Documentary of Recovery/ Discovery of Andy Warhol Amiga Art screened @ CMU

Warhol nuts, Art lovers and tech history geeks may be interested in this film that takes us back to the early dawn of computer graphics programs.

From The Computer History Museum

"Less than a year later, Commodore launched the Amiga 1000 personal computer. The launch was held in the Vivian Beaumont Theater, a part of New York’s Lincoln Center. It attracted not only the typical technology crowd, but also those interested in music, film, and art. The Amiga 1000 was being positioned as a ‘multi-media’ computer, usable in many fields of creative endeavor. Apple’s Macintosh had launched a year earlier and was already starting to gain a following among the arts and design communities. Launching a computer at a major cultural venue was still somewhat new, but the scope of the introduction was on-par with the Macintosh introduction the previous year. One of the highlights of the event was the creation of a piece of art live, on stage.

Andy Warhol was the creator.

The subject of his work? Debbie Harry, best known for her work as the lead singer in the seminal New Wave band Blondie.

The creation began with Warhol capturing an image of Harry and then manipulating it, using ProPaint, a paint system that was still in the early stages of testing. A photograph of Harry was digitized and Warhol manipulated the colors of the image using ProPaint. The resulting image was quite similar to the silk-screened images Warhol created of stars such as Monroe, Elvis, and Liza Minelli during his heyday."

Contemporary, technology artist, Cory Arcangel discovered a then obscure, YouTube Video online of  Warhol creating an image of Debbie Harry and pushed to find the floppy disks.

As you might guess, CMU students helped recover the images.



From CMU's Studio For Creative Inquiry 

"The team’s efforts are documented in the Hillman Photography Initiative’s new short film, “Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Amiga Experiments.” Trapped will premiere at 7 p.m., Saturday, May 10, at Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Pittsburgh. The screening will be followed by a conversation with some of the team’s key players, including artists Arcangel and Levin; Michael Dille, who just completed his Ph.D. in robotics at CMU, and Keith A. Bare of the CMU Computer Club; and outside guest Jon Ippolito, a professor of digital media curation at the University of Maine. The Trappeddocumentary will be available online at http://nowseethis.org on May 12."

Figment Project Live Streams Andy Warhol Gravesite

Love him or hate him, Warhol has become an immortal vessel on which the public projects itself.

"The Figment Project

To honor the anniversary of Warhol’s birthday, August 6, 2013 The Andy Warhol Museum and EarthCam launched a collaborative project titled Figment, a live feed of Warhol’s gravesite. This live feed, viewable 24 hours a day, seven days a week worldwide is available above.

Gravesite as Pilgrimage

Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987 and is buried at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery, which is owned and operated by St. John the Baptist Church in Pittsburgh - a sister parish of St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. Warhol’s parents, Julia and Andrej, are also buried at the same cemetery.

Hundreds of devotees make the pilgrimage yearly to Warhol’s resting place. Often these visitors leave mementos at the site, including such popular culture items as Campbell’s Soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles."

Follow the stream here:

http://www.warhol.org/figment/

Small Instalation of Romare Bearden Work at Warhol through the end of February

Got this press release but could find no info on their website.

From a Warhol Museum press release

"In celebration of Black History Month, The Andy Warhol Museum has installed a selection of Romare Bearden artworks, which are on view through February 29,2012. This installation features 10 Bearden screen prints and collages, on loan from Pittsburgh art collectors. This installation also features five Andy Warhol works, including a series of three Ladies and Gentlemen (1975) prints, Two Horns (1958),and Martha Graham: Satyric Festival Song (1986)."

Works are on display until February 29

Sad Surprise: Forgery May Be Alive And Well

A lot of people got a shock when a few days ago the very prominent, Knoedler Gallery, suddenly shut it's doors after 165 years in business.

Even more shocking was news, the next day of a major and most likely related investigation.

"In several cases, Ms. Rosales sold the works through an art-world luminary, Ann Freedman, until 2009 the president of the prestigious gallery Knoedler & Company on the Upper East Side. Other works were sold by Julian Weissman, an independent dealer who had worked for Knoedler in the 1980s and had represented Motherwell when he was alive.

Ms. Freedman and Mr. Weissman said through their lawyers that they continued to believe that the works they sold were authentic and that authorities had told them they were not under investigation. But a lawyer for Ms. Rosales, Anastasios Sarikas, acknowledged that she was a target of the inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Sarikas said that his client had “never intentionally or knowingly sold artwork she knew to be forged.”

A few years back, it was discovered that the highly respected
founding director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art had played an active role in misrepresenting the provenance of a large group of Warhol Brillo Boxes.

Warhol Foundation Gives Up On Authenticating Warhols

The job of saying what work's were truly made by Warhol, has proved too distracting and big even for the very well endowed foundation funded from his estate. Not, to mention contentious since as one can imagine the amount of money at stake.

The Wall Street Journal has a good overview of the story.

Mr. Straus said a recent string of costly legal disputes with collectors contesting the board's findings influenced the board's decision to give up its role as the "final word" on the late artist's creative output.

One of the highest-profile disputes involved a London filmmaker, Joe Simon, who sued the board four years ago after it refused to vouch for his purported Warhol "Self-Portrait."

By the time Mr. Simon dropped his suit last November, the artist's foundation had spent more than $7 million defending the board's ruling, with help from major law firms like Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

Art News has a good down and dirty look at many of the conflicts of interest, and outright criminal acts by some art world insiders.

"Last July, after a lengthy investigation, owners of the so-called “Stockholm boxes” received the authentication board’s report outlining its findings. According to the report, Pontus Hultén, the highly respected director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, who died in 2006, lied to the board when he told them that an edition of about 105 boxes had been executed in 1968—allegedly with Warhol’s authorization—for a major show at the museum. Based on the false information Hultén provided, the board authenticated 94 of the boxes, and they were included in the 2004 catalogue raisonné."

New Yorkers Turn Union Square Warhol Statue Into an Evolving Shrine

Just south of Pittsburgh, lies Andy Warhol's actual grave which attracts a steady stream of fairly dedicated fans paying personal tribute--still, something quite different and open ended happened when the new-glam Andy Statue was placed in a central downtown, New York Square for all to respond and add to.

"The statue, which looks a bit like the young Mr. Warhol dipped in silver paint, is fast becoming a favorite downtown attraction. One visitor said she thought it was one of those painted humans who startle tourists in Times Square. She kept waiting for The Andy to move.

For Warholians, a more loyal army of fans, the statue is a shrine. And within days after it appeared, they began adapting the monument in that organic way that is so much a part of the city ethos. One day there was a box of Brillo pads at The Andy’s feet. Last weekend there were cans of Campbell’s tomato soup, including one that had “Andy for President” added to the label."

My earlier post about the statue.

Rob Pruitt's, Andy Warhol Statue Unveiled In New York's Union Square

Video by artist& art vlogger, James Kalm, as always a fountain of New York art history.

A few thoughts from Critic Jerry Satlz

"I don’t actually love the statue itself. It doesn’t look that much like Warhol; the face is squished and smallish. But I love the passion behind it and the idea of putting this sculpture in this place at this time. It beautifully evokes the pathos, perversity, and runaway genius of this great swish-hero-artist. Pruitt is right when he says, “Every day, a thousand more kids come to New York propelled by Andy’s legacy … [making] this pilgrimage, coming here to make it big, to be an artist. Like Oscar Wilde’s grave at Père Lachaise, there should be a destination in New York to mark that journey. I think something needs to be in the streets of New York, something you could visit at four-thirty in the morning.” Pruitt’s monument will be on view only through October 2. It should be left here forever."

I think I love the super shiny look and it's obvious reference to Jeff Koons.

A Painter's Legacy: The Students Of Samuel Rosenberg @JCC

Samuel Rosenberg was a great Pittsburgh artist, who in spite of being widely shown here, still is under appreciated. This show at the Pittsburgh JCC looks into his other, perhaps greater legacy as a teacher and influence on hundreds of artists.

As a student at Pratt in NY, I was taught basic drawing and printmaking by Rosenberg student, George Nama.

My one gripe about this show, which includes so much great work, is that it still barely scratches the surface. This was a show for The Miller Gallery; The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts or even better The Warhol, since Andy also was a student. I mean--you need the whole Warhol.

“I could spend the rest of my curatorial career grouping these works together,” said Hiller, the AJM’s director. “I could do that for the next 30 years.”

The number of possible artists who could have been tapped for the exhibition is seemingly endless: “A Painter’s Legacy” taps only a fraction of Rosenberg’s students, whether they painted with him at the Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), the Irene Kaufmann Settlement in the Hill District or the Y in Oakland."

A few highlights of the show, which included lots of loans from museums, artists and artist estates included works by Abe Weiner, Jane Haskell, George Nama, Philip Pearlstein, Aaronel deRoy Gruber, Marie Kelly and Milton Weiss. A nice addition are informative labels and quotes from artists.

Again from The Jewish Chronicle,

Though Rosenberg was an active painter from 1915 to 1972 and taught countless students, there was no resulting “Rosenbergian school,” in terms of style, said Hiller. “That would’ve been antithetical to Rosenberg, or to any good professor who wants to teach students how to have confidence in their own style.”

A Painter’s Legacy: The Students of
Samuel Rosenberg

Open through April 30

Opening reception, March 13, 1 to 3 p.m.

Fine Perlow Weis Gallery and Berger Gallery

American Jewish Museum, Jewish

Community Center

Read more

POP City

The Jewish Chronicle

Writers Tweet Warhol's Eight Hour Film :Empire

One thing I like about twitter is that random and continnuing converstions about almost anything can develop.

Warhol's eight hour film consisting of one continuous shot of a nighttime Empire State Building became a forum for a continuous stream of consciousness from a group invited (so lucky!) to sit and tweet the experience from MOMA.

Post about it here.

Artist Interview With Ruth Levine On Urban Bytes

Occasional contributor, Jean McClung has a pretty amazing blog with in depth interviews with people who make Pittsburgh such a "special place". (mostly in a good way)

She just put up her interview with Ruth Levine, a local artist with both a fantastic life story and great story telling ability.Life Includes guest appearances by Milton Berle,Danny Kaye,Eddy Cantor,The Marx Brothers and Andy Warhol.

Excerpt

"Jean

: You had told me a story about Andy Warhol. And I think you said you got a call....that's how it started?

Ruth:

Yes. In the early nineteen eighties, I was working at a very large Jewish community center in Rockville, Maryland. And although we had some National Endowment for the Humanities grants and we were starting to make a name elsewhere, it was with some slight sense of shock that I got the following phone call: Somebody got on the phone and said, "Hi my name is Ron Feldman. Do you know me?"And I said, "If you’re the Ron Feldman I’m thinking of, no I don’t know you. But I know that there’s a gallery with your name on it in SOHO, in New York."

He said, "Well I’m here with Andy Warhol who wants to talk with you". And that started the first of my series of saying "right" [ as in" yeah, right"] Because I was very dubious that indeed Andy Warhol wanted to talk to me"

Continues here.

Bob Ziller's Pittsburgh Beautification Project

I found this video along with some nice shot's of Bob Ziller's community project to pretty up the burgh on Bittersweet Harvest which is one of the best single sources of dope on the goings on here.

Some of these are on active businesses that boarded up for the G20.

This is agood example of the kind of small grass roots projects aided by The Sprout Fund.

Sponsor A Warhol Time Capsule

The words museum, gallery and exhibition space are often used interchangeably but the distinctive aspect of a museum is that it must have a collection of stuff it is charged with preserving, cataloging and displaying. The Andy Warhol Museum came into being in Pittsburgh, not only because Andy was from here, but also because no other institution wanted to take on the vast task of preserving the huge collection of art and artifacts that he left behind.

"At the heart of this vast collection are the "Time Capsule" boxes. Their contents, like Warhol's artwork, are both illuminating and enigmatic. Originally, these boxes were used to simplify a move from Warhol's studio at 33 Union Square West to a new location at 860 Broadway. Afterward, Warhol began to use these moving boxes to store the bewildering quantity of material that routinely passed through his hands. Ironically, he referred to these boxes as "time capsules." Normally, time capsules commemorate events of special significance. By placing a few carefully selected objects into a container, sealing it, and specifying a date when it should be opened, a time capsule is meant to capture a sense of the current Zeitgeist for future generations. For Warhol, however, his Time Capsules functioned not only in the traditional way, but also as a memento hominem, a register of his everyday life. In documenting the most insignificant details of his existence, Warhol created a complete, though often cryptic, diary of his life and the world in which he moved."

The Warhol is now trying to raise money to fund the ongoing project of opening, cataloging and preserving the Time Capsules.Donate Here.

"To open each Time Capsule costs about $5,000, total. This includes the documentation, archival processing and cataloging, scanning every object (and digital photography of large objects) and properly re-housing them in acid-free folders and Mylar sleeves. Once the cataloging is complete, we'll be able to to begin researching what we've found and, eventually, put the entire Time Capsules collection on the web, so everyone can access it.

Together, we can take the "maybe" out of this project, because we won't be relying solely on foundations to support the work. This project can be completely funded by the people who will get the most out of it... people who care about Andy Warhol and his legacy. People who care about preserving original artifacts from the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s. People who are just glad something this weird is being taken on by a major museum."

Green Car Crash

For those of you wondering about it--- Warhol's Green Car Crash went for $71.7 million and the total Warhol sales for that night totaled $136.7 million.

Breaking News : Warhol's Doctor Attacked on The Anniversary of His Death

OK, so yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Andy Warhol's death and I was planning to do a post on it. And then this happened.


Doctor fighting for his life after attack. Beaten and burned in his house on the Upper East Side
By Stacey Sager
(New York- WABC, February 22, 2007) - An elderly doctor is hospitalized with severe burns after an alleged sexual encounter.

79-year-old, Dr. Denton Cox remains in critical condition tonight. The doctor is well known for treating celebrities early in his career, like Andy Warhol.
Police say he was attacked inside his penthouse at 530 East 72nd Street.

Eyewitness News reporter Stacy Sager has the latest from the Upper East Side.

Initially, the doctor told police he was mugged and doused with some sort of chemical. But story wasn't all true. For example, he waited to report it until he was found in his apartment the next day with burns over 40% of his body.