The day I met Andy Warhol was shortly after the opening of Studio 54 in New York
We obviously had similar tastes and frequented the same places.
I first saw him in Studio, casually hanging out, rubbing elbows with the likes of Gregory Peck, Cher, and so many more, not to mention our common newly made friend, Steve Rubel, the owner of Studio 54.
We said a casual hello to each other, not much more. As time lapsed, however, I would go to Xenons, or the Church, or Paladium, and sure enough, here was my familiar face, always exchanging a few words with me, Andy Warhol. We had a kind of unspoken friendship which grew from nothing more than a familiar face. As Andy grew larger and larger than life with his fame and fortune, he still maintained his hello’s and how are you’s.
I made a protrait of him one time, sending him the picture of the portrait. He in turn sent back a signed picture of himelf holding a piglet. I admit I never quite got the meaning of that. He respected me, and I he. That that is where it was.
I never quite bought into the Pop art movement at the time of its inception though I reconized the uniqueness of it. It was for me not unlike Dada art or any other art simply depicting the times.
Soup was on the table and Andy saw it. The art world embraced it as something revolutionary or emphatically unque. Me, I still loved the masters such as Picasso, Miro, Kandinsky, Calder, Polock, de Cooning, Matisse, Vlamink, Monet, Van Gogh,and on and on.
Ironically, recently, I made three paintings of an I phone. Following the horors of recent shootings in Paris. I was inspired to do this. The I phone now represented, for me, the every day object we are so familiar with. Not ulike a Cambell soup can.
Only now, the soup can is less meaningfull in its intensity other than the fact that we pump our bodies with high sodium noodle soup.
The I phone on the other hand is a tool for the evil minds to use for the purpose of hurting other. Of course, as with atomic energy, the I Phone is used for so many good things as well.
It was, however, the Paris incident which in part caused me to make paintings of this I phone. This is in essence , My soup can painting, my pop art painting, my Andy Warhol.
Let’s consider it a tribute to the master of Pop Art, Dear old gone, Andy Warhol. Maybe a song by Donna Summers palying in the backgound, a favorite at Studio 54.
Lets dance!!
Andrew Krance