That makes me want to do a search in one of my favorite books, "The Andy Warhol Diaries":
Sunday, May 18, 1980Hey. Did Andy Warhol invent the "Oh, and..." locution that has infected American writing?
John Powers called and told me the prices at the art auctions, and the Triple Elvis went for $ 75,000 and he said he thought that was a fair price so I felt okay, but then he told me that the Lichtenstein went for $ 250,000 so I felt bad. Oh, and the three Jackies went for only $ 8,000, so that was a bargain.
Andy had other Elvis paintings. He gave one to Bob Dylan:
Thursday, May 11, 1978
... Catherine and I were going up at 3:15 to Martin Scorsese’s at the Sherry Netherland to interview him and Robbie Robertson from The Last Waltz.... Marty was shaking like crazy. I guess from coke.... Robbie said he knew me from the Dylan days. I asked him what ever happened to the Elvis painting that I gave Dylan because every time I run into Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman he says he has it, and Robbie said that at some point Dylan traded it to Grossman for a couch! (laughs) He felt he needed a little sofa and he gave him the Elvis for it. It must have been in his drug days. So that was an expensive couch.ADDED:
Well, that wigged art blonde
With his wheel in the gorge
And Turtle, that friend of theirs
With his checks all forged
And his cheeks in a chunk
With his cheese that says "ouch"
They’re all gonna be there
On that 82-million-dollar couch
Posts
14 comments:
the three Jackies went for only $ 8,000, so that was a bargain.
Bargain indeed. Someone made a major score.
He felt he needed a little sofa and he gave him the Elvis for it.
There's market value and there's intrinsic value. The sentence above reflects the intrinsic value of the Warhol works of art. Future generations may wonder why this crap originally sold for $75,000 – real money back in 1980.
I think much of modern art will have value in the future only as historical artifacts, along with Civil War military buckles, Victorian chamber pots and baseballs autographed by Babe Ruth.
Imagine how much the dogs playing poker will fetch.
Andy, we hardly knew you. But you did good work and you did it your way.
From Dylan's "Talkin' TV Blues":
-------------------------
“The news of the day is on all the time
All the latest gossip, all the latest rhyme
Your mind is your temple, keep it beautiful and free
Don’t let an egg get laid in it by something you can’t see”
“Pray for peace!” he said. You could feel it in the crowd
My thoughts began to wander. His voice was ringing loud
“It will destroy your family, your happy home is gone
No one can protect you from it once you turn it on”
“It will lead you into some strange pursuits
Lead you to the land of forbidden fruits
It will scramble up your head and drag your brain about
Sometimes you gotta do like Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out”
--------------------------
So picture Bob Dylan, on that couch, over which is a faded rectangle of wallpaper where once the Warhol Elvis hung, and Bob is watching the news of that $82-million auction on the TV and he shoots the damn thing out.
So does the painting get 45 minutes?
Wiki says Warhol was from an immigrant family from a Austrian/Polish/Ukrainian area on the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains where Russians had fled to escape the Mongol horde.
He had an immigrant's eye for America.
$82 million? Can I assume he bought it for the frame?
This is a variant of being famous for being famous. Some things gain in value because they are expensive. It's not a bubble until everyone believes that it's worth something and that its value will continue to grow.
O Rats! I was soooo close....... My bid missed out by $81,999,999,99.
Maybe next time.
Art collectors are buying the artists point of view as a window into their minds. What they find there is more like tea leaf reading, but it satisfies the rich that they have bought a person and collected him.
traditionalguy said...
Wiki says Warhol was from an immigrant family from a Austrian/Polish/Ukrainian area on the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains where Russians had fled to escape the Mongol horde.
He had an immigrant's eye for America.
Double immigrant. He immigrated from Pittsburgh to New York, where he found his own true America. A place where a off kilter Pittsburgh bohunk kid could play tricks on everybody and make up who he wanted to be.
Although you might think that to get away from the Mongols Warhol's ancestors might have considered the western side of the Carpathians, not the east.
Thanks David. South is up right? I hate old age caused dyslexia.
Post a Comment