Factory Now

FACTORYNOW

ANDY WARHOL MOVED TO NEW YORK CITY IN 1949.

Warhol’s initial goals were to become a successful commercial artist and designer - yet by the early 1960s he had abandoned his corporate career and immersed himself in the city’s underground art, film, and music scene. Warhol began exhibiting his own work and quickly gained recognition within the New York art world, eventually becoming a central figure within the emerging Pop Art movement.

Drawing inspiration from the commercial industries that brought him to New York, Warhol saw his work as a commodity and sought not only to produce it but to mass-produce it. This innovative mentality earned his art studio - and, eventually, his entire social and artistic circle - its distinctive name: The Factory.

This book seeks to document what remains of the studios, venues, galleries, and restaurants that were significant to the Factory during Warhol’s time in New York City. Warhol’s career left a remarkable footprint on the city, and there are countless locations that contain remnants and memories of his life and art. This book reconstructs the story of the Factory not through chronology or timeline, but by retracing Warhol’s steps across New York City and revisiting the sites that once bore meaning to him and to his art. n

UPTOWN

1342 LEXINGTON AVENUE

1342 LEXINGTON AVENUE

WARHOL’S TOWNHOUSE

After graduating from the painting and design program at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949, Andy Warhol moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist. He began by submitting illustrations to magazines such as Charm, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, and eventually the Sunday New York Times.

As his success grew and he became an established figure in the advertising world, Warhol tried out several different living situations around the city – at first he lived on St. Mark’s Place with Carnegie Tech classmate and painter Philip Pearlstein, and he later shared a basement apartment on the Upper West Side with seventeen roommates. He tried living alone, but grew lonely and was not used to taking care of himself – so, in 1952, his mother Julia Warhola (along with her many cats) traveled from Pittsburgh to New York City and moved into her son’s four-story townhouse at 1342 Lexington Avenue.

When Warhol shifted his focus from commercial art to painting and printmaking, his townhouse also began to function as his first studio. One of the first visitors to Warhol’s studio was Ivan Karp, a curator at the Leo Castelli Gallery.

Although Karp was interested in Warhol’s work and managed to bring many other curators and buyers through his studio, Leo Castelli was ultimately uninterested in Warhol’s paintings because he thought they resembled the work of other Pop artists (especially that of Roy Lichtenstein) too closely.

Karp also introduced Warhol to Henry Geldzahler, an assistant curator of contemporary art at the Museum of Modern Art. Geldzahler visited Warhol at home to view his work, and the two became instant companions. Geldzahler’s involvement in Warhol’s career contributed significantly to his eventual success in the art world, and Geldzahler soon became an important figure within the Factory’s social scene. n

IN 1952, WARHOL’S MOTHER JULIA WARHOLA (ALONG WITH HER MANY CATS) TRAVELED FROM PITTSBURGH TO NEW YORK CITY AND MOVED INTO HER SON’S FOUR-STORY TOWNHOUSE.

87TH STREET BETWEEN THIRD AND LEXINGTON

87TH STREET BETWEEN THIRD AND LEXINGTON

THE FIRST FACTORY

In the early 1960s, Warhol began renting a two-story former firehouse on the Upper East Side to use a studio. This space became the first iteration of his Factory.

As Warhol gained popularity within New York’s contemporary art scene, he saw the need to hire some assistants to help with the assembly-line production of his work. Warhol had met a 20-year-old poet and Wagner College student named Gerard Malanga at a poetry reading at the New School, and remembered that Malanga had mentioned needing a job. Warhol decided to hire Malanga as a studio assistant, and Malanga accepted.

Now that his studio was separate from the home he shared with his mother, Warhol was able to use the Factory as a social center in addition to a workspace. As Warhol’s artistic and social network grew, the Factory became a hangout for the socialites, artists, and curators with whom he associated. n

AS WARHOL’S ARTISTIC AND SOCIAL NETWORK GREW, THE FACTORY BECAME A HANGOUT FOR THE SOCIALITES, ARTISTS, AND CURATORS WITH WHOM HE ASSOCIATED.

33 EAST 74TH STREET

33 EAST 74TH STREET

THE STABLE GALLERY

The Stable Gallery, named for its initial location in a former livery stable, was founded by Eleanor Ward in 1953. Although the gallery originally exhibited fashion-related photography, Ward shifted her focus to contemporary painting as the Abstract-Expressionist movement gained popularity within the New York art scene. However, by the end of the 1950s, Abstract-Expressionism had begun to give way to Pop Art. Ward took an interest in Pop Art and offered Warhol his first solo exhibition. The show ran from November 6th through 24th, 1962, and included multiple Marilyn paintings, a series of Dance Diagrams, Warhol’s first Death and Disaster painting, entitled 129 Die, and many other silkscreened pieces. The show sold out to prominent buyers and inspired Philip Johnson, an influential figure at the Museum of Modern Art, to invite Warhol to contribute an installation to the New York State Pavillion at the 1964 World’s Fair (Warhol’s contribution, Thirteen Most Wanted Men, was later censored and removed from the Pavillion).

WARD TOOK AN INTEREST IN POP ART AND OFFERED WARHOL HIS FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION.

Warhol’s second show at the Stable Gallery opened on April 21st, 1964, and featured his Brillo, Heinz, and Kellogg’s boxes.

Despite generating a significant amount of publicity, the exhibition was ultimately unsuccessful. The sculptures didn’t sell, and one of the commercial artists involved in the creation of Brillo’s branding publicly accused Warhol of aesthetic plagiarism. The show’s poor sales, along with the very public controversy over its originality, created a great deal of tension between Warhol and Ward. Ward began to doubt Warhol’s prospects as an artist and expressed reluctance to exhibit his work in the future.

However, the exhibition did capture the interest of Leo Castelli, the art dealer whom Warhol had always hoped would represent him. Though Castelli had previously rejected Warhol’s silkscreened paintings on the grounds that they strongly resembled the work of other Pop artists, Warhol’s sculptural work set him apart from the rest of the Pop Art scene. Castelli finally offered to represent Warhol, who immediately accepted.

Despite being eager to leave the Stable Gallery, Warhol was too shy to sever his relationship with Ward in person and even felt uncomfortable doing so in writing. Instead, his friend and studio assistant Billy Linich drafted a letter for him. The letter proposed that Ward only continue to represent Warhol for the remainder of the 1964 season, after which Warhol would be represented by the Leo Castelli Gallery. Ward was insulted

by Warhol’s failure to recognize what she felt was a significant contribution to his success as an artist, yet she accepted. n

4 EAST 77TH STREET

4 EAST 77TH STREET

LEO CASTELLI GALLERY

SINCE ENTERING THE NEW YORK ART SCENE, WARHOL HAD DREAMED OF BEING REPRESENTED BY LEO CASTELLI.

Since entering the New York art scene, Warhol had dreamed of being represented by Leo Castelli. Although Castelli initially refused to show Warhol’s paintings, he later took an interest in Warhol’s sculpture and agreed to represent his work beginning in late 1964.

Warhol’s first show at Leo Castelli Gallery opened on Noveber 21st, 1964. For this exhibition, Warhol sought to abandon the severity and controversy of his previous work and instead create something simple and life-affirming. After stumbling upon a photograph of hibiscus flowers in the June 1964 issue of Modern Photography, Warhol decided that that would be his new imagery.

Warhol and Malanga spent the summer of 1964 creating the Flower paintings in a variety of sizes. Other friends visited the Factory to help, and by the end of the summer Warhol and his assistants had created nearly 900 paintings.

Warhol’s second show at the Leo Castelli Gallery opened on April 2, 1966. It featured Warhol’s Cow wallpaper – the repeated image of a pink cow’s head against a yellow background – as well as a number of his Silver Clouds. Warhol’s Clouds were rectangular helium balloons constructed out of thin aluminized plastic film, which, because of their impermanence and mobility, seemed to articulate a refusal to abide by the rules of commerce.

At the time, Warhol felt that his Silver Clouds signaled a perfect culmination to his career in the visual art world – after the show closed, Warhol shifted his artistic focus and devoted all of his creative energy to directing films instead. n

112 WEST 81ST STREET

112 WEST 81ST STREET

HENRY GELDZAHLER’S APARTMENT

Henry Geldzahler, an assistant curator of contemporary art at the Museum of Modern Art, met Warhol in the early 1960s through Ivan Karp at the Leo Castelli Gallery. The two bonded instantly, and Geldzahler soon became a core member of the social scene at the Factory.

When Geldzahler was away from his Upper West Side apartment, he entrusted it to his friend Billy Linich – a photographer, artist, and lighting designer who eventually moved into the back room of the Factory and became its official photographer. Linich was a prominent member of the amphetamine drug scene in New York, and often invited other amphetamine users (a social circle known as the “Mole People”) to Geldzahler’s apartment for company and entertainment.

Of the events that Geldzahler himself hosted at his apartment, his 1963 birthday party was one of his more significant gatherings. He invited John Cale, Tony Conrad, and LaMonte Young to play at the party – these emerging musicians would soon become essential to the formation of The Velvet Underground, a band that Warhol would later manage, promote, and push to national stardom within the underground rock and roll scene. Warhol was among the guests, making Geldzahler’s party his first real exposure to the musical movement with which he would later become inextricably linked. n

HENRY GELDZAHLER, AN ASSISTANT CURATOR OF CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, MET WARHOL IN THE EARLY 1960S. THE TWO BONDED INSTANTLY.

MIDTOWN

231 EAST 47TH STREET

231 EAST 47TH STREET

THE SILVER FACTORY

THROUGHOUT WARHOL’S TIME AT THE MIDTOWN LOFT, SILVER REMAINED ITS TRADEMARK.

In late 1963, Warhol moved the Factory from the Upper East Side firehouse to a fourth-floor industrial loft in Midtown.

Just before moving to his new studio, Warhol attended a party at artist Billy Linich’s apartment – which Linich, in an amphetamine-fueled artistic binge, had covered entirely in silver paint and aluminum foil. Warhol instantly fell in love with Linich’s silver apartment and asked if he would apply the same process to the new Factory. Linich accepted, and his décor earned the studio its iconic name: the Silver Factory.

Linich moved into the Silver Factory at the end of January, after finding a couch on the sidewalk that would serve as a suitable bed. He became a studio assistant for Warhol and assumed the role of official Factory photographer. Gerard Malanga also moved into the Silver Factory in early 1964.

The Silver Factory soon became an avant-garde hangout for the artists, writers, filmmakers, actors, and socialites involved in Warhol’s life and art. It was a workspace for creating paintings and sculptures, a studio for shooting films and screen tests, a rehearsal space for rock musicians, and a social space for entertaining friends and collaborators.

And throughout Warhol’s time at the Midtown loft, silver remained its trademark. n

415 LEXINGTON AVENUE

415 LEXINGTON AVENUE

PEERLESS CAMERA

WARHOL SOUGHT THE EASIEST POINT-AND-SHOOT AUTOMATIC CAMERA THAT HE COULD FIND.

Although Warhol began his art career as a painter, his involvement with the different branches of the underground art scene quickly sparked an interested in filmmaking as well.

In July of 1963, Warhol went with Gerard Malanga and writer and filmmaker Charles Henri Ford to Peerless Camera – then advertised as “the world’s largest camera store” – to buy his first camera.

Warhol sought the easiest point-and-shoot automatic camera that he could find. He settled on a 16mm Bolex, which sold for $1200. The camera also came with a new piece of technology – a motor drive attachment that allowed Warhol to shoot an entire hundred-foot roll of film without stopping to crank the camera.

Warhol began by filming short, informal shots of his friends and companions performing everyday tasks such as walking up and down stairs or cooking dinner. His films tended to involve one isolated action, incident, or subject – Sleep documented poet John Giorni sleeping for over five hours, Eat depicted artist Robert Indiana eating a single mushroom over the course of 45 minutes, and Empire consisted of eight hours of continuous slow-motion footage of the Empire State Building at dusk. It was not until late 1964 that Warhol began to incorporate plot and dialogue into his films. n

254 WEST 54TH STREET

254 WEST 54TH STREET

SCEPTER RECORDS STUDIO

In late 1965, filmmakers Barbara Rubin and Paul Morrissey attended a Velvet Underground show in the West Village.

After the set, they approached the band and suggested that Andy Warhol be their manager. Furthermore, they suggested that another rising Factory star – German singer-songwriter Nico – sing with them during future performances.

Warhol had always been interested in rock and roll, and the members of the Velvet Underground thought that a connection to Warhol would boost their success in the music industry. Curious about the notion of a partnership, the three parties – Warhol, Nico, and the Velvet Underground – teamed up in early 1966.

Warhol’s job as manager mostly involved booking the Velvet Underground and Nico at underground venues around New York, but his most significant contribution was the $800 that allowed them to record an album during moments of free studio time at Scepter Records Studio in Midtown.

Columbia Records sales executive Norman Dolph also helped finance and engineer the album, although Columbia records ultimately refused to sign the band. Eventually, MGM-owned Verve Records accepted the recordings and agreed to distribute the album.

The Velvet Underground & Nico was at first largely unsuccessful, due mostly to its avant-garde musical style and lack of radio appeal. However, the record has since become one of the most influential and critically-acclaimed rock albums of the 20th Century. n

WARHOL’S MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO WAS THE $800 THAT ALLOWED THEM TO RECORD AN ALBUM AT SCEPTER RECORDS STUDIO.

525 EAST 68TH STREET

525 EAST 68TH STREET

NEW YORK HOSPITAL

ANDY WARHOL WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD AT 6:31 A.M. ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22ND, 1987, DIAGNOSED AS THE RESULT OF “CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIA OF UNDETERMINED ORIGIN.”

On the evening of February 20th, 1987, Andy Warhol underwent routine gallbladder surgery at New York Hospital.

Warhol’s inflamed gallbladder had been diagnosed in 1973, but his fear of hospitals had prevented him from receiving treatment until his doctor insisted that without surgery he would die. Despite Warhol’s paranoia, the operation was performed without complications and ended just after midnight.

By 9:30 the following night, Warhol was resting comfortably and recovering under the care of a private nurse. However, at approximately 5 A.M., Warhol’s nurse noticed that he had turned very pale and was not responding to her attempts to wake him. She summoned the cardiac arrest team, but they were unable to insert a tube into his throat because rigor mortis had already set in.

Andy Warhol was pronounced dead at 6:31 A.M. on Sunday, February 22nd, 1987, diagnosed as the result of “cardiac arrhythmia of undetermined origin.” n

460 MADISON AVENUE

460 MADISON AVENUE

ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL

A memorial mass was held for Andy Warhol at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Wednesday, April 1st, 1987. Speakers included Warhol superstar Brigid Berlin, art historian John Richardson, and Yoko Ono. Over 400 guests filled the cathedral. After the ceremony, they continued on to the Century Hotel, whose owners had spray-painted the basement silver in honor of the occasion.

Warhol was buried in a black cashmere suit, paisley tie, and sunglasses in St. John the Baptist Byzantine Cemetery just outside Pittsburgh. He rests next to his parents with a stone reporting only his name and dates. n

A MEMORIAL MASS WAS HELD FOR ANDY WARHOL AT ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1ST, 1987.

DOWNTOWN

90 EAST 10TH STREET

90 EAST 10TH STREET

TANAGER GALLERY

The Tanager Gallery represented Warhol’s former roommate, painter Philip Pearlstein, in the late 1950s. Warhol attempted to use this connection to enter the serious downtown art scene in 1956.

The work that Warhol submitted to the Tanager Gallery was intentionally provocative: images of boys kissing boys.

Although the downtown film scene had already begun to accept explicit homosexuality, the visual art scene wasn’t prepared for Warhol’s evocative imagery. The gallery rejected his paintings, and Warhol fell out of touch with Pearlstein. n

THE WORK THAT WARHOL SUBMITTED TO THE TANAGER GALLERY WAS INTENTIONALLY PROVOCATIVE: IMAGES OF BOYS KISSING BOYS.

414 PARK AVENUE SOUTH

414 PARK AVENUE SOUTH

JONAS MEKAS’S LOFT

Only two weeks after emigrating to New York from Lithuania in 1949, Jonas Mekas purchased a 16mm Bolex and began recording snapshots of his life. By the early 1950s, he was screening his avant-garde films at underground venues in downtown Manhattan. Mekas became the editor of Film Culture in 1954 and began writing film criticism for the Village Voice in 1958 – however, his most significant contribution to New York’s avant-garde film scene came about in 1962, when he co-founded the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, a social and artistic center for contemporary filmmakers and critics.

The Film-Makers’ Cooperative originally ran out of Mekas’s Lower East Side loft, where he held regular meetings and film screenings. The screenings at Mekas’s loft helped bring underground film to the forefront of New York’s art scene, and quickly sparked the interest of Andy Warhol. Warhol became a regular at Mekas’s screenings, which he often attended with John Giorno, a young poet and writer who later became the subject of many of Warhol’s early films and screen tests. n

THE SCREENINGS AT MEKAS’S LOFT HELPED BRING UNDERGROUND FILM TO THE FOREFRONT OF NEW YORK’S ART SCENE, AND QUICKLY SPARKED THE INTEREST OF ANDY WARHOL.

272 EAST 7TH STREET

272 EAST 7TH STREET

BILLY LINICH’S APARTMENT

Billy Linich began his artistic career as a lighting designer under the guise of Obie Award winner Nick Cernovich.

Linich quickly became a prominent member of New York’s artistic scene, as well as the downtown homosexual crowd, and his three-room tenement apartment in Alphabet City became a hangout for a shifting group of artists and underground socialites – actor and drag queen Ondine (Bob Olivio), dancer Freddie Herko, and amphetamine-user Richard Stringer (who preferred to be called Binghamton Birdie) all crashed with Linich at one point or another.

Ondine introduced Linich to amphetamine during the summer of 1963.

Fueled and inspired by amphetamine, Linich began to think of his apartment as a conceptual art piece. He bought cans of silver spray paint and rolls of aluminum foil and covered every object and surface in the apartment – the walls, ceiling, furniture, and even the plates and cups.

Once he had transformed his apartment into such a unique piece of art, Linich began hosting marathon amphetaminefueled “haircutting parties” during which he and painter Dale Joe would provide haircuts, amphetamine, and marijuana to dozens of guests. In December 1963, Warhol attended a haircutting party and was immediately drawn to Linich’s silver apartment. Warhol asked Linich if he would be willing to silverize his new Midtown studio as well, and Linich accepted. When Linich’s work on the new studio was complete, Warhol’s Factory became known as the Silver Factory – and Linich moved in, becoming Warhol’s assistant and photographer.

FUELED AND INSPIRED BY AMPHETAMINE, LINICH BEGAN TO THINK OF HIS APARTMENT AS A CONCEPTUAL ART PIECE. HE BOUGHT CANS OF SILVER SPRAY PAINT AND ROLLS OF ALUMINUM FOIL AND COVERED EVERY OBJECT AND SURFACE IN THE APARTMENT.

56 LUDLOW STREET

56 LUDLOW STREET

TONY CONRAD’S APARTMENT

In the mid-1960s, a drone music group called the Theater of Eternal Music began to take shape. Musicians John Cale, LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Tony Conrad rehearsed daily in Conrad’s downtown apartment – Young and Conrad sang, Zazeela played the violin, and Cale played the viola, each holding a single note to create sustained and meditative tones that they referred to as “dream music.”

Cale spent a great deal of time at Conrad’s apartment, listening to and learning about avant-garde music. Cale earned extra money delivering drugs for Young and had agreed to store the entire stash in his apartment, but when the police uncovered Young’s illicit business, Cale sold his apartment and moved in with Conrad.

In January 1965, two of Cale and Young’s neighbors invited them to a party on the Upper East Side. Also in attendance were the two producers of Pickwick International, a small recording company based in Long Island City at which singer and guitarist Lou Reed had begun writing and recording music. The producers noticed Cale and Young and invited them to play with Reed back at the studio.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND BEGAN THEIR FIRST REGULAR GIG AT GREENWICH VILLAGE VENUE CAFE BIZARRE IN DECEMBER 1965.

Reed, Cale, and Young connected instantly – but it was Reed and Cale who truly bonded both musically and emotionally.

When Conrad moved out of the Ludlow Street apartment, Cale invited Reed to take his place. The two began writing music together and performing on the streets of New York, calling themselves the Falling Spikes.

In the spring of 1965 the two connected with fellow musician Sterling Morrison, a college friend of Reed’s.

Around the same time, Reed met Maureen Tucker, the sister of another classmate, who agreed to play drums with the band. Around the same time, Conrad found a book entitled The Velvet Underground on the street while walking along the Bowery – he brought the book back to his old apartment, and the group decided to adopt the name for their band.

The Velvet Underground began their first regular gig at Greenwich Village venue Café Bizarre in December 1965. The Velvet Underground’s residency at Café Bizarre finally brought their music to the attention of New York’s underground music scene. n

213 PARK AVENUE SOUTH

213 PARK AVENUE SOUTH

MAX’S KANSAS CITY

When Cornell graduate Mickey Ruskin tried and failed to become first a lawyer and then a doctor, he abandoned his efforts to secure a place within a white-collar profession and spontaneously rented a coffee shop on Tenth Street instead. The coffee shop became successful within only a few months – due in large part to its proximity to the growing number of popular art galleries on Tenth Street – and Ruskin began inviting poets to give readings during the evenings. The coffee shop quickly became a local hangout for both poets and artists. Ruskin had found his true calling.

Over the course of the 1960s, Ruskin owned a series of small Village bars and restaurants, befriending a number of downtown artists along the way. Toward the end of 1965, he began leasing a bar and restaurant on the Lower East Side. It was a bit further from the Village scene that he was used to, but his artist and poet friends dropped by during early renovations to offer support and ideas. Poet Joel Oppenheimer suggested that Ruskin name the new restaurant Max’s Kansas City.

WARHOL’S SOCIAL CIRCLE MESHED WELL WITH RUSKIN’S CROWD, AND A ROUND TABLE IN THE BACK ROOM OF THE RESTAURANT BECAME UNOFFICIAL FACTORY TERRITORY.

When it came time to decorate the walls of Max’s Kansas City, artist Neil Williams arranged for several of his friends to provide artwork in exchange for an open tab at the restaurant.

The handful of artists that this arrangement brought in as regulars expanded to include a broad artistic social circle, and Ruskin’s opening party on January 15th, 1966, brought in over a thousand people.

By 1967, Max’s Kansas City was a bustling social center for the celebrities of the underground art scene. Ruskin’s on-the-spot door rules weeded out the bridge-and-tunnel crowd (in addition to anyone wearing a suit, as they might stifle the bar’s permissive atmosphere) and ensured the perfect balance of avant-garde fashionistas, actors, heavy drinkers, artists, Lower East Side socialites, amphetamine-users, musicians, and attractive women. Warhol’s social circle meshed well with Ruskin’s crowd, and a round table in the back room of the restaurant (sometimes called “the Captain’s Table”) became unofficial Factory territory. n

56 BEAVER STREET

56 BEAVER STREET

DELMONICO’S

In late 1955, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Campbell invited Warhol to speak to the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry at its annual black tie banquet at Delmonico’s in the Financial District. Campbell sought to highlight the psychology of the creative process, and assumed that Warhol would simply give a lecture – however, Warhol’s “lecture,” “The Chic Mystique of Andy Warhol,” consisted of an avant-garde performance by the Velvet Underground and Nico. This performance, on January 10th, 1966, was the group’s official debut.

Yet the performance at Delmonico’s was not simply musical.

Warhol projected his films in the background, Gerard Malanga danced around the stage with a leather whip, Factory superstar Edie Sedgwick sang along (poorly), and Barbara Rubin and Jonas Mekas trained their cameras on the horrified audience while shouting sexually-charged questions at them and each other. Warhol named the chaotic, multimedia performance troupe the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and launched them on a tour around New York and across the Northeast. n

WARHOL PROJECTED HIS FILMS IN THE BACKGROUND, GERARD MALANGA DANCED AROUND THE STAGE WITH A LEATHER WHIP, EDIE SEDGWICK SANG ALONG (POORLY), AND BARBARA RUBIN AND JONAS MEKAS TRAINED THEIR CAMERAS ON THE HORRIFIED AUDIENCE.

222 WEST 23RD STREET

222 WEST 23RD STREET

THE CHELSEA HOTEL

The Chelsea Hotel was a popular hangout and residence for artists, writers, and musicians throughout the 1960s. Many of Warhol’s superstars – Nico, Edie Sedgwick, and actresses International Velvet and Bridid Berlin, to name a few – lived at the hotel, and those who didn’t live there permanently frequented it so often that it became a second outpost of the Factory.

During the summer of 1966, Warhol began filming 33-minute sound reels of various members of the Factory in and around the Chelsea Hotel. His goal was to document the interactions and lifestyles of the Factory’s current superstars, and the hotel’s cramped, generic rooms served as the perfect backdrop for these intimate snapshots. The dozen or so reels that Warhol shot over the course of the summer became The Chelsea Girls, his most commercially successful film.

The Chelsea Girls opened at the Filmmakers’ Cinematheque (founded by Jonas Mekas around the same time that he created the Film-Makers’ Cooperative) on September 10th, 1966, and quickly moved uptown to the more prominent Rendezvous Theater. It received an amount of critical attention that was unprecedented for an underground film, swiftly bringing an artistic subculture to the mainstream. n

DURING THE SUMMER OF 1966, WARHOL BEGAN FILMING 33-MINUTE SOUND REELS OF VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE FACTORY IN AND AROUND THE CHELSEA HOTEL.

13 WEST 17TH STREET

13 WEST 17TH STREET

PLAY-HOUSE OF THE RIDICULOUS

In the fall of 1964, Gerard Malanga took Warhol to hear writer and filmmaker Ronal Tavel read from his most recent novel. Having made only silent films in the past, Warhol was becoming interested in the notion of sound movies – however, he needed someone else to write the dialogue. Warhol was impressed by Tavel’s writing and asked him to collaborate on his first sound film. Tavel accepted, becoming the Factory’s resident screenwriter.

Tavel worked with Warhol on a number of films, including the highly successful The Life of Juanita Castro and Chelsea Girls. But after about a year of collaboration, Tavel felt creatively drained and abruptly left the Factory.

Yet despite his eagerness to abandon his collaboration with Warhol, Tavel wasn’t quite ready to abandon the scripts he had written during his time at the Factory. He decided to transform his scripts into plays and focus on theater rather than film. Through Tavel’s playwriting, many of Warhol’s films enjoyed a second incarnation as avant-garde theatrical performances – and many of Warhol’s film stars earned their on-stage debuts. Tavel gathered together a company of actors and dancers and named it the Theater of the Ridiculous.

The Theater of the Ridiculous debuted a double-bill of plays on April 21st, 1966, at a photography studio near Union Square that Tavel had recently appropriated as a performance space. The studio lacked a stage or any sort of professional lighting equipment, but it could accommodate an audience of approximately 100 people and was a suitable setting for Tavel’s rough and experimental dramatic style.

When New York City officials ruled that the Theater of the Ridiculous couldn’t operate without a license to run a theater, the company changed their name to the Play-House of the Ridiculous Repertory Club and began asking for a $2 suggested donation instead of charging admission. n

THROUGH TAVEL’S PLAYWRITING, MANY OF WARHOL’S FILMS ENJOYED A SECOND INCARNATION AS AVANT-GARDE THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES.

33 UNION SQUARE WEST

33 UNION SQUARE WEST

THE UNION SQUARE FACTORY

In the fall of 1967, the Silver Factory was condemned by the city.

Warhol moved his studio to the sixth floor of 33 Union Square West, an open, loft-like space with wooden parquet floors and tall windows. Warhol sought to make this new incarnation of the Factory an organized and goal-oriented studio, rather than another haphazard creative space and social hangout – so, rather than applying the previous Factory’s signature silver coating, he decided to maintain the sleek elegance of the building’s interiors. Warhol suspected that this shift in mentality, as well as décor, would begin to alienate Billy Linich – and he was right.

Warhol tried to accommodate Linich by granting him a small space in the back of the studio and allowing him to paint it black.

Linich’s portion of the Union Square Factory consisted of a small bathroom, a darkroom, a screening room, and a couch (though not the same couch that he had appropriated at the Silver Factory).

Linich’s territory at the Union Square Factory was larger than his quarters at the Silver Factory, but it still felt drastically isolated from the bright, modern front portion of the studio.

On June 3rd, 1968, radical feminist Valerie Solanas appeared at the Union Square Factory. She had spent the past few months desperately attempting to contact Warhol, convinced that he was stealing her writing and using it for his own artwork and lectures.

Warhol thought nothing of her unexpected appearance, and neither did filmmaker Paul Morrissey, critic Mario Amaya, or art patron Fred Hughes, who had also stopped by the studio that day.

Yet when Morrissey asked Solanas to leave so that he and Warhol could return to their work, she pulled a .32 automatic out of her bag and pointed it at Warhol. Her first two shots missed his body, but she fired a third shot at close range that tore through his stomach, esophagus, gall bladder, liver, spleen, and intestines.

Solanas fired two shots at Amaya, one of which went through his

hip. As she summoned the elevator to leave, Solanas aimed her gun directly at Hughes’s forehead and pulled the trigger – but the gun jammed. Just then, the elevator doors opened. Solanas got into the elevator and exited the building.

Warhol was rushed to Columbus Hospital where, even after being pronounced clinically dead, doctors managed to revive him and save his life.

IN THE SPRING OF 1970, FEELING FULLY ALIENATED FROM THE WORLD HE HAD ENTERED IN 1963, BILLY LINICH LEFT THE FACTORY AND NEW YORK. After the shooting, Warhol was forced to become more aware of security at the Factory. The studio became less of an informal hangout – a mentality shift that further isolated Linich from Warhol and the rest of the Factory. Linich withdrew to his darkroom, leaving only at night when no one was in the studio.

He secluded himself for nearly 18 months, developing photos, meditating, creating astrological charts, and eating only Campbell’s soup. He only allowed Lou Reed and Ondine to visit him, insisting that they were the only people who understood him anymore.

Although Warhol was concerned for Linich’s well-being, he chose not to disturb him.

In the spring of 1970, feeling fully alienated from the world he had entered in 1963, Linich left the Factory and New York. He left no forwarding address – only a note that read “Andy – I am not here anymore but I am fine. Love, Billy.” n

230 EAST 21ST STREET

230 EAST 21ST STREET

NYPD 13TH PRECINCT

After opening fire on the Union Square factory, Valerie Solanas walked around the city for nearly four hours.

Around 8 P.M., she turned herself in to a rookie traffic cop near Times Square. The NYPD booked her at the 13th Precinct on East 21st Street.

Solanas utilized the publicity generated by the shooting as a platform for her feminist ideas. She refused to accept a Legal Aid lawyer and insisted that she had no regrets regarding the shooting. She was infuriated that Warhol refused to press charges. n

VALERIE SOLANAS UTILIZED THE PUBLICITY GENERATED BY THE SHOOTING AS A PLATFORM FOR HER FEMINIST IDEAS.

227 EAST 19TH STREET

227 EAST 19TH STREET

COLUMBUS HOSPITAL

DOCTORS WERE CONVINCED THAT WARHOL WOULD NOT SURVIVE AND PRONOUNCED HIM DEAD ONLY SIX MINUTES AFTER HE ARRIVED.

After the shooting at the Union Square Factory, Warhol was rushed to the emergency room at Columbus Hospital.

Doctors were convinced that Warhol would not survive the shooting and pronounced him dead only six minutes after he arrived, but Dr. Giuseppe Rossi was determined to save him.

Even after Warhol had been clinically dead for a minute and a half, Dr. Rossi cut open his chest and began massaging his heart. He began an operation that would last five hours and require four doctors.

In the waiting room, two dozen friends and reporters gathered to await the results of the operation. Gerard Malanga rushed uptown to Warhol’s townhouse and brought Julia Warhola to the hospital. At 2:30 A.M., doctors were still unsure whether Warhol would live through the night. But, at 6 A.M., Warhol was still alive.

Warhol spent almost two months in the hospital following the operation. He was released on July 28th and spent a few weeks recovering at his townhouse – but by August he had begun working again and by September he had returned to the Factory. n

SOURCES Watson, Steven. Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties.

New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.

Warholstars. www.warholstars.org.

Getty Images. www.gettyimages.com.

ARTstor Digital Library. www.artstor.org

SALLY RINEHART

PRATT INSTITUTE GRADUATE COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN TYPOGRAPHY II PROFESSOR TOM DOLLE SPRING 2010