Andy Warhol

"Do you even like Andy Warhol?"

Adam Lindemann discusses Andy Warhol with his psychiatrist and NY Gallerist readers

Any story that contains the line "When I mentioned the Met show to my psychiatrist, he asked me, “Do you even like Warhol, because I don’t," promises to be a good read. So we urge you to head over to galleristny.com where you'll find a truly wonderful bunch of Andy Warhol memories by writer Adam Lindemann, built cleverly around the Met's current show Regarding Warhol which pitches Warhol's art among 60 artists who've been inspired by him.

"I’m fascinated by Warhol’s work, both the good and the bad, and it’s funny to think now about how Andy never particularly liked me," Lindemann writes. I knew him well in ’83 and ’84—we went out all the time because my girlfriend Cornelia was one of his BFFs. He loved her because she was blue-blooded and wild, but he had little interest in me, since I wasn’t gay, and I wasn’t famous or especially rich. No matter, I was all of 21, and following Andy around was fun. We’d dine at Halston’s Paul Rudolph townhouse with Victor Hugo and Studio 54’s Steve Rubell, or go with a spliff-smoking Jean-Michel Basquiat to see Michael Jackson’s Victory Tour in Madison Square Garden. I never succeeded in getting Andy to say much more to me than 'great' or 'yeah,' and believe me I tried, though he did once come to a dinner party at my parents’ house accompanied by Boy George and a minor pop star called Marilyn who wore a long white party gown. He/she was a great-looking androgynous cross-dresser but I still didn’t take him up on the suggestion that the two of us go for a quick cruise in the water-ski boat."

As Lindemann notes, the Met show has come in for a fair amount of criticism in New York art circles: "The many Warhol masterpieces in the Met’s show can never get old, but far too many of the other artists the curators selected make no sense—their work bears no relation to the work of Warhol, apart from the fact that, like him, they make art," He writes. "Sorry, guys, but I don’t see any meaningful connections between Andy and Vija Celmins or Andy and Robert Gober, nor do I perceive significant links between Warhol and the painter John Currin. How about an entire room dedicated to Ryan Trecartin? Was that a practical joke (Andy would have liked that) or a feeble attempt to be “edgy”? But it’s just too easy to criticize this show; everyone already has, and so it’s no longer all that interesting to do so."

The show may have divided opinions the piece throws a whole lot more insightful ones into the mix. Read the whole story at nygallerist.com And remember, our store has a number of great Warhol books, both big and small and Giant size.