Andy Warhol's Silver Elvises: Meaning through Context at the Ferus Gallery in 1963 Author(s): David McCarthy Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 88, No. 2 (Jun., 2006), pp. 354-372 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067249 . Accessed: 18/09/2011 11:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art Bulletin. http://www.jstor.org Andy Warhol's Silver Elvises: Meaning through Context at the Ferus Gallery in 1963 David McCarthy In the of to west. He of Elizabeth made at the same spring 1963 Andy Warhol looked the bust-length images Taylor had as one of the most of the time. onto the series bla recently emerged prominent Silk-screened silver backgrounds, solo on Pop artists, with important shows either coast, and tantly targets Hollywood, whose larger-than-life personalities now at a and of romance anticipated his second exhibition the prestigious inhabited mythic, often formulaic, world Ferus in Los the environ and action on-screen. of costume Gallery Angeles. Contemplating The specificity Presley's ment ties the series to the of the which in which his latest work would be unveiled, and build thoroughly genre Western, ing on the encouraging reception of his images of Hollywood Warhol both honored and lampooned throughout his ca stars at in York reer. The of two famous individuals intimates that a the Stable Gallery New the previous fall, he coupling an film most clich?d was of Warhol's intention in again conceived exhibition that featured stars, gender binary also part actor the Elvis series with the a that cer prominently the singer turned Elvis Presley (Fig. I).1 showing Taylors, binary an a to convention. Given Appropriating advertisement for the film Flaming Star tainly owed large debt Hollywood (1960) for his series of silver Elvises, Warhol knowingly drew Warhol's equal interest in modern art, however, the coupling attention to while to and to venerable A cinematic convention, also continuing probably echoed paid homage precedent. his work in relation to art. is in The Bride Bare position contemporary vanguard likely referent found Stripped byHer Bach Although often overshadowed by the famous paintings of elors,Even (1915-23, hereafter referred to as The Large Glass), cans and the silk screens of Mon a was on at Campbell's Soup Marilyn facsimile of which display the Pasadena Art Museum as run roe, the silver Elvises have garnered their share of critical part of the Marcel Duchamp retrospective attention. In 1971, the critic John Coplans linked them with ning concurrently that fall. Additionally, the implication of of rock and roll and de motion in some of the silver Elvis found an the rebelliousness provocatively paintings impor scribed their installation at the Ferus as a kind of "musical tant precursor in the French artist's work. This dual acknowl mural" a More the art histo of clich? and of a Dada is evi with "rhythmic beat."2 recently, edgment, Hollywood master, a when screen are in to rian Richard Meyer has identified strong current of dent the paintings interpreted relation the their intended venue. it is to revisit homoeroticism animating series, with the gun, knife, and initial, Hence, necessary obvious while the in detail those months the exhibition at the holster providing phallic surrogates, place preceding Ferus, ment as as as well as the installation of the series. of the paintings side by side, well the overlapping and reception some of the intimated male of the image within paintings, these accounts situated the on-male contact.3 Importantly, The Ferus Exhibition series within broader cultural contexts, either music on was not the same popular What opened September 30, 1963, or but in so insufficient gay culture, perhaps doing gave exhibition envisioned earlier in the year, and the final prep to the factor of the consideration mitigating local, namely, aration of individual canvases was somewhat unusual. A letter the historical and context. director of the a mixture geographic from Irving Blum, Ferus, suggested It is contention that both time and late more an my place?the of recent and new work. "The I have had opportu and summer of 1963 and Los to to spring Angeles, respectively? nity consider it," he wrote Warhol in late May, roles in the and in played pivotal conception, installation, tended of the series. materials meaning Furthermore, period the more convinced I am that your exhibition in the located in the time at the Warhol Museum in should be the most intense and far com capsules Andy gallery reaching as well as others available to him Elvis should be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posite of past work, and the paintings that Warhol's to the silver Elvises was in rear area. decision is based suggest approach shown my gallery My wholly the he had at hand. All of this on considerations. The rear area is a rectan shaped by printed ephemera spatial superb indicates the rich and to con X areas opportunity, ongoing need, gle, 18' 14' with 15' ceilings. I fear the broken of sider the silver Elvises?and, indeed, Warhol's other projects the front gallery will serve you, in this instance, far less from the 1960s?with the aid of such materials and the well. Let me hear from about this early you possibility.4 It is essential to acknowl historical focus they provide. equally an edge the defining influence of the initial spaces in which his From this brief letter it is clear that Blum envisioned The results reveal the care with which he exhibition divided in two with the work appeared. parts, retrospective provid and the its with his an introduction and to the most recent of conceived presented series, continuity ing gateway images most his work in as well as The of celebrities featured at the earlier and later art, notably film, Presley. portraits Hollywood to make his art Stable were still foremost in Blum's and he the calculated gambit simultaneously respon Gallery mind, sive to mass media and modern art, albeit from his nonhier probably anticipated that his clientele would expect to see if also some of them in the flesh.5 A advertisement he ran archical, open and encompassing, parodie sensibility. full-page a The impending exhibition prompted Warhol to produce in Artforum in September reproduces photograph of the and to show them with urbane dealer a T-shirt silk-screened with a bust the series of full-length portraits sporting ANDY WARHOLS SILVER ELVISES 355 at Los 30-October 1 Andy Warhol, silver Elvis paintings, installation view of the exhibition the Ferus Gallery, Angeles, September 26, 1963. (artwork ? 2005 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York; Elvis images used by permission, ? Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.; photograph provided by the Frank J. Thomas Archives) length image of the actor Troy Donahue (Fig. 2). The adver indicated that he had not yet decided what he would ship west. To no additional has surfaced tisement features young, glamorous Hollywood, without any date, correspondence mention who was to such a role in that a checklist for the exhibition. Blum of the singer play leading provides working the forthcoming exhibition. What for Warhol was to be the may have believed that such a list was to be prepared by show at least to his West Subse heart of his second Los Angeles was, Warhol and his Stable Gallery dealer Eleanor Ward. Coast dealer, still unknown when the advertisement was de quent events reveal that Warhol had something quite specific summer. in mind that he chose not to share with Blum. signed earlier that to In Warhol delivered a show that was choreo Even the exhibition poster proved be misleading (Fig. fact, carefully a a is and free of work.6 As as ten 3). A photograph of smiling Presley strumming guitar graphed any retrospective many on screen of were in the front with rakishly placed angle within the rectangular frame of the paintings Presley hung room, page. With the boldly printed and slightly cropped red text ten portraits of Taylor in the back (Fig. 4). Although the story at both to true to Los is "now!" the bottom, the poster alludes Presley's of how the Presley images got Angeles well known, as a attuned to occupation and to the packaging of his albums and singles it bears repeating, it reveals sensibility keenly over in the dramatic and historical Some fifteen the previous eight years. Nothing poster directly gesture precedent.7 was at was the and indicated what to appear the Ferus. years after the fact, Blum still surprised by events, The difference between the advertising and the silver El his recollections provide insight into the nature of Warhol's vises implies that Warhol remained cagey about the actual thinking: contents his to of forthcoming show, perhaps wanting gen erate as his audience sent a roll of an enormous maximum anticipation and surprise Andy printed Presley images, to see the and sent a box of assorted size stretched and I waited what he would deliver. Perhaps, too, silence roll, bars, 356 ART BULLETIN JUNE 2006 VOLUME LXXXVIII NUMBER 2 at 2 Advertisement for the Warhol exhibition at the Ferus 3 Poster for Warhol's exhibition the Ferus Gallery, 1963.