Ready to Blow Your Mind: Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable Alycia Faith Lentz University of Iowa
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2016 Ready to blow your mind: Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable Alycia Faith Lentz University of Iowa Copyright 2016 Alycia Faith Lentz This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3128 Recommended Citation Lentz, Alycia Faith. "Ready to blow your mind: Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2016. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3128. Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons READY TO BLOW YOUR MIND: ANDY WARHOL’S EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE by Alycia Faith Lentz A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Art History in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2016 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Craig Adcock Copyright by ALYCIA FAITH LENTZ 2016 All Rights Reserved Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL ____________________________ PH.D. THESIS _________________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Alycia Faith Lentz has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Art History at the May 2016 graduation. Thesis Committee: ____________________________________________ Craig Adcock, Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Dorothy Johnson ____________________________________________ Christopher D. Roy ____________________________________________ Julie Berger Hochstrasser ____________________________________________ Trevor Harvey For my father, my husband, and Andy Warhol – the men in my life. ii It was all luck and it was all fabulous. Andy Warhol Popism: The Warhol Sixties iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my advisor, Professor Craig Adcock, for his enthusiasm, constructive criticism, and support. I also thank my committee, Professor Dorothy Johnson, Professor Christopher D. Roy, Professor Julie Berger Hochstrasser, and Professor Trevor Harvey, for their guidance over the course of my time at the University of Iowa. Sufficient superlatives do not exist to describe the wonderful instructors with whom I have had the good fortune to work. Thanks, too, to Laura Jorgensen, for her calm demeanor and bottomless well of knowledge. Many thanks to the numerous people who provided insight and rare documents for this project, including: Peter Werbe, legendary underground Detroit DJ and long-time staff member at the Fifth Estate; Julie Herrada, curator at the University of Michigan Special Collections Library; and Alfredo García, compiler of The Inevitable World of the Velvet Underground, who took pity on a poor graduate student and gave her a wealth of information. Thanks to William and Paulette Reed, Jason L. Reed, Robert and Joan Lentz, Katherine Kunau, Devin Miller, and Amber Skoglund for encouragement and keen observations. I also thank those who cannot be here to see this project completed: L. Graydon and Burnita Reed, J. Ivan and Florence Reed, June Boies Benz, Joseph and Wilma Hanson, and Earlene Diamond Rosauer. And thanks to my husband, Timothy, for coming along with me. iv ABSTRACT Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI) (1966-1967) was a drug-fueled rock concert-cum-multimedia postmodern art event where layers of mediation mixed with immediate experience: The Velvet Underground performed their innovative music in front of films of themselves performing, Factory Superstars danced and performed poetry, various Warhol films projected on the walls, flashing lights flickered on mirrored surfaces, and a crowd of spectators – both famous and unknown – packed in to see and be seen, to dance and trip into the early hours of the morning in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and a variety of other cities in the United States. The EPI’s unabashed emphasis on marketing, packaging, consumer goods, and empty celebrity are all manifestations of Guy Debord’s fears of late capitalist excess, but beneath the veneer of vapidity was an undercurrent of counterculture political activism and social awareness. The EPI was a promotional vehicle for Warhol, Warhol’s Factory crew, and the Velvet Underground, but is also a complex example of spectacle that has been under- analyzed in recent scholarship. Original contributions include Debordian cultural analysis, interpretation of contemporary reviews and reports, examination of the event’s lack of art historical presence, and incorporation of music scholarship into the Warhol historical canon. Key sources include reviews, interviews with participants and attendees, rare documents and photographs, Aspen magazine, and advertisements from underground publications. In creating a more complete picture of the EPI through surviving ephemera and varied scholarly assessment, the EPI comes into clearer focus as a counterculture underground event and an influential art/music collaboration of some of the central cultural figures of the mid-twentieth century: Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground. v PUBLIC ABSTRACT Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI) was a drug-fueled rock concert- cum-multimedia art event where layers of mediation mixed with immediate experience: The Velvet Underground performed their innovative music in front of films of themselves performing, Factory Superstars danced and performed poetry, various Warhol films projected on the walls, flashing lights flickered on mirrored surfaces, and a crowd of spectators – both famous and unknown – packed in to see and be seen, to dance and trip into the early hours of the morning. The experience of the EPI was a potent combination of alienation, mediation, and commercialization. The EPI was a promotional vehicle for Warhol, Warhol’s Factory crew, and the Velvet Underground, but is also a complex example of spectacle that has been under- analyzed in recent scholarship. The EPI’s unabashed emphasis on marketing, packaging, consumer goods, and empty celebrity are all manifestations of fears of late capitalist excess, but beneath the veneer of vapidity was an undercurrent of counterculture political activism and social awareness. Original contributions include cultural analysis, interpretation of contemporary reviews and reports, examination of the event’s lack of art historical presence, and incorporation of music scholarship into the Warhol historical canon. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES viii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. “I’M SO EMPTY TODAY”: THE BIRTH OF ANDY WARHOL’S STYLE AND PERSONA 9 II. “WE WERE ALL FOR GETTING INTO THE MUSIC SCENE”: ANDY WARHOL AND THE VELVET UNDERGROUND GETTING UP TIGHT 43 III. “SOMETHING REVOLUTIONARY WAS HAPPENING”: THE EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE IN NEW YORK CITY 73 IV. “WE HAD A HORRIBLE REPUTATION”: THE LAST DAYS OF THE EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE 101 V. “YOU’D BETTER TAKE DRUGS AND LEARN TO LOVE PLASTIC”: THE AFTERMATH OF THE EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE 137 CONCLUSION 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY 171 APPENDIX FIGURES 181 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure A1. Billy Name, photograph of the Velvet Underground on stage at the Dom, April 1966. 181 Figure A2. Andy Warhol with lettering by Julia Warhola, Martini & Rossi advertisement, c. 1958. 182 Figure A3. Andy Warhol with lettering by Julia Warhola, Happy Bug Day, c. 1954 . 183 Figure A4. Andy Warhol, advertisment for I. Miller Shoes, 1955-1956. 184 Figure A5. Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning, 1953. 185 Figure A6. Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-55. 186 Figure A7. Andy Warhol, window display at Bonwit Teller, New York City, 1961. 187 Figure A8. Andy Warhol Superman, 1961. 188 Figure A9. Andy Warhol, 32 Campbell Soup Cans, 1962, at the Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles. 189 Figure A10. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962. 190 Figure A11. Andy Warhol, Thirteen Most Wanted Men, 1964. 191 Figure A12. Campbell’s soup advertisement, c. 1941. 192 Figure A13. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1965. 193 Figure A14. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1968. 194 Figure A15. Campbell’s soup advertisement, 1969. 195 Figure A16. Campbell’s beach towel advertisement, 1969. 196 Figure A17. Campbell’s record album advertisement, 1969. 197 Figure A18. Tony Ray Jones, photograph of Andy Warhol at a Beatles press conference, October 1964. 198 Figure A19. Book cover to Michael Leigh’s The Velvet Underground, 1963. 199 viii Figure A20. Poster for the Velvet Underground’s performance at Summit High School, 1965. 200 Figure A21. Adam Ritchie, photograph of the Velvet Underground, Edie Sedgwick, and Gerard Mangala performing at Delmonico’s Ballroom, New York City, 1966. 201 Figure A22. Adam Ritchie, photograph of Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Mangala, and Nico at a reserved table at Delmonico’s Ballroom, New York City, 1966. 202 Figure A23. Adam Ritchie, photograph of the Velvet Underground and Nico performing at Delmonico’s Ballroom, New York City, 1966. 203 Figure A24. Adam Ritchie, photograph of the Velvet Underground and Gerard Malanga performing at Delmonico’s Ballroom, New York City, 1966. 204 Figure A25. Advertisement published in the Village Voice for Andy Warhol, Up-Tight, New York City, 1966. 205 Figure A26. Advertisement published in the Village Voice for Andy Warhol, Up-Tight, New York City, 1966. 206 Figure A27. Advertisement for Andy Warhol’s Underground New York, Rutgers University, 1966. 207 Figure A28. Advertisement for Andy Warhol’s Underground New York, Rutgers University, 1966. 208 Figure A29. Advertisement published in the Michigan Daily for Up-Tight with