Before and After and Superman: Andy Warhol

ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY Before and After and Superman Andy Warhol

James C. Harris, MD

I had three nervous breakdowns when I was a child, spaced a year ing contaminated water on a job; he died at 53 years of age, apart. The attacks [were] St. Vitus Dance. I would spend all sum- when Andy was 13 years of age. Two years later, his mother un- mer lying in bed with my Charlie McCarthy doll and my un-cut-out derwent emergency surgery for colon cancer with a fifty-fifty cut-out paper dolls all over the spread. chance of surviving. Her convalescence took its toll too. Andy Warhol1(p21) Funds his father set aside for his education allowed Andy Buying is much more American than thinking and I’m as American to enroll at the Carnegie Institute School of Technology. He as they come. graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1949 and im- Andy Warhol1(p129) mediately moved to New York, where his career as a commercial artist took off. Within 10 years, he was the leading com- When 8-year-old Andy Warhol made odd shaking move- mercial artist in New York City. ments in school, he was teased and bullied by his peers. When the movements persisted and worsened, he received a diagnosis of Sydenham chorea (historically known as St. Vitus dance), an autoimmune complication of group A β-hemo- lytic streptococcal infection2,3; it is a neurological variant of rheumatic fever. In Warhol’s childhood, it affected about 20% of children who, like Warhol himself, had received an earlier diagnosis of scarlet fever. Although Warhol (born August 6, 1928) recalls 3 episodes during the summer months (first epigraph), only 1 episode (with a relapse) is documented; it kept him out of school for about 8 weeks. As his movements re- solved, his mother gave him comic books and movie maga- zines to look at, and she read to him and fed him Campbell’s Soup. The youngest of 3 brothers, Andy Warhol was a frail child with a protective mother; the chorea made the family even more attentive to him. He became enamored with movie stars and comic book heroes, particularly Popeye and Dick Tracy. Lying in bed with his Charlie McCarthy doll (first epigraph), Andy Warhol (1928-1987), American. Before and After, 1961. Casein and pencil he dreamed of becoming a movie star or hero. In 1938, a new on canvas, 137.2 × 177.5 cm (54 × 697/8 in). Gift of David Geffen. The Museum breed of comic book hero, the superhero, appeared in the first of Modern Art, New York, NY. Photo credit: Digital Image. The Museum of issue of Action Comics. Mild mannered Clark Kent’s transfor- Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, New York. © 2013 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc/Artists Rights Society, New York, NY. mation to Superman was particularly appealing to children, like Warhol, who were anxious and insecure.4 Warhol was preoccupied with his physical appearance. He Warhol longed to be recognized as a fine artist rather than had a dermatological condition, probably vitiligo, with blotchy a commercial one. His transformation into a pop artist came skin, and apparently rosacea that left his nose red and en- about in the early 1960s, just as the era of abstract larged. His physician noted that Warhol had small hemangio- expressionism,5 subjective and remote to the common viewer, mas on his scrotum, which were another source of was coming to a close. Emblematic of his transformation is Be- embarrassment.3 It boosted his self-esteem when his mother fore and After (Figure), an enlarged version of a black-and- took him for free drawing lessons on Saturday mornings at the white advertisement for a plastic surgeon. It shows a wo- Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.2 man’s face before and after an operation on her nose: before Warhol’s parents were devout Byzantine Catholics who im- is a “witchlike” beaky nose, and after is the cute, straight, and migrated to Pittsburgh from Eastern Europe. Andy attended turned up nose of a starlet. Next he created Pop Art using the church services each Sunday and sat before the iconostasis, a comic book heroes of his youth. He picked individual frames wall of icons and religious paintings meant to bring the be- from published narrative comic strips, enlarged them by pro- liever face to face with a timeless spiritual presence. He was jection, and painted 1.8-m (6-ft) canvases. His Superman fig- in need of such support. His father had a cholecystectomy with ure hovers above a raging fire; the caption reads “Good! A complications and later became severely jaundiced after drink- mighty puff of my super-breath extinguishes the fire! PUFF!”

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things normally. Usually they never hurt anybody, they were just disturbed themselves, but how would I know again which was which.”3(p306) Warhol slowly recovered and by the early 1970s had produced more than 60 films and started a new magazine, Interview.HehostedAndy Warhol's TV and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes on MTV. In 1981, he created a series of screen prints titled Myths. Most powerful among them is an iconic image of Superman (Figure). Warhol’s final Superman is a powerful figure whose movement is amplified by his dynamic silhouette. Warhol de- picted himself as the myth of The Shadow (“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” from The Shadow radio program). Always seeking iconic status, Warhol transformed himself into the realm of myth. Warhol’s The Last Supper cycle is his last work of art. He was in considerable pain from chronic gall bladder disease during the exhibit in Milan, Italy. On his return to New York, he was immediately hospitalized. Although the surgery that he underwent was routine, and successful, Warhol died postop- eratively during the night of February 22, 1987. In keeping with his iconic status, he was buried wearing a black cashmere suit, Andy Warhol (1928-1987), American. Superman, from Myths, 1981. Color screen a loud paisley tie, a platinum wig, and sunglasses and hold- print. © 2013 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc/Artists Rights ing a black prayer book with a red rose. Society, New York, NY, and courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY. Photo credit: Digital Image. When museum surveyors visited his home after his death to assess for an estate sale, they found his entire dining room and all the closets filled with bags and boxes of stuff, his so- His Pop Art comic images were first exhibited as the backdrop called time machines, over 600 boxes. Warhol was a re- to a store window display of female mannequins wearing sum- nowned art collector, but these boxes made the dining room mer fashions. unusable and suggest a diagnosis of hoarding disorder. Con- Soon afterward, Warhol made his mark in Pop Art with his sistent with hoarding is Warhol’s well-known refusal to part Campbell’s Soup can paintings, all 32 varieties. Seemingly he with his possessions. Sydenham chorea is associated with ob- had embraced consumerism as his style (second epigraph), with sessive-compulsive symptoms and, to a lesser extent, his screen prints of Coca-Cola bottles, vacuum cleaners, and hoarding.6 Perhaps Warhol's “nervous breakdowns” (first epi- hamburgers. He also did celebrity portraits chosen at tragic mo- graph) did have lasting effects. ments in the subjects’ lives. Marilyn Monroe died of “self- Warhol’s life and work seem to both satirize and cel- poisoning”; Elizabeth Taylor was physically ill; and Jacque- ebrate materialism and celebrity. His detractors see his work line Kennedy embodied the nation’s grief following the as materialistic, purely celebrating consumerism. His admir- presidential assassination. His Death and Disasters series, Elec- ers view his art as iconic, worthy of contemplation, filled with tric Chair, and atomic bomb prints were based on actual pho- meaning, and potentially transformative. tographs. He highlighted the random deaths of ordinary people, 1. Warhol A. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again). forcing the viewer to witness gruesome scenes that reflect on Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc; 1975. the fragility of life. 2. Bockris V. Warhol: The Biography. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press; 2003. In 1964, Warhol renounced painting and opened a large sil- 3. Scherman T, Dalton T. Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol. New York, NY: Harper ver-painted warehouse known as “The Factory” where he re- Collins Publishers; 2009. invented himself as a filmmaker. It quickly became one of New 4. Widzer ME. The comic-book superhero: a study of the family romance York City's premier cultural hot spots, the scene of lavish par- fantasy. Psychoanal Study Child. 1977;32:565-603. ties attended by the city's wealthiest socialites and celebri- 5. Harris JC. Excavation. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(4):359-360. ties. Its “anything goes” atmosphere also drew marginal people 6. Asbahr FR, Garvey MA, Snider LA, Zanetta DM, Elkis H, Swedo SE. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms among patients with Sydenham chorea. Biol (transvestites and drug addicts) who nicknamed Warhol Drella, Psychiatry. 2005;57(9):1073-1076. a contraction of the seductive and controlling power of Dracula and the sweet wholesomeness of Cinderella. On June 4, 1968, Author Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas shot Warhol. Ini- Developmental Neuropsychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, tially believed to be dead, he was revived by internal cardiac Baltimore, Maryland. massage. His left lung, liver, spleen, and intestines were dam- Corresponding Author: James C. Harris, MD, Department of Psychiatry and aged, but he survived. Solanas was judged mentally ill; War- Behavioral Sciences, Developmental Neuropsychiatry, Johns Hopkins University hol did testify against her. In the end, she spent 3 years in jail. School of Medicine, 1800 Orleans St, Baltimore, MD 21287 ([email protected]). Warhol said, “Crazy people had always fascinated me be- Section Editor: James C. Harris, MD. cause they were so creative—they were incapable of doing Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

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