Popism: The Warhol Sixties

“Popism” isn’t a work of art criticism or a scholarly monograph about the Pop Art movement in art which followed close on the heels of Abstract Expressionism but rather a charming and guileless memoir of the 1960s as told by one of the major cultural figures of the period, the painter, filmmaker and artist Andy Warhol. In it, Warhol, who had become a successful commercial artist in the 1950s drawing everything from record album covers to shoe advertisements, describes his efforts to become a successful fine artist through a mastery of what he calls “the intrigues and strategies of the New York art scene.”The book features vivid descriptions of the famed Factory and its eccentric denizens. Warhol was drawn to gossip and to people he called “too gifted to lead ‘regular lives.’” These included drug addicts, Harvard dropouts and misfit children of wealthy and privileged backgrounds and they flocked to Warhol’s art studio where they posed for him and let him record their conversations. They were often exhibitionists while Warhol was a voyeur and much of his creative output from this period had its roots in this voyeurism. He describes the inspiration and creation of films like Eat, Sleep and Blow Job, the subjects of each of which were identical to their titles, as well as his creation of the magazine Interview, “a magazine of nothing but taped interviews.” Notably, Warhol often limited his participation in the ‘scene’ he helped to create, standing off to the side as an observer of the crazy happenings involving his associates. For example, he refrained from using drugs despite the fact that they were common among the Factory’s other inhabitants.His role as an observer suddenly comes to an end in 1968 when one of the lost souls who had been on the fringes of the Factory world visits Warhol in his studio and shoots him several times. The story he tells of his shooting is gripping but also tensely funny and the craziness of the event is not lost on Warhol who is able to describe the event in a somewhat detached manner without bitterness. It causes him to question the attraction he has for oddballs and leads him to make some changes to accommodate a more cautious lifestyle but it must also be pointed out that as soon as he gets released from the hospital he heads right back to 42nd street to visit peep shows.Warhol truly created a tolerant world of anything goes at the Factory and its influence has been felt in all kinds of different places (I was struck by how much his early films and his novel, a, resemble a kind of archetypal Reality TV, featuring an assortment of weirdos and exhibitionists willing and eager to reveal all). This digressive firsthand account of the creative community in New York city throughout the 1960s is colorful and revealing and the shy, curious and ambitious Andy Warhol is a likable ringmaster of that circus. The approachable persona that shows through in this book demonstrates the same qualities that make his art among the most popular and accessible art of all time.

I originally bought this book in 1982 at the student bookstore. It blew me away with the story of how the "New York" 60s were so different from the "west coast" "flower children." In fact, I loved this book so much, I bought 8 or 10 copies and used them as presents whenever there was a friend's birthday or something. I must have given away my last copy, as I couldn't find mine anywhere. Now, 25 years later, I bought a new copy on Amazon.The book had a different cover and what was between the covers seemed different too. I was less blown away that I was at age 19. Its still a great (interesting and lots of fun) read, but something was missing for me. Whatever it was that caused me to focus so much on it 25 years ago seemed less vibrant and relevant.Whether I've changed or the times have changed (both, I guess), this book is a look at (Andy Warhol's) time in the 60s from Andy Warhol in 1980. This book seems so "innocent" (if that term makes sense in this context) from the perspective of the jaded and self-referential present.Still interesting, but not the Earth-shattering book I thought it once was.

As the '60s becomes the stuff of nostalgic TV and fading memory (You were REALLY at Woodstock, Grandpa?) it is a reality check to read something by someone who lived at its center. Popism by Andy Warhol and Pat Hacket paints a rich picture of life during that decade. For if by the late '60s San Francisco had become the city of the counterculture, Andy Warhol reveals that all throughout the 60s New York was the city of culture, and at times playing the role of the caterpillar and other times that of Alice herself, Popism is Andy's tumbling ride down the rabbit hole of that decade.Very often pictures of Andy during this period (there are several in the book) show an expressionless, silver-coiffed man wearing dark glasses. Popism reveals what was going on behind those glasses; Andy, by his own admission, could be totally passive; but his passivity masked an intensity about the times in which he lived; observing, commenting, noting everything that interested him. Andy Warhol's fascination with the artifacts of culture; The clothes worn, the songs heard, the drugs taken become the stuff of every story as Andy remembers what it was like as his factory began to become the center of the art world. Andy opines on the Abstract Expressionists that came before him, on the rapid way in which art in the '60s became big business, on the way money became freedom not only to do what you want, but to create what you want, and on how the idealism of the early 60s slid inexorably into the excess and violence of the late 60s, culminating for Andy, of course, in the personal experience of being shot by Valerie Solanas.Known for his soup cans, it will come as something of a surprise that early on Andy lost interest in the graphic arts. Popism is largely the story of his film career, and of the constellation of characters who hung out with him at their favorite bar, Max's Kansas City, and acted in his films. This is one of the major plusses of Popism, because Andy is seldom funnier than when he makes some side comment about his group of fellow travelers. Another plus is the glimpse Andy gives into the New York of the 1960s - a wild and wooly place, where rents were cheap, art was flourishing and popular culture was breaking through the stultifying moralism of the 1950s.For those of us living in the debt-ridden, fear - driven 21st century, Popism is wonderful, drug-and-incense-scented whiff of that time. It leads us to question whether such creativity is even possible in today's world and if so, whets our appetite to find it.

He didn't write this he says that in other books and it's clear he didn't write it so I mean take it for what it's worth am sure there are bits and pieces that can help paint a picture but how accurate that picture is? well...take with grain of salt. as someone who wants historical accuracy this probably ain't that except am sure pat hackett was tapping into some of what she knew andy to be and think

It's an interesting read on Kindle and because of that, I actually ordered a printed version of the book for my own personal reading. Warhol and Sedgewick make an unlikely couple and this could not have happened if this was not the 1960's where everything of old was tossed out and the new came in unannounced. I like the book too because it's like Andy is narrating this movie in my head and I can imagine what it was like in a silver room thinking the future is now and all that stuff. But the drugs just add a downer to the whole movement of what Andy was trying to capture before he was shot by Valerie. He took a chance and paid for it with his life. He has stated numerous times he really didn't know if he did live or die, he just knew that things would never be the same for him after being shot.

Este libro es una maravilla. Es como una precuela de sus Diarios (Anagrama).No se puede retratar mejor los 60s.Va personaje por personaje de su séquito explicando de dónde viene y dónde fueron a acabar.

i love the way he writes, the book is full of anecdotes and interesting insides in the art underground scene of 60's in NY.

Nice summary of the 60s through the eyes and expetiences of the decade's most important artist. Has a nostalgic, retrospective vibe throughout.

Imprescindible para los fanáticos de Andy Warhol. Contiene algunas divagaciones y pasajes en los que te pierdes entre tanto nombre, pero tiene fragmentos y reflexiones realmente buenas.