Advertising Illustrator to Pop Artist in the Early 1960S. One Major Flaw

advertising illustrator to Pop Artist in the early 1960s. not only with L.A. art world personalities but also a host of One major flaw concerns the way that Davis deals with movie stars, including what Davis terms the “most impressive sex—which is often to ignore it, a quality I thought was strange sighting of the evening ... the tabloid couple of the moment, for a book about four young men traveling cross-country in the Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette,” adding with emphasis ’60s. Davis mentions an unrequited flirtation between Warhol “in the flesh.” Davis conjures the excitement that Warhol must and the handsome Malanga, but leaves it at that. She does note have experienced in the presence of celebrities that he’d only that the gregarious Taylor Mead kept the group entertained with admired in magazines. his travels in California and the Midwest, conjuring stories of During his sojourn in L.A., Warhol had an idea to make a Beat hangouts and poetry readings, as well as his sexual ex- short, campy film called “Tarzan and Jane Regained ... Sort ploits. On their many stops for gas, Davis writes: “Taylor had Of,” with the skinny and awkward Taylor playing Tarzan. Back a knack for persuading handsome young gas jockeys—guys in New York, the film played at the Film-Makers’ Cooperative who were absolutely straight—to accompany him behind the in Manhattan and garnered some critical attention. The film building for a quick session of oral sex. They were ‘trade’ in the was one of many he was working on in the early ’60s, experi- strictest sense of the word.” How Davis knew that they were ments that would later turn his artistic focus away from the can- vas for a time. On their return to New York, Warhol and company spent an evening in Las Vegas. Warhol was fascinated by the dazzling neon lights of the strip. Strangely, at that same moment French artist Marcel Duchamp was also visiting the city, though there’s no indication that the two men crossed paths. Duchamp called the city a “wonderland” even as he was stunned by the “authentic” American- style Folies Bergère performance he at- tended. As with Duchamp, it was the light and architecture that attracted Warhol the most. Davis notes, for Warhol the city felt like “one fabulous Pop Art museum.” A year after his Hollywood adventure, Warhol would move into a new, large ware- house studio on the East Side that he named the Factory—a word that evoked, among other things, his working-class roots in Pitts- burgh. Davis suggests that the Factory was Warhol’s answer to Hollywood, a “counter- culture MGM” with actors, artists, and an as- sortment of “addicts, hustlers, and other underground personalities.” What we get in The Trip is a fast-paced biography of Warhol from his Pittsburgh childhood to his death in a New York hospi- tal, with the cross-country journey sitting at the center of this story. Davis shows us how that moment in the summer of 1963 can il- luminate much about how Warhol became Warhol. She also reminds us of the cultural context for the artist’s development. Just a few months after Warhol’s return to New “absolutely straight” is not entirely clear; but this brief story is York, Kennedy was shot in Dallas, and the Technicolor world meant more to illustrate Taylor’s personality than the sexual of postwar America would soon metamorphose into the reali- exploits that were possible in mid-century America. Warhol, ties of war and social protest. “After the assassination,” writes Davis claims, was both “intrigued and annoyed” by Taylor’s Davis, “the country would never be the same, and after the au- antics, adding that “he was jealous that Taylor was getting so tumn of 1963, neither would Andy.” Warhol would be inspired much action in unexpected places and might have wished they to turn the tragedy into art with a series of silkscreen images could have traded places, but he was in a hurry to get to Cali- of Jackie Kennedy taken from Life magazine and stills from fornia and counting every wasted minute.” the famous Zapruder film footage. Davis gives us a story as Once in L.A., the opening night went well, though few much about Pop Art’s elusive icon as it is about the era that works were sold. The party at the Hoppers’ house was filled shaped him. March–April 2016 33.

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