Andy Warhol: He described himself as “an alien from outer space”. His baldness, blonde wig, strange way of seeing all confirm this to be true.
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Celebrity worship started in 1962, according to the art critic David Hickey, he dates it to that exact moment. Norman Rockwell painted the ordinary guy and gal. Warhol painted the celebrity. We born after this change do not even know there was a change
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Andy Warhol: The first American artist. Mass production, celebrity & democracy. “We are already living in the future...” Correct. This insight matches McLuhan. Only artists are aware of what is really happening now, everyone else is looking over their shoulder.
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Warhol, like Ballard, was obsessed with the car crash. Juenger observed that the car crash is accepted by mass society, though the duel (less destructive) is reviled. This is our “progress”.
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Warhol wanted to be a woman. Again, the connection to Bateman, literally wearing his mother’s skin (he lived with his mother his whole life). Is this what underlies transgenderism? The desire to skin a woman and wear her like a coat? Peak misogyny?
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He liked drag queens. “Warhol was a receiver of ideas, not a creator,” says critic. As with Ezra Pound: “The artist is the antenna of the race.”
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“You cannot lead in America. You move to the edge, declare that the center, and let the whole organise around you,” notes critic. This is not only true of America, but life. Do not try to “takeover” organisations. Build your own. EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT>>
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Warhol was forced to remove a collage of America’s most wanted from the World’s Fair in NY by Rockefeller. He suggested replacing it with a single picture of Robert Moses, the big boss of NY. Rockefeller rejected: power must be hidden, it cannot stand public exposure.
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This reminds me of the rule that it was forbidden to tell foreigners in the USSR that it was forbidden to criticise Comrade Stalin. Nobody did criticise him, but everyone had to insist that you could. This is the operation of power.
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Warhol started the 60s: high and low/up down and down town. We have yet to escape this. We are still living in the 60s.
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Warhol, being completely open to the world, was in his way schizophrenic. The Factory itself was completely open to the world.
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The Factory was not unlike many commune experiments in the 1960s. And it had the same destructive energy. Warhol was at the centre: both devil and saint.
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Warhol is portrayed as a vampire “Draella” (Dracula+Cinderella). But the people who surrounded him were there to feed off his fame and energy, they were the vampires. Warhol, indifferent to suicides, knew it was pointless to try and save people—only save yourself.
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Notably, Warhol was saved because of his fame after the assassination attempt by Solanas. The doctors would have given up otherwise, which makes you think about how many people die because the doctors give up.
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Warhol saw life before the shooting as like watching TV. Afterwards, he was not sure if he was dead or alive. It is only closeness to death that can bring us back to reality, but reality will feel unreal.
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Business is art and art is business. Warhol would have got along with Trump, the art of the deal—indeed.
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End of conversation
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