He was sensitive about being seen making the Sign of the Cross “backwards” in the Eastern manner during a RC mass. As one would expect his faith seems to have been conflicted, given his homosexuality and his rather questionable artistic and personal interests. -
What I meant in saying that was Warhol being Warhol was not only the way of putting it but the suggestion that going to church was an exercise in kitsch and irony, like so much of his art. But maybe that (if it was there) coexisted with some kind of genuine faith.
But “conflicted” would seem to be the mildest way of describing it. I’ve never seen any of his movies (as far as I can remember), but I’ve read a certain amount about his Factory scene over the years, including a very sad biography of Edie Sedgwick, and he certainly had a lot to repent of. Someone involved with that bunch described him as a vampire who persuaded or manipulated people to do outrageous things and enjoyed observing the mess. -
Yes, I thought about putting an (ahem!) after that ‘conflicted’…
Light On Dark Water 
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