Tom X Hart

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.”

“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>>

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.

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.

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.

Warhol, being completely open to the world, was in his way schizophrenic. The Factory itself was completely open to the world.

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.

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.