Here's some of my more famous WorksGet Your Own! | View Slideshow
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..Early Interview...The interviewer was an idiot and made me look like a pompous profligate.
I adopted the band Velvet Underground as one of my projects in the 1960s and put them on the map. I produced their first album and brought in Nico. Before I took the band in, they were musically frustrated, had no direction, and could produce nothing except beatnik poetry. Shortly after their profile grew and landed a contract with MGM's Verve records. During 66 and '67 they provided the musical part to my traveling exhibition "Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable." As time went on Lou Reed's narrow mind really prevented VU from reaching new limits. We clashed and it got to a point where he would disagree with me on anything just for the sake of disagreeing. VU eventually faded off the map, which really is a pity. They went on and did their own thing but didnt really improve much. Their fanbase was never really that huge, but their talent was so intricate (atleast when I was with them) that every fan of theirs went on to start their own band. My musical talent was extended beyond the world of Velvet Underground, for instance, i did the cover artwork for the Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" album. I also did self-portraits of Mick Jagger. I was friendly with many other musicians such as Bob Dylan and John Lennon, who I also did cover art for. I appeared in the Cars "hello again" video, and was very very close friends with Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. Some might say that I also had influence on such bands as Devo and David Bowie, although the latter is pretty obvious since he wrote a song about me.
Here's one of my works that's on show currently at Wexner's "Shiny" Exhibition. I call it "Silver Clouds" ..Here's an evaluation made by some OSU Undergrad that I found, It's a pretty good analysis:"DESCRIPTION: Silver Clouds is a very unique piece of art. There is no traditional medium but it is more of an experience. Silver Clouds consists of a large room with a dozen or helium filled aluminum pillowcases. There are fans that create several air currents on which the "clouds" travel through the room. At one instant a cloud could be hovering in midair, and at the next instant, could be carried to the other side of the room on one of these currents. There is a mirror covering a majority of the far wall and the clouds are very reflective in the midst of everything else going on, you can see a reflection of your self at about a dozen different places in the room.INTERPRETATION: Silver clouds is perhaps a critique on what is (or atleast what was) the common view of what art is. One can’t just stare at one section of the room to gain the full experience of the piece, as you could with say a painting or sculpture. The piece is never in the same place, never has been and never will be repeated. It is because of this that there are several underlying themes in “Silver Clouds.†First, Warhol is saying something about time and space. This piece shows the chaos in existence, that everything is perhaps a random order of events. There is no order to things, and whenever there is order or some structure in our lives, it’s fabricated out of humanity’s ignorance. This ideology was manifested in Warhol’s lifestyle too. For instance, one of the reasons for his art was to attack the common conception of what art was at his time. Art doesn’t fit into a box or a gallery and Warhol’s art was a response to this thinking. His lifestyle went against the “norm†as well. He was openly and considered himself religious, but didn’t conform to any preexisting religion. He was also commenting on America’s narcissism. The dozen or so reflective surfaces draws in the viewer, and it would be easy for them to stand in one spot and stare at themselves. But in doing so, the viewer misses the rest of the experience of space and time. Our draw to materialism or “bling†leads us to fixate on just one cloud, and again missing out on everything else in this piece. Warhol is showing that as a person’s materialism and narcissism distracts them from the world around them and they miss out on life. “Silver Clouds†can be experienced on different levels and we must forfeit our culture’s ideologies to do so.EVALUATION: Overall I thought that this was a good piece. If he was commenting on America's narcissism and materialism then he did a good job of it. Most artists critique culture, but where most fall is the lack of a solution. They attack some part of culture but don’t offer a replacement or solution. But in Warhol’s “Silver Clouds†he critiques our ideologies but goes beyond just that and offers a solution: step back and observe. He says he must throw off our shackles of materialism and narcissism and to observe and take in the big picture to experience life the fullest. But regardless on what Warhol was actually commenting on, this is a good piece because it doesn’t focus on what “art†is but focuses on how to experience “art.â€
I once dreamed of a television show that I wanted to call "The Nothing Special," a special about my favorite subject: Nothing. But I did go on to create two cable television shows, "Andy Warhol's TV" in 1982 and "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" for MTV in 1986. Besides these shows I regularly made guest appearances in other shows, including a notable appearance on "The Love Boat."
I think one of the main ways that I influenced art today is how I incorporated culture into art. Before me, pop culture was always separate and this shouldn't be. You see, what’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it. Anyways, one of the things I strived for this most was for people to look at art as something that is ordinary. Although, what people dislike about my art this most is this fact. They say it's too ordinary. Anybody can make a Campbell’s soup can. They say art should be dignified and should be full of talent, and that my art is too simple. But you see, this is exactly thought that I've been trying to attack! Art should be ordinary, should be for everybody to experience, and not reserved for the elitists. Most people are just too naive to realize this.