Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop by Jan Greenberg
Author:Jan Greenberg [Greenberg, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-51306-9
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2006-03-14T16:00:00+00:00
For a month at a dance hall called the Dom, Andy staged an extravaganza complete with slides, movies, dancing, live music, and a strobe-light show. No one at that time had seen anything like it. People flocked to the Dom—uptown doyennes in long gowns, downtown hipsters in miniskirts and white boots, men in tie-dyed T-shirts and bell-bottoms, and a random crowd, both eclectically dressed and undressed. All in attendance gyrated frenetically in the huge darkened hall, lit only by the pulsating light show. Andy stood on the balcony running the slide projectors, working the lights, changing the colors. Gerard Malanga, Ingrid Superstar, Ondine, and various other Superstars put on a floor show. Their chief aim was entertaining Andy, whom they renamed Drella (a combination of Dracula and Cinderella).
After this gig, Andy took his show on the road with high hopes of a hit album and sold-out performances. Despite the notoriety and crowds, his efforts at a moneymaking endeavor never materialized. Nearly six months later, plagued by squabbles among the performers, canceled appearances, and rising costs, Andy's venture into rock and roll fizzled out. But the Velvets, along with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, and Bob Dylan, took their place as part of the history of rock music in the sixties.
For Andy, the failure of the Velvet Underground represented more than a financial loss. Realistic or not, money worries plagued him throughout his career. Henry Geldzahler explained, “There was an aching poverty early on, which hit [Andy] like a ton of bricks, and he just has never been on to, ah, experiencing that again. Even now he doesn't judge his success by the amount of money that is in various bank accounts or by the total value of his collection. He judges his success each year on how much money is coming in that year because underneath is always the image of total starvation and poverty and being evicted. There's no way he's ever going to get over that…. And what looks like cynicism to us, is really panic, I think.” In addition, one of the reasons Andy needed to “bring home the bacon,” as he said, was to continue to finance his unprofitable movies and feed his ever-present entourage.
Unfortunately, his artwork did not boost his finances. His latest show at Leo Castelli's, which coincided with the Dom events, featured his garish Day-Glo Cow Wallpaper and silver balloons that floated around the space like clouds. Nothing to buy but balloons. Yet the audience could participate by moving through the plump silver pillows. (Participatory Art was a new but short-lived movement in the sixties.) Andy, the compulsive collector, said people were burdened with too many objects. If you opened a window, the balloons could just glide away. The avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham used the balloons as a stage set for one of his dances, but the dancers kept bumping into them, so he ended up tying them down.
Andy was further discouraged about his art when Henry Geldzahler, who had been appointed curator of the prestigious Venice Biennale, failed to include him.
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