Bob Colacello; Courtesy Independent
During Bob Colacello‘s formidable reign as editor of Interview Magazine from 1970 to 1983, he was often tasked with “popping the question.” In Warhol parlance, this meant asking pop stars, artists, socialites, heads of state, and princesses if they wanted to be immortalized in portrait form by Andy Warhol himself. “I always said I never had to social climb,” remarks Colacello, who appeared on a panel last week at Cipriani South Street with Michael Dayton Hermann of The Andy Warhol Foundation and Donna De Salvo, formerly the Chief Curator at The Whitney Museum of Art. “I landed on Mount Olympus in Andy’s helicopter.” Their conversation, which appears below, edited for brevity and clarity, was facilitated by Independent 20th Century and Vito Schnabel Gallery, where 10 such portraits, featuring Giorgio Armani, Judy Garland and Liza Minelli, were on view. Below, Colacello, Hermann, and De Salvo discuss Warhol’s enduring influence, a day in the life at “the factory,” who Andy would want to paint today, and what it’s like to have Diana Ross cut you a check for a couple-hundred thousands dollars.
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During Bob Colacello‘s formidable reign as editor of Interview Magazine from 1970 to 1983, he was often tasked with “popping the question.” In Warhol parlance, this meant asking pop stars, artists, socialites, heads of state, and princesses if they wanted to be immortalized in portrait form by Andy Warhol himself. “I always said I never had to social climb,” remarks Colacello, who appeared on a panel last week at Cipriani South Street with Michael Dayton Hermann of The Andy Warhol Foundation and Donna De Salvo, formerly the Chief Curator at The Whitney Museum of Art. “I landed on Mount Olympus in Andy’s helicopter.” Their conversation, which appears below, edited for brevity and clarity, was facilitated by Independent 20th Century and Vito Schnabel Gallery, where 10 such portraits, featuring Giorgio Armani, Judy Garland and Liza Minelli, were on view. Below, Colacello, Hermann, and De Salvo discuss Warhol’s enduring influence, a day in the life at “the factory,” who Andy would want to paint today, and what it’s like to have Diana Ross cut you a check for a couple-hundred thousands dollars.
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MICHAEL DAYTON HERMANN: It’s a pleasure to be here with Bob and Donna. I expect this will be a very lively, engaging and fun conversation about Warhol’s commission portraits. I will open with a quote by Warhol. He said, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” He’s certainly known for blurring the boundaries between art and commerce, and he really challenged us to see the world differently. He shared that idea with you, Bob, and I’d love for you to talk a little bit about what this larger idea was, which utilized the commission portraits.
BOB COLACELLO: Well, the thing about Andy and the commissioned portraits is he was quite flexible in wanting to please the clients and would ask them what colors they liked. And of course, during the Polaroid process, they would say, “Andy, I like this one. Please don’t use that one.” So there was an exchange, but he was very rigid about the size. Occasionally, clients would say, “I’d like 36 by 36 inches instead of 40 by 40.” Others wanted a little larger. And Andy was like, “No, it has to be 40 by 40.” So one day I asked him why. He said, “Because someday, Bob, I want one panel of every person I painted all put together in one big painting that all lock into each other and I want to call it Portrait of Society. And I would like it to be at the Met.” Andy’s idea of society was not just families who came over on the Mayflower or British aristocrats. It was a global kind of society. Yes, there were some titled aristocrats, heads of state ranging from Golda Meir to the Shah of Iran to Jimmy Carter. But there are also athletes, lots of society, ladies, artists. So the commission portraits are not sort of side works or minor works because Andy didn’t choose to paint those particular people. They came to him. He took that work as seriously as he did any other work. But of course, while acting like he wasn’t being serious at all. That was Andy’s thing, to be very flippant about his own work and his own importance....