warholstars news
December - January 2016
Private memorial party for Holly Woodlawn on January 17th at 3:30 pm at the Chateau Marmont
Invitation to the private memorial party for Holly Woodlawn at the Chateau Marmont
January 15, 2016: Invitations to the memorial party for Holly Woodlawn at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, hosted by Robert Starr, have been sent out. The party is private - only 100 people are invited. Yet, the public's donations to the Go Fund Me campaign to "Bring Holly Home" are being used to pay for some of the party expenses. The invitations did not just go to Holly's closest friends. The person who received the above invitation did not even know Holly. It is clearly not only her friends who are being invited. Joe Dallesandro, Holly's co-star in Trash, has already said that he will not be attending because he does not believe the fund should be used for a private party.
The host of the party, as listed on the invitation, is real estate agent Robert Starr. The New York Post quotes the fund's Campaign Organizer (Penny Arcade) as saying "The only person who ever had access to the money was Robert Starr.” According to the same article, Starr claims that "most of the money was spent on nurses and medical bills..." (The NY Post article is here.)
Despite Starr's claims that "most of the money was spent on nurses and medical bills," he has still not provided specific details of the nurses and medical bills paid for by the fund. Holly Woodlawn was on SSI and received state benefits. The State of California would have paid for her medical treatment, including 24-hour nurses at Cedars Sinai and in the hospices in which she spent her final months. Was the State of California aware of the fund when they were paying for Holly's medical expenses? Why was Robert Starr made the beneficiary of the fund instead of Holly in the first place? Was Holly Woodlawn's father consulted before the fund was set up?
If, as Penny Arcade claims, "The only person who ever had access to the money was Robert Starr," it may mean that Starr will ultimately be responsible for taxes on the income. According to Go Fund Me, "It is up to you (and a tax professional) to determine whether your proceeds represent taxable income. The person who's listed on the WePay account and ultimately receives the funds may be responsible for taxes." They note that there may be instances "where the income is taxable (dependent on amounts received and use of the monies, etc.)." As the "use of monies" is one of the considerations in deciding whether the income is taxable Starr will presumably need to to provide a list of expenditures at some point, with receipts. I'm not sure if a private party at the Chateau Marmont would be considered a legitimate expense from the donations made to the "Bring Holly Home" Go Fund Me account.
After some of Holly's friends suggested to the Campaign Organizer that a spreadsheet of the fund's expenses be kept, they were referred to as "cretins" on the Go Fund Me page.
I was also personally maligned on the Go Fund Me page. In her comments in Update 49 (yes, another one) the Campaign Organizer, Penny Arcade (real name: Susan or Susana Ventura), gives the impression that I was shown a video of Holly by a "former Warhol superstar" while she was in the Sharon Nursing Home and that the video has been made public. This is untrue.
First, I never used the term "former Warhol superstar" so I'm not sure why that is in quotes. Second, the person who filmed the video and showed it to me has never been in a Warhol film. They were not a Warhol superstar. Third, the film was of Holly in Cedars Sinai, not at the Sharon Nursing Home. Fourth, the film has never been made public.
Why is the Campaign Organizer for this fund always jumping the gun? Instead of answering the questions asked, she launches into a tirade of abuse. The best defence is not always an offence, Penny.
In repose to the criticism that, during the time she was in care, Holly was not even provided with a mobile phone with money from the fund, Penny has commented on the Go Fund Me page: "Holly had a telephone next to her bed." The phrase "let them eat cake" comes to mind. I have also been in hospital with a life-threatening illness. I know what it feels like to be critically ill and I know how important having a mobile phone is while you are that ill. I didn't have the strength to reach to the bedside table. There was over $60,000 sitting in the bank and nobody bothered to get Holly a cellphone? Yet the the same people who control the fund can now afford a private party at the Chateau Marmont. Shame.
Despite the fact that some of the money is supposed to go to the LGBT office in L.A. to help transgender youth, the transgendered community has also not escaped the wrath of the fund's Organizer. Arcade has openly criticized "Tranactivists" and the gay organization GLAAD which run a transgender media program. in Update 9 on the Go Fund Me page, Penny Arcade writes "Many people have commented that they are waiting to see Caitlin [sic] Jenner, LaVern [sic] Cox or one of the other high profile transgendered people... step up to call attention to Holly's situation... What I find more curious is the cadre of so called Transactivists that make so much noise about words like Trannie or Night Clubs with the word Tranny that were of our community and opened before they were in elementary school." She continues "Where is GLADD [sic] and other single issue organizations who love to be associated with trans issues when it suits them?"
In Update 30 she appears to criticize Caitlyn Jenner for not contributing to the fund. After Ms. Jenner mentioned Holly on her TV show, Penny Arcade didn't thank her. Instead, Arcade complained that the mention did not "come with a contribution." (Note: Previous updates on the Go Fund Me page can be seen by clicking on "show more" at the end of the current update - under the picture of Holly.)
How on earth can comments like that benefit a fund when part of it is supposed to be used to support the transgender community? How can the LGBT office in Los Angeles accept money from a fund whose Campaign Organizer was so critical of transgendered women, "Transactivists" and GLAAD? What was the Campaign Organizer's motive in regard to the comments? Did she actually think it would help the fund or was it simply to encourage controversy and attention? Penny Arcade did not visit Holly once while she was in care and Arcade's leaving the country on January 19th.
At this stage, the most reasonable thing to do would be to refund the donors' money and let a reputable organization like LGBT or GLAAD start a new campaign for the establishment of a Holly Woodlawn fund to help transgendered youth. Penny Arcade should also apologize to Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox for her comments. If a small group of people want to have a private memorial party at a posh hotel in Hollywood, they should pay for it themselves.
R.I.P. Haroldo. May you rest in peace.
(See also: "Joe Dallesandro was banned from Holly Woodlawn's bedside during her last week of life" and "Questions raised over Holly Woodlawn fund")
Vincent Fremont is made CEO of ARTnews
January 14, 2016: Vincent Fremont has been made CEO of ARTnews SA, the company that publishes ARTnews, Art in America, The Magazine Antiques, and Modern. Fremont was the vice-president of Andy Warhol Enterprises and a founding director of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. He started working for Warhol in 1969. He also produced Warhol's TV shows (Fashion, Andy Warhol's TV and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes) and co-directed, with his wife, Shelly Dunn Fremont, the brilliant documentary on Brigid Berlin, Pie in the Sky.
Reminder: Tickets for Joe Dallesandro/Jane Birkin Q&A go on sale tomorrow, Thursday, January 14, 2016
(Update: Tickets now on sale, available here.)
Joe Dallesandro (left) with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin during the filming of Je t'aime moi non plus
January 13, 2016: Just a reminder that tickets go on sale tomorrow (Thursday) for the Q&A with Joe Dallesandro and Jane Birkin at Lincoln Center in New York. Tickets to the event will be sold online here. The phone number for the Box Office of the Walter Reade Theater is: (212) 875-5601.
The event is part of the Film Society's retrospective of mother-daughter duo Jane Birkin and Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Jane and Charlotte Forever."
The talk with Joe Dallesandro and Jane Birkin will take place on January 30, 2016 after a screening of the film that Joe appeared in with Jane, Je t'aime moi non plus, directed by Serge Gainsbourg who was married to Jane from 1968 to 1980.
The return of Joe Dallesandro to New York is not to be missed. It's where he started his film career in Andy Warhol's Loves of Ondine, followed by Flesh and then Trash - the film he made with Holly Woodlawn. Other films he appeared in that were either directed or produced by Andy Warhol included San Diego Surf, Lonesome Cowboys (with Viva) and the absolutely hilarious Heat (with Sylvia Miles and Pat Ast.) After travelling to Europe to make Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula he pursued a prolific European film career. Je t'aime was one of more than 15 movies he made in Europe.
(Trash trivia: Trash was initially banned in the U.K. and the controversy about it reached the Houses of Parliament. It was finally approved after the removal of two scenes - the scene where Holly Woodlawn has sex with a beer bottle and the scene in which Geri Miller has oral sex with Joe Dallesandro. See "Trash in London.")
Joe Dallesandro was banned from Holly Woodlawn's bedside during her last week of her life
Andy Warhol superstar, Joe Dallesandro, was banned from Holly Woodlawn's bedside during her last week of life. He was not on the visitation list maintained by Holly's medical proxy, a real estate agent named Robert Starr. According to a family relative, Joe had to "fight" to see Holly the day she died...
See more.
Thomas Crow to discuss Andy Warhol at The Morgan Library
The Long March of Pop by Thomas Crow
January 9, 2016: Thomas Crow will be discussing Andy Warhol at The Morgan Library and Museum on March 29, 2016 as part of the exhibition "Warhol by the Book." The exhibition, previously at The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, opens at The Morgan on February 5, 2016 and runs until May 15, 2016.
Crow is the author of The Long March of Pop: Art Music and Design 1930 - 1995 published last year and the essay "Saturdays Disaster: Trace and Reference in Early Warhol" that appeared in October Files 2 published by MIT.
Details of the exhibition here.
Details of Crow's talk here.
Andy Warhol: Life and Legends
January 8, 2016: The opening reception for "Andy Warhol: Life and Legends" will take place at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in California next Saturday, January 16, 2016 from 5 - 7 pm.
The exhibition features his portfolios of prints including Flowers, Myths, Birmingham Race Riots, Muhammad Ali, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, Sunsets, Grapes, Space Fruit, Vesuvius, Endangered Species, Campbell's Soup Cans and Marilyns. It will run from January 16 - April 3, 2016. Details here.
Holly Woodlawn Fund Update
January 7, 2016: A private memorial party for Holly Woodlawn is being planned for January 17th. Only 100 people are being invited. According to an earlier posting on Facebook (now removed) by the Campaign Organizer, money from the "Go Fund Me" account is going to pay for the party - for things like drinks, food and flowers. Despite the fact that the money is coming from the fund, most people who donated to the fund will not be invited. A professional party planner is organizing the event which will be taking place at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.
The LGBT in Los Angeles has accepted a donation of $25,000 from the fund to go toward supporting transgender youth despite the fact that the official Campaign Organizer of the fund has not apologised for criticising high-profile transgendered women Caitlyn Jenner and LaVerne Cox for not contributing to the fund on the fund's page. The Campaign Organizer was also critical of GLAAD who run a transgender media program and "transactivists" in general on the "Go Fund Me" page.
Although the account was began by the Campaign Organizer to "Bring Holly Home," Holly was not the listed beneficiary of the "Go Fund Me" fund. Instead, a real estate agent in Los Angeles was listed as beneficiary. The money went into his account. One superstar friend of Holly had earlier posted on the organizer's Facebook page, that when they "visited her in the first care facility she was at" that Holly "was hungry, and without a cell phone and any access to the thousands of dollars that had been collected for her." That posting was removed from the organizers' Facebook page, with the organizer arguing that "Marilyn Monroe" had a private service, so why shouldn't Holly?
Holly had signed her will and made the real estate agent the executor while she was in care. It is unknown whether Holly's family in Puerto Rico was consulted or whether her father, who lived in Florida, is still alive.
I have now seen video footage of Holly in bed while in care. She appears confused, disorientated and in considerable pain.
The Campaign Organizer has been asked for an account of what the money has been spent on but has so far not come up with a list. It's a simple request: Can we please have a list of the expenses paid for by the fund and how much they cost?
Joe Dallesandro and Jane Birkin Q&A to take place in NY on January 30, 2016 at Lincoln Center
Joe Dallesandro and Jane Birkin in Serge Gainsbourg's film, Je t'aime moi non plus
January 6, 2016: Tickets go on sale on January 14, 2016 for the Q & A event featuring British-born Jane Birkin and Warhol superstar, Joe Dallesandro, which will take place at Lincoln Center in New York on January 30, 2016. The Q & A will be preceeded by a showing of the film they were in together - Je t'aime moi non plus - which was also a successful song. The film was directed by Serge Gainsbourg who also wrote and sang the song of the same name with his then-lover, Jane Birkin, in 1969. The erotically-charged rendition of the song resulted in it being the first no. 1 single in the U.K. to be banned.
After Joe Dallesandro left Warhol's Factory he appeared in a large number of European films. In addition to Je t'aime moi non plus, he also appeared in Black Moon by Louis Malle, Merry-Go-Round directed by Jacques Rivette (co-starring Maria Schneider), and films by directors such as Bazzani and Borowczyk before returning to the states to do The Cotton Club, John Waters' Cry-Baby, L.A. Without a Map and The Limey (directed by Stephen Soderbergh.)
Both Jane and Joe have received formal honours for their contribution to the arts. Jane received an O.B.E. from the British government (making her Dame Jane Birkin) and Joe was made a Chevalier ("Knight") de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Other people holding this honour include the actor Dirk Bogarde, writer William S. Burroughs, ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev, composer Philip Glass and actor Jude Law.
This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see two legends of modern cinema. The event is part of the "Jane and Charlotte Series" at the Lincoln Center. As noted, tickets go on sale Thursday, January 14, with early access for Film Society members beginning Monday, January 11. Details here.
Compilation of Andy Warhol articles to be published by MIT
Front cover of On&By Andy Warhol
January 5, 2016: A compilation of articles by and about Andy Warhol will be published by MIT in early February as part of the "Whitechapel: On and By" series. On&By Andy Warhol is edited by Gilda Williams and contains an amazing range of articles - many of the articles you often see quoted combined with some rare articles that have been out of print for some time. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is essential for anyone doing research on Warhol or anyone who wants to better understand the workings and personality of this complex artist.
Penny Arcade decides not to close Holly Woodlawn's "Go Fund Me" page after all
January 4, 2016: Penny Arcade has decided not to close Holly Woodlawn's "Go Fund Me" page after all. She has added new comments concerning Holly's ashes - a subject that has been covered before. In Update 44 Penny clearly said "Holly requested her ashes to be placed with her mother in Puerto Rico." She did not say that Holly requested that only some of her ashes be interred with her mother in Puerto Rico. But now, apparently, they are going to be divided up. Penny doesn't distinctly say that the will said to do that, she just launches into a criticism of me. Hollywood Forever are duty-bound to check the will before they accept the ashes in order to verify that Holly wanted her ashes divided up. Robert Starr, as executor, is duty bound to carry out the terms of the will as they are written. If Holly did not specify that the ashes be divided up and Starr decides to divide them up, he is committing a crime. What is the name of the law firm who notarized the will? They should have a copy of it.
In regard to the questions I asked Penny yesterday, I did receive an email but no answers to the questions. Fortunately, she said she is going to stop writing me. Thank God. Her insults, threats and accusations were becoming wearisome.
In regard to the questions, I'll help Penny out by answering the first two. How many Warhol films was she in? One. How many minutes was she on the screen? About five minutes. This is important because when she performs she advertises herself as a "Warhol Superstar." In the advertising for her upcoming gigs in Australia, for instance, she's referred to as an "Andy Warhol Factory Superstar." People are buying tickets on the basis that they are seeing a Warhol Superstar on the order of someone like Viva, Jane Holzer or Mary Woronov. But that is not the case. The promoters must be spending a fortune on Penny (assuming they are paying for her travel costs) and they deserve to know the truth.
I can't answer the question I asked about the Go Fund Me money because the accounts have never been revealed publicly. Penny has announced that $25,000 is going to the LBGT center in L.A. But what has happened to the other $43,173.00? I have had it confirmed that all of Holly's medical care was paid for by the State of California, including the doctors, the 24 hour nursing and the wages of her caregiver.
The money that Penny and Robert collected was Holly's money. They were supposed to be raising the money for her. How much of it actually went to her? The fund could have at least provided her with a mobile phone while she was in the hospital. You Fund Me have confirmed that the account was set up with Penny as the campaign organizer and Robert Starr as the beneficiary. Why wasn't Holly listed as the beneficiary? It was by using her name that they got the donations.
One final question to Penny and Robert: Will you be spending any of the money on the private memorial party that is planned later this month in Los Angeles?
Penny Arcade announces closure of Holly Woodlawn's "Go Fund Me" page
January 3, 2016, 15.33 GMT: Cabaret performer Penny Arcade has announced the closure of the Holly Woodlawn "Go Fund Me" page. According to what appears to be her final statement on the page, she writes in Update #47, January 3, 2016, that "Robert [Starr] has asked me to close this page because despite the obvious fact to anyone that donations had ceased to be taken here, he felt that the motive of the page would be misconstrued." She also notes that "Robert Starr, Holly's long time friend, medical proxy and executor of her estate informed me yesterday of the creation of The Holly Woodlawn Memorial For Transgender Youth at The Los Angeles LBGT Center which he endowed with $25,000 of the funds raised here by you." The campaign raised $68,173. Penny has offered no explanation as to what has happened to the other $43,173.00.
It also appears that Holly's last wishes are not to be respected. According to earlier updates on Go Fund Me, Holly had specified that her ashes be interred in her mother's grave in Puerto Rico. According to Penny Arcade, "I have not heard yet of the date and time for the internment of Holly's ashes at Hollywood Forever Cemetery which I had hoped to post here."
Holly Woodlawn Fund No. 2
January 3, 2016: I've had two emails from the cabaret entertainer, Penny Arcade, since the publication of the essay below about the Holly Woodlawn fund.
In the first email she seems more concerned about the fact that I said she wasn't a Warhol superstar than explaining what the fund was used for - and I'm still trying to figure out what the second email means.
The essay can be broken down into four basic questions which need answering:
To Penny:
In regard to your "Warhol superstar" claim which you use to advertise your act:
1. Of the more than 500 films that Warhol made, how many did you appear in?
2. How many minutes were you on screen in Women in Revolt?
In regard to the Holly Woodlawn Fund of which you are the registered "Campaign Organizer:"
3. What is the current balance of the account?
4. How much money has been withdrawn from the account and what was it used for?
These are four simple, uncomplicated questions. They should be easy to answer. Thank you.
Questions raised over Holly Woodlawn fund
January 1, 2016: Holly Woodlawn, star of Trash and Women in Revolt, died on December 6, 2015. When she was first hospitalised for what turned out to be lung and liver cancer, Penny Arcade started a Go Fund Me account to "Bring Holly Woodlawn Home." Questions are now being asked about the fund which brought in a total of $68,173.00 in donations... see more here.
Happy Birthday Joe Dallesandro
December 31, 2015: Happy Birthday Joe Dallesandro.
Paul Morrissey (L), Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro being honoured at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002
Artnet's "Naughty List"
December 26, 2015: Artnet has released its "Art World Naughty List for 2015." Included on the list is a story I mentioned here in August 2015. Stevens Auction claimed to have sold a "Warhol" painting of Coco Chanel which was suspect. Tom Sokolowski, the previous head of the Andy Warhol Museum said that it looked "more like Caitlyn Jenner than Coco Chanel" and that it even looked "like it was painted by Caitlyn Jenner!" The announcement by the auction house proclaimed that the next "Warhol" painting they planned to sell was a "Marilyn."
When they did list the "Marilyn" painting in September, it appeared just as amateurishly painted as the "Chanel" painting. I did a story about the "Marilyn" painting here and received a threatening letter from the auctioneer as a result. According to the head of the auction house, my opinion about the painting constituted "malicious interference" and I was threatened with a lawsuit against my site and myself "personally." I was warned that "our legal team will review your website at open of business on Monday, September 21, 2015 at 9 am" and if it was still online they would sue me.
I left the story up. They didn't sue me. In fact they did the opposite. They added a proviso to their listing that the work was "not authenticated."
The case brought up an interesting misnomer of the art world. People selling a work as the work of a specific artist may believe that they can sue anyone who says it isn't by the artist. It's true that anyone can sue anyone about anything, but whether that suit will be successful is a different kettle of fish entirely.
Anybody, myself included, is entitled to express an opinion as to an art work's authenticity. It's called free speech. There been quite a number of times where the authorship of certain classical works have been questioned. In the case of modern artists (i.e. Warhol), it may be that the seller might hope that the person questioning the work might back down (or not speak up in the first place) in order to avoid a lawsuit, regardless of whether the lawsuit is valid or not. In the non-art-world, this might be called "bullying."
In the meantime, it really is not a very good idea to claim that something is a Warhol when it is not. There are certain ways that Warhol worked and certain materials that he used that help determine when a Warhol is a Warhol and not all these are known to the public. Warhol may have given the impression that his Factory was an art Factory where everyone worked on his paintings, but that was never the case. He had only one paid art assistant during most of the sixties which is a lot less than artists have today. Warhol actually took a "hands on" approach to his paintings. His paintings were not prints. Silkscreening was just one technique he used on a canvas that might also include brush strokes (look closely at an original and you can see them) or spray painting and other techniques - all on the same canvas.
If you think you have discovered an undiscovered Warhol, compare it to the works listed in the catalogue raisonné. Go to a museum and view a real Warhol. Is your painting as skilfully painted as the authentic Warhols listed in the cat. rais.? Or is it a print? Or is it neither?
As usual the advice is "buyer beware" but equally "seller beware" - of being outed if you sell a Warhol of questionable authenticity. You could end up on the "Naughty List."
The full "Naughty List" by Artnet is here.
Merry Christmas
December 25, 2015: Merry Christmas from warholstars. xx
Andy Warhol photographs Naomi Sims on the cover of Interview magazine
(Source: The Genealogy of Style)
Peter Hujar exhibition
December 22, 2015: An exhibition of photographs by Peter Hujar opens at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco on January 7, 2016 and runs until March 5, 2016. Hujar is famous for his photographs of Candy Darling on her deathbed although the photos in this exhibition were chosen to reflect the broad scope of his work, including "gritty scenes of city life in the 1970s and 1980s, dramatic seascapes, poignant still lifes, and penetrating 'portraits' of animals" according to the press release which can be downloaded here.
The Chelsea Girls in Australia
December 21, 2015: The Australian Centre for the Moving Image will be presenting The Chelsea Girls on January 24, 2016 in conjunction with the Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Details of the screening here.
More about The Chelsea Girls here.
Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg
December 20, 2015: An exhibition of American Pop Art - "Masterpieces en masse" - which includes works "by Robert Rauschenberg to Andy Warhol" from the Heinz Beck collection, opens at the Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen on January 23, 2016 and closes May 16, 2016.
Details here.
Two Warhol prints are stolen from gallery director's car
December 19, 2015: Two prints by Andy Warhol, and an artwork by Otto Piene, were stolen the morning of December 17, 2015 from a car that belonged to the director of Galerie Hafenrichter in Nurnberg. Jens Hafenrichter was driving the works to Düsseldorf. There was no damage to the vehicle. Artforum is quoting an employee of the gallery as saying, "It's odd that there were seven pictures in total and only three were stolen. The The framed Warhols were over 1m x 1m, they’re not works you just carry away under your arm..."
Artforum article is here.
Ronald Tavel's book is selling out
December 18, 2015: Andy Warhol's Ridiculous Screenplays by Ronald Tavel is almost sold out on Amazon. I'm not sure whether there will be another print of the book or this is a one-off publication so if you are interested in purchasing it, I wouldn't wait. The book launch was covered earlier this month here.
Andy Warhol - the boat
December 17, 2015: The Ultra Deep Group is building a "multipurpose diving support construction vehicle" named Andy Warhol which will feature a "clean design" and low emissions, operating on a "FiFi class" system. It can accommodate up to 120 people. Details here.
Art dealer buys the Montauk property where the ex-lover of Margaret Trudeau made Cocaine Cowboys
December 16, 2015: Art dealer Adam Lindemann, founder of the Venus Over Manhattan gallery, is now the proud owner of the Montauk compound once owned by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The deal was finally closed two days ago, on Monday.
It was on the property that Tom Sullivan made the movie Cocaine Cowboys. In Warhol's diaries Sullivan is referred to as a drug dealer who was having an affair with Margaret Trudeau (the mother of the current prime minister of Canada). Warhol appears briefly in the film.
Clips from Cocaine Cowboys that feature Andy Warhol on You Tube here.
The Wall Street Journal article about the sale is here.
Catherine Opie joins board of Warhol Foundation
Josh
(by Catherine Opie/Regen Projects)
December 15, 2015: Catherine Opie has been appointed to the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Opie has a number of shows coming up including two based around her photographs of Elizabeth Taylor's home, 700 Nimes Road - exhibition catalogue available through the usual outlets.
Max's Kansas City's 50th Anniversary
December 14, 2015: Max's Kansas City is celebrating it's 50th anniversary next year with two rather pricey events. On January 14, 2016 there will be a tribute to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground at The Cutting Room (tickets at $80 with a $20 food and drink minimum) and on February 11 there will be a photographers' reunion party and auction at the Chelsea Hotel Gallery in partnership with The Chelsea Hotels and Paddle8. (Tickets $100). Details here.
The Velvet Underground at the Matrix
Ad from the Berkeley Tribe (November 14-21, 1969) as reproduced in Alfredo Garcia, The Inevitable World of The Velvet Underground, p. 372
December 13, 2015: An article on the Velvet Underground's trip to San Francisco to play The Matrix in November 1969 has appeared in the New Yorker magazine. The author of the article quotes Mary Woronov about an earlier trip to California with The Exploding Plastic Inevitable in which she points out the differences between the California scene and the Warhol scene in New York:
"We spoke two completely different languages. We were on amphetamine and they were on acid. They were so slow to speak with these wide-open eyes - 'Oh, Wow!' - and so into their 'vibrations;' we spoke in rapid machine-gun fire about books and paintings and movies. They were into 'free' and the American Indian and 'going back to the land' and trying to be some kind of 'true, authentic' person; we could not have cared less about that. They were homophobic; we were homosexual. Their women, they were these big round-titted girls, you would say hello to them and they would just flop down on the bed and fuck you; we liked sexual tension, S&M, not fucking. They were barefoot; we had platform boots. They were eating bread they had baked themselves - and we never ate at all!"
Universal music has recently released the Matrix sets. Details in the article here.
TIFF Film Schedule
Tom Hompertz in San Diego Surf (to be shown January 19, 2016)
December 12, 2015: The Toronto International Film Festival has been showing an amazing selection of Warhol films since The Chelsea Girls was screened there on October 30, 2015. Films being shown in December and January include Lupe and Outer and Inner Space (December 17), Hedy (December 26), Horse (December 30), Lonesome Cowboys (January 1, 2016), The Nude Restaurant (featuring "Julian Burroughs" in the cast) (January 2), Bike Boy (January 7), San Diego Surf (January 19), Haircut (No 1) and Kiss (January 22), Screen Tests (January 23) and Mrs. Warhol (January 24). Details here.
Holly Woodlawn Tributes
December 11, 2015: Holly Woodlawn has become more famous in death than she was in life. In addition to the plethora of You Tube, Twitter and Facebook tributes, most major newspapers in most major cities have run obituaries.
One of the many tributes to Holly Woodlawn on You Tube is this clip from Hollywood film editor Grant Smith which you can access here.
Press obituaries include the international Spanish newspaper, La Opinion; French newspapers La Monde and Le Figaro; The Guardian, the Independent, The Telegraph and the Daily Mail in the UK; La Nacion in Cost Rica; Germany's Speigel Online; and the New York Times, Variety, L.A. Times, Rolling Stone magazine and the New York Daily News in the U.S. TV stations who reported on her death included ABC News in the states and the BBC in the U.K. The downside of all the coverage is that Holly isn't here to enjoy the all the attention - which, of course, she would have absolutely loved. R.I.P. Holly.
Holly Woodlawn Obituary
December 7, 2015. Sad news to report: Holly Woodlawn died yesterday afternoon after a battle with cancer. Her obituary is here
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