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// Happy Easter //
Eggs, 1982, by Andy Warhol.

// Happy Easter //

Eggs, 1982, by Andy Warhol.

Sorry, Andy, we think your shoe drawing is garbage.

Sorry, Andy, we think your shoe drawing is garbage.

Twenty-five years ago today, Andy Warhol died.

Twenty-five years ago today, Andy Warhol died.

It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, Steven Spielberg and Bianca Jagger conversing in bed, 1981.

This is a clip from a series entitled Andy Warhol’s TV, which represents Warhol’s first foray into television and was broadcast on Manhattan Cable Television from 1981 - 1984.  He later starred in Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes on MTV from 1986 until his untimely death in 1987, after only five episodes 

“I love television”, Warhol once said.  ”It is the medium I’d most like to shine in.  I’m really jealous of everybody who’s go their own show on television.  I want a show of my own.”

[ Originally published in Interview Magazine in September of 1974 ]
Andy Warhol: Since you know all these cases, did you ever figure out why people really murder? It’s always bothered me. Why.
Alfred Hitchcock: Well I’ll tell you. Years ago, it was economic, really. Especially in England. First of all, divorce was very hard to get, and it cost a lot of money.
Andy Warhol: But what kind of person really murders? I mean, why.
Alfred Hitchcock: In desperation. They do it in desperation.
Andy Warhol: Really?….
Alfred Hitchcock: Absolute desperation. They have nowhere to go, there were no motels in those days, and they’d have to go behind the bushes in the park. And in desperation they would murder.
Andy Warhol: But what about a mass murderer.
Alfred Hitchcock: Well, they are psychotics, you see. They’re absolutely psychotic. They’re very often impotent. As I showed in “Frenzy.” The man was completely impotent until he murdered and that’s how he got his kicks. But today of course, with the Age of the Revolver, as one might call it, I think there is more use of guns in the home than there is in the streets. You know? And men lose their heads?
Andy Warhol: Well I was shot by a gun, and it just seems like a movie. I can’t see it as being anything real. The whole thing is still like a movie to me. It happened to me, but it’s like watching TV. If you’re watching TV, it’s the same thing as having it done to yourself.
Alfred Hitchcock: Yes. Yes.
Andy Warhol: So I always think that people who do it must feel the same way.
Alfred Hitchcock: Well a lot of it’s done on the spur of the moment. You know.
Andy Warhol: Well if you do it once, then you can do it again, and if you keep doing it, I guess it’s just something to do.
Alfred Hitchcock: Well it depends whether you’ve disposed of the first body. That is a slight problem. After you’ve committed your first murder.
Andy Warhol: Yes, so if you do that well, then you’re on your way. See, I always thought that butchers could do it very easily. I always thought that butchers could be the best murderers.

I am confident that this is how Andy Warhol would have celebrated his birthday today.

Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures

If you are in NYC this month, don’t miss Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures at MoMA, opening December 19th.

2 years ago

In honor of Andy Warhol’s birthday:

I’m Not A Young Man Anymore, Lou Reed Screen Test