Warhol, Basquiat and Wyeth: 3 Deep
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
Publication Date: September 10, 2006
By Maryalice Bitts, Correspondent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The splashy, high-profile partnership between pop-art icon Andy Warhol and neo-expressionist graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat is well-known among fans of postmodern art, but few know of Warhol's equally interesting collaboration with contemporary realist painter Jamie Wyeth.
A new exhibition, "Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat," running at Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford through Nov. 19, examines the intriguing dynamics between Warhol and these two younger, very different artists and the singular works of art their friendships produced.
"Andy Warhol's associates called him Drella, a combination of Dracula and Cinderella, meaning that he kind of sucked the energy from young people, and Basquiat told somebody that he was recharging [Warhol's] batteries," said exhibit curator Joyce Hill Stoner, who, as the Wyeth family's longtime conservator, has interviewed Jamie Wyeth extensively about his collaboration with Warhol. "Andy Warhol really was rejuvenating himself through these younger artists and their very different worlds.
"Basquiat was such a creature from another planet, as was Jamie. Andy Warhol definitely enjoyed that."
Wyeth and Basquiat were the only two established artists to have been invited to Warhol's Factory studio in New York.
During the course of their friendship in the 1970s, Warhol and Wyeth enjoyed carriage rides along the Brandywine and went antiquing in search of collectible toys and taxidermy animals.
"Andy Warhol once told a reporter that Jamie Wyeth was more peculiar than he was," Stoner said. "Jamie told me he thought that this was because he loved taxidermy animals more."
The two compared notes on art, hearses, funerals and other topics, and they held joint shows, which included no less than 30 Wyeth portraits of Warhol.
Ten years later, Warhol and Basquiat exercised together (Warhol, who did not do drugs, reportedly tried to encourage Basquiat, who did, to adopt a more healthy lifestyle), got manicures, attended parties, dished about Basquiat's love life and painted over each other's artwork.
The Brandywine exhibit chronicles these offbeat relationships through interviews, clippings, audiotapes and related artifacts, such as antiques that Wyeth and Warhol collected jointly; a photograph of Warhol clutching a carriage as it plunged into the Brandywine River; Warhol's leather jacket, as decorated by Basquiat; postcards from Basquiat to Warhol; a three-dimensional work that Basquiat created in Warhol's memory; and a tape-recorded conversation between Wyeth and Warhol, one of many Warhol recorded in the 1970s with his then-ubiquitous tape recorder.
The show also contains numerous drawings and paintings by Warhol and Wyeth, such as their contrasting portraits of Rudolf Nureyev, Jimmy Carter, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Kennedys. It likewise includes a graceful minimalist likeness of Wyeth by Warhol and largely unflattering portraits of Warhol by Wyeth, in which the steadfast realist diligently recorded Warhol's sometimes splotchy skin tones and the black hair that occasionally peeked out from beneath Warhol's signature white wig.
Their friendship survived Wyeth's portraits of Warhol, although Stoner noted that Warhol once told Wyeth he was "using too much pimple color." She also said that when a reporter asked Warhol what he thought of a Wyeth painting of him, Warhol quipped that it was a "closet portrait: If it belonged to me, I would keep it in a closet.'"
Warhol's works with Basquiat represent an equally fruitful pairing that, by some accounts, developed when the 20-year-old Brooklynite sought out Warhol, reportedly to learn not about painting, but about how to become a celebrity. Under Warhol's influence, Basquiat experimented with silk-screening and donned $800 Armani suits, which he flamboyantly wore while painting.
The two did each other's portraits, including Warhol's famous portrayal of a jockstrap-wearing Basquiat as Michelangelo's David. Warhol also created an oxidation painting of Basquiat, a technique that mixed Liquitex paints, copper metal powder and urine. The exhibit will include these works, as well as a paneled demonstration by a Warhol Museum conservator, showing how to create the chemical reactions found in an oxidation.
Warhol's motorcycle jacket, on which Basquiat painted a self-portrait, will be shown along with a picture of Warhol wearing that jacket.
Another noteworthy inclusion in the show is a found-art piece Basquiat created in response to Warhol's death in 1987. Basquiat hinged together three doors, which he found on the street, and decorated the piece with a flower, a cross and a skull-like mask. Across the work he wrote the word "perishable" in ghostly, etched-out print. It was an important piece in the young artist's brief, yet prolific, career.
"Andy Warhol was the only authority figure whom Basquiat actually got along with, and his death really affected him. Afterward, Basquiat seemed to go downhill a bit," said Stoner, noting that Basquiat, who had long battled a drug addiction throughout his meteoric career, died of a heroin overdose just shy of his 28th birthday, within a year of Warhol's death.
Stoner will discuss Basquiat's relationship with Warhol, as well as the friendship between Warhol and Wyeth, in an illustrated lecture Oct. 15 at the museum, located along Route 1 in Chester County. She said she hopes the lecture and exhibit will broaden the public's understanding of each of the artists' lives and careers.
For example, while Wyeth and Basquiat each undoubtedly looked to Warhol as something of a mentor, Stoner said the inspiration flowed both ways. According to those who knew Warhol well, she said, the artist was "back to having fun with painting again" after working with Basquiat. Stoner also noted that Wyeth inspired Warhol to explore new subject matter, including death masks (Warhol was fascinated by Wyeth's morgue paintings) and chickens (he enjoyed Wyeth's stories of the chickens at his family's farm).
"Most people in this area know a great deal about the Wyeths, but they may not know of this side of Jamie Wyeth's work. Jamie Wyeth's collaborations with Andy Warhol are sort of buried by Warhol historians and writers," Stoner said. She said she hopes the exhibit will "punch a hole in the image of Andy Warhol as described by a limited view.
"There are also Warhol and Basquiat fans who may have never had thought to go to the Brandywine Museum," she said. "I hope so. This exhibit is varied and wide-ranging. It really is something to see."
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
Publication Date: September 10, 2006
By Maryalice Bitts, Correspondent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The splashy, high-profile partnership between pop-art icon Andy Warhol and neo-expressionist graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat is well-known among fans of postmodern art, but few know of Warhol's equally interesting collaboration with contemporary realist painter Jamie Wyeth.
A new exhibition, "Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat," running at Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford through Nov. 19, examines the intriguing dynamics between Warhol and these two younger, very different artists and the singular works of art their friendships produced.
"Andy Warhol's associates called him Drella, a combination of Dracula and Cinderella, meaning that he kind of sucked the energy from young people, and Basquiat told somebody that he was recharging [Warhol's] batteries," said exhibit curator Joyce Hill Stoner, who, as the Wyeth family's longtime conservator, has interviewed Jamie Wyeth extensively about his collaboration with Warhol. "Andy Warhol really was rejuvenating himself through these younger artists and their very different worlds.
"Basquiat was such a creature from another planet, as was Jamie. Andy Warhol definitely enjoyed that."
Wyeth and Basquiat were the only two established artists to have been invited to Warhol's Factory studio in New York.
During the course of their friendship in the 1970s, Warhol and Wyeth enjoyed carriage rides along the Brandywine and went antiquing in search of collectible toys and taxidermy animals.
"Andy Warhol once told a reporter that Jamie Wyeth was more peculiar than he was," Stoner said. "Jamie told me he thought that this was because he loved taxidermy animals more."
The two compared notes on art, hearses, funerals and other topics, and they held joint shows, which included no less than 30 Wyeth portraits of Warhol.
Ten years later, Warhol and Basquiat exercised together (Warhol, who did not do drugs, reportedly tried to encourage Basquiat, who did, to adopt a more healthy lifestyle), got manicures, attended parties, dished about Basquiat's love life and painted over each other's artwork.
The Brandywine exhibit chronicles these offbeat relationships through interviews, clippings, audiotapes and related artifacts, such as antiques that Wyeth and Warhol collected jointly; a photograph of Warhol clutching a carriage as it plunged into the Brandywine River; Warhol's leather jacket, as decorated by Basquiat; postcards from Basquiat to Warhol; a three-dimensional work that Basquiat created in Warhol's memory; and a tape-recorded conversation between Wyeth and Warhol, one of many Warhol recorded in the 1970s with his then-ubiquitous tape recorder.
The show also contains numerous drawings and paintings by Warhol and Wyeth, such as their contrasting portraits of Rudolf Nureyev, Jimmy Carter, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Kennedys. It likewise includes a graceful minimalist likeness of Wyeth by Warhol and largely unflattering portraits of Warhol by Wyeth, in which the steadfast realist diligently recorded Warhol's sometimes splotchy skin tones and the black hair that occasionally peeked out from beneath Warhol's signature white wig.
Their friendship survived Wyeth's portraits of Warhol, although Stoner noted that Warhol once told Wyeth he was "using too much pimple color." She also said that when a reporter asked Warhol what he thought of a Wyeth painting of him, Warhol quipped that it was a "closet portrait: If it belonged to me, I would keep it in a closet.'"
Warhol's works with Basquiat represent an equally fruitful pairing that, by some accounts, developed when the 20-year-old Brooklynite sought out Warhol, reportedly to learn not about painting, but about how to become a celebrity. Under Warhol's influence, Basquiat experimented with silk-screening and donned $800 Armani suits, which he flamboyantly wore while painting.
The two did each other's portraits, including Warhol's famous portrayal of a jockstrap-wearing Basquiat as Michelangelo's David. Warhol also created an oxidation painting of Basquiat, a technique that mixed Liquitex paints, copper metal powder and urine. The exhibit will include these works, as well as a paneled demonstration by a Warhol Museum conservator, showing how to create the chemical reactions found in an oxidation.
Warhol's motorcycle jacket, on which Basquiat painted a self-portrait, will be shown along with a picture of Warhol wearing that jacket.
Another noteworthy inclusion in the show is a found-art piece Basquiat created in response to Warhol's death in 1987. Basquiat hinged together three doors, which he found on the street, and decorated the piece with a flower, a cross and a skull-like mask. Across the work he wrote the word "perishable" in ghostly, etched-out print. It was an important piece in the young artist's brief, yet prolific, career.
"Andy Warhol was the only authority figure whom Basquiat actually got along with, and his death really affected him. Afterward, Basquiat seemed to go downhill a bit," said Stoner, noting that Basquiat, who had long battled a drug addiction throughout his meteoric career, died of a heroin overdose just shy of his 28th birthday, within a year of Warhol's death.
Stoner will discuss Basquiat's relationship with Warhol, as well as the friendship between Warhol and Wyeth, in an illustrated lecture Oct. 15 at the museum, located along Route 1 in Chester County. She said she hopes the lecture and exhibit will broaden the public's understanding of each of the artists' lives and careers.
For example, while Wyeth and Basquiat each undoubtedly looked to Warhol as something of a mentor, Stoner said the inspiration flowed both ways. According to those who knew Warhol well, she said, the artist was "back to having fun with painting again" after working with Basquiat. Stoner also noted that Wyeth inspired Warhol to explore new subject matter, including death masks (Warhol was fascinated by Wyeth's morgue paintings) and chickens (he enjoyed Wyeth's stories of the chickens at his family's farm).
"Most people in this area know a great deal about the Wyeths, but they may not know of this side of Jamie Wyeth's work. Jamie Wyeth's collaborations with Andy Warhol are sort of buried by Warhol historians and writers," Stoner said. She said she hopes the exhibit will "punch a hole in the image of Andy Warhol as described by a limited view.
"There are also Warhol and Basquiat fans who may have never had thought to go to the Brandywine Museum," she said. "I hope so. This exhibit is varied and wide-ranging. It really is something to see."
Labels: andy warhol, art, artists, brandywine art museum, jamie wyeth, jean michel basquiat, joyce hill stoner, mary alice bitts, MaryAlice Bitts
posted by MaryAlice Bitts at 2:39 PM
