Christina: Andy Warhol was an American artist and the central figure in the movement known as pop art. He coined the phrase but he certainly had more than 15 minutes of fame. Hi, I’m Christina and welcome to watchmojo.com, and today we’re gonna learn about how music and dance had an influence on Andy Warhol’s work. Work Warhol live, music and dance in Andy Warhol’s work, can you tell us about how music and dance affected him and affected the art that he created.
Matt: Music was always very important for Warhol, and from his childhood when he would go to see Hollywood musicals, he was in love with Shirley Temple when he was a little boy. And that carried through right into the end of his life, when Debbie Harry was his greatest friend.
Christina: For a short time Andy Warhol was the manager of the Velvet Underground, can you tell us a little bit about how that affected his life.
Matt: They were punk before there was punk, and they were so grating on people like no one really knew what to do with them. But Warhol loved it.
Christina: And then he also enjoyed Studio 54 and the disco scene. How do you reconcile all these different tastes in music?
Matt: It has not so much to do with the music as it was the scene, you know, because the Velvet Underground were part of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and when you think about what that was like, with the light show and basically a big party and a lot of just like total reckless abandon. Studio 54 was the same thing, it was only the soundtrack changed.
Christina: What are some of the highlights of this exhibit?
Matt: We start with Elvis painting, and there’s a Marilyn painting, and there’s what they did in the 1950’s about music of dance diagram painting. We have lots of great paintings that were on loan from Europe, LP covers, all throughout his professional career and the room that we are right now, this sort of like the avocation of the silver factory. I mean it goes on and on.
Christina: Thank you so much for reintroducing Andy Warhol to a possibly new public that doesn’t know so much about him.
Matt: Oh, that’s great, yeah, it’s been my pleasure.
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