More than anything else, it seems that Andy Warhol will always be best remembered for being the patriarch of Pop Art – the man who made the Campbell's Soup painting. The period of pop art that Warhol is most renowned for (1962-1968) is, however, only a minuscule fraction of the work he produced during the latter half of his career, particularly during the 1980s.
Andy Warhol's Collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat
One of the most fortuitous aspects of Andy Warhol's professional direction in the eighties was meeting and forming a friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat. Through this unlikely confluence of artistic styles and personalities, New York's attention was once again focused on Warhol when the exhibit debuted in 1984, with the last major exhibition ending in 1986. While it was not quite the triumph the involved parties were hoping for (many saw it as a sign of Basquiat trying desperately to be accepted by the art world bourgeoisie and as Warhol cashing in on another up and coming artist's popularity), the partnership produced an unlikely effect on Warhol's work.
This collaboration was notable not only for the melding of two egos that were perceived as too colossal to share the spotlight, but because it was the first time Warhol really allowed another artist to take the helm. Most of the duo's shared work possesses a stronger presence of Basquiat's influence. The painting that attracted the greatest amount of scrutiny was called "Sin More," and is a prime example of the Warhol/Basquiat wit taking hold of the painting. Originally, Warhol had written "Repent and Sin No More" on the canvas, which Basquiat strategically blacked out with other elements of the painting to read suggestively, "Sin More."
Continued Allegiance to Interview Magazine
1980-1989 was a decade very much saturated with sensory overload, making it the ideal period for Warhol's study in the elevation of the celebrity, Interview Magazine (the first issue was published in 1969 and quickly asserted itself as a tour de force in determining the course of pop culture). Some of the major stars that graced the cover during this epoch were Molly Ringwald, Yoko Ono, Annie Lennox, Prince Albert of Monaco, Rob Lowe, Jack Nicholson, Kelly McGillis, and Goldie Hawn.
In keeping with Warhol's unabashed love for the frivolous and frothy, the magazine remained unapologetic in containing a barrage of advertisements for everything from perfume to cigarettes to Fendi gloves to camp movies like The Girl in the Picture and Vamp (both of which were released to a limited number of theaters in 1986).
"The Last Supper" Series
In 1986, Warhol was commissioned by a gallery in Milan to create a series based on Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" to celebrate its opening. Fiercely dedicated to the project, Warhol, for the first time, was painting most of the work by hand. Not one to shirk irreverence simply because the content was of a religious nature, Warhol concocted one particularly bawdy version of the painting that features Jesus, some motorcycles strewn around him, and the words "The Big C" written underneath it.
A tinge of the blasphemic also lies in the fact that Warhol was willing to mass produce Christ's image in the same way he did with his Campbell's Soup cans, as though both subjects are comparable in their meaninglessness and automatic ingratiation in the minds of the public.
15 Minutes on MTV
Another of Warhol's well-known aphorisms was the often misquoted phrase, "In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes." The quote ultimately spawned a TV show inspired by the sentiment, featuring kitschy segments, unusual guest stars, and features on New York nightlife (such as Area and The Palladium). Since MTV was a hair more avant-garde at this time, no one at the network seemed to mind that drag queens, allusions to homosexuality, and drug references were frequently peppered into the show.
With the premiere of the first episode in 1986, just a year before Warhol's death, it was evident that time had done nothing to dull the artist's razor sharp wit and propensity for glomming on to the latest trends in pop culture.
The fifth and final episode of the show aired in 1987, the same month that Warhol died after a gall bladder operation that resulted in cardiac arrhythmia. As a tribute, the final minutes in the "Dial M for Model" episode featured scenes from Warhol's funeral at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
Sources:
- Brooklyn Museum, Andy Warhol: The Last Decade Exhibit
Genna Rivieccio - Genna Rivieccio's brain was designed specifically to retain an amalgam of pop culture images, references, and sound bites.
