Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again at the WHITNEY MUSEUM

James Kalm was a young struggling artist just arrived in the Big Apple in the winter of 1979. Though past his early glory days, Andy Warhol was still the preeminent master of Pop Art, and was active, exhibiting and effecting the culture through his various projects like Interview Magazine. In his ramblings around the down town scene your correspondent would occasionally catch a glimpse of Andy, strolling around Union Square, or at his openings.
“Andy Warhol-From A to B and Back Again” chronicles nearly forty years of work by this master of Pop. Beginning with his commercial work, prime examples of all his major series are presented. In separate galleries, the curatorial team has created immersive environments of Warholia. Finally, viewers are invited to tour a portrait gallery featuring some of the period’s most glamorous media, and art world presences. This exhibition is the first major Warhol retrospective in New York in over twenty years. A musical introduction is provided by Danny Gone. This program was recorded November 6, 2018.

[@metronomejack]

Ohh Andy, I can watch documentaries about you without ever getting bored, It's magic!

[@sharonjack7239]

James, I cannot express HOW MUCH I appreciate your videos. Especially this one. You are so kind and helpful to share these with us. Many of us live in remote areas on this earth and this makes us feel like we are right there at the show with you. THANK YOU so very much!!!!!

[@jameskalm]

Thank you sharon jack, for your very kind words. Ever since I started the James Kalm video project, it was my hope that I could let people outside the New York area get a sense of what's happening here in the art galleries and museums. So, it's my pleasure to hear that you've found these vids enjoyable and useful. JK

[@sharonjack7239]

James, you are so very welcome! Thank you so much for your kind reply. Your videos really do light up many corners of the world. You are so talented and very much-appreciated here on the west coast :)

[@AX1A]

Right On. James is the S#I% !!!!

[@michaelmichael715]

Brilliant as always

[@francoisgouws7288]

The show looks amazing! Love you Andy!

[@Billart]

Knew him - Andy got me a downtown show in the mid 70’s after seeing my art at my studio at 74 Grand St in SoHo & I survived a year because of him. He also emotionally supported my efforts in the first Whitney Counterweight in SoHo in 1977. Later met many from the Factory, sometimes documenting them. Some like Gerard Malanga who first brought silkcreening to his attention & managed the doing of them. After Andy passed I videoed the Audart Factory Show Spectacular opening in Wall Street with many part of it like Billy Name & main Andy impersonator Allen Midgette. In the 90’s created two half hour TV cable plays with Andy’s that became popular viewing, often repeated by MNN plus a third more outrageous with an entire mime company I filmed in a midtown theater never shown but colorful & exciting of his life & soon will be. My Schnabel play 1996 had a very savvy young Andy taking place all over SoHo I found in a box in 2014 now on Vimeo. Andy introduced me to Leo Castelli & why in the 90’s I started my weekly ArtSeen Cable TV show for a decade covering the art world. Later in the 90’s filmed several Andy openings at SoHo’s Ron Feldman Gallery. In 1994 the Warhol Estate had me as sole artist on a SoHo panel to present my case for what Andy really wanted & I was later proved right - the Smithsonean in 2017 acquired the ATOA video.

[@StephenS-2024]

Great stuff. And for the record, it's true. That cheddar cheese soup does make a good sauce. Hehe. And you know an interesting connection I made? Andy was from Pittsburgh. He was a Stealer.

[@davidmayhew4818]

Thanx James. What a trip. I think if there's cynicism here it's sort of built into the culture. But it seems that Andy just does it straight on with his usual flare for formal beauty and graphic shic. There's no hidden agenda. He wasn't an intellectual. Visually smart as a tack. Audacious. And an amazing energy level. Great stuff!!!

[@fliggabrown]

Thank you for braving the rain and giving us great content!

[@sharonjack7239]

bbqlumpia, yes, agreed very much!

[@bettyimages4788]

thank you for this video! i am writing a paper on it for a graduate art history class i'm in, and the exhibition was closed PLUS I foolishly only took photos of individual artworks.....so I went around social media, google, etc. looking for pics of the show, layout, etc.... and BOOM! here you are. thank you so much!

[@jameskalm]

That's why this project is here...Thanks JK

[@conradbo1]

Thank you for the video. It always feels like I have attended these wonderful exhibitions in person after watching the video.

[@sonnycorbi1970]

I happened to be in LA when there was a retrospect of Warhol’s work at the LA museum of Art - it took me years to understand him and his work - I am not crazy about his work now it leaves me hollow inside - I saw a comment he posted, “I AM DEEPLY SUPERFICIAL” (funny)! The fact that he understood that about himself say a lot; as they say in England, he deserves a standing - I know a whole hell of a lot more about Visual Art now then I did then - Art is journalism collectively & individually - Like Picasso said, (paraphrasing), If someone hands me a book in English and I don’t understand English, doesn’t mean the book isn’t filled with wonderful ideas”.

[@silvinapini4186]

Thank you, you took me to a great exhibition!

[@jennyhughes4474]

Thank you for all your hard work James & Kate. We're now so used to seeing portraits done in Warhol's style that we forget how new & fresh they looked at the time; same with using the repeated products, he copied and so many have copied him since - he's had a huge influence on all of us who know at least some of his work even if not seen it other than online or in books.

[@2727judy]

You are a treasure, James. Thank you.

[@kevryan1967]

Thanks James for this great video .Just caught this amazing show on the last day .Andy was so ahead of his time that's he's even more relevant today and this Show really shows his genius IMO He must have had a time machine cause he saw the Future.Show is heading to San Fran Moma in May and then Chicago Institute of Art in the Fall .

[@josecardoza9204]

Gracias James, wonderful.

[@creativityinthemaking2680]

One key correction: as Irving Blum tells the story in a video documentary of Warhol's work, Blum offered to buy the collection, but Warhol had one condition: that the series never be broken up and should always be shown together. Blum agreed and paid Warhol $1,000 for the 32 paintings, in ten $100 monthly installments. Later on, Blum sold it to the museum for $50 million. He estimated that their current value was priceless ($100 million he surmised). When we consider that just one painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat recently sold for the record-breaking grand total of $110 million to a Japanese businessman, one might wonder whether the current value of Warhol's 32 paintings might well exceed even that record sale.

[@jameskalm]

Thanks for this insight @Creativity In The Making...

[@simonlinke1]

Outstanding! Thank you, it's public service broadcasting at its finest!

[@jameskalm]

Glad you enjoyed it...Thanks.

[@annoda81]

Thank you so much for this video. I appreciate the time and effort in all your explanations. You are wonderful for doing this. What an amazing video. Cheers!

[@tomliii8619]

My uncle was Andy's boss at the Joe Horne Company in Pittsburgh. I've never seen my uncle's name mentioned by any of Andy's biographers. I don't know why he's been over looked, as he was very talented in his own way? Anyway, to make a long story short, my parents inherited a bunch of Andy's prints when my uncle died, and my Aunt thought I might want them. My parent's didn't like modern art, but, were impressed that Andy had graduated from Carnegie Tech. They stored the Andy prints, etc. in their basement, and there the prints etc. sat until my parents basement was flooded and they were ruined.

[@cliffdariff74]

wtf?? I'm from Pittsburgh also.. you should had grabbed those prints straight away my friend.

[@joeswampdawghenry]

Lol... Bad bad luck laddy

[@amycarmac]

Just found your videos recently (first was Dana Schutz) What a fantastic, intelligent, kind service you are doing for those of us who don't live in NYC. Thank you!!

[@femkekuiling9972]

Thanks! I thought ' Andy Warhol.....yawn. ..' but there's lots of stuff in here that I've never seen and that is actually pretty beautiful.

[@MrUnmutual2014]

Just found your channel, great unpretentious analysis and insight.

[@TheBillybobbbbb]

Excellent video. Thanks, Kate!

[@tonsfocus]

Rockin' 'em dead, James. Really great one, much appreciated. Bravo.

[@jameskalm]

Thanks tonsfocus, Happy New Year...

[@TheDolly089]

The white/black painting on the floor, I believe was the dance lesson steps from Studio 54.

[@SparklemotionX]

Thank you so much for this! This was a gift and I appreciate it.

[@Kelpy]

really great inspiring video. thank you. just a small correction, which has to do with the timeline, the world's fair was 1965 (rather than 67 as you state), which means the work was probably done in 1964, or earlier. the dates are very important with Warhol because he was moving and evlolving at such a rapid pace.

[@edwardrichardson8254]

There was not a single retrospective of him in the 16 years I lived in NYC and I worked the 1992 Basquiat retrospective opening night at the old Whitney as a bartender. Back then the YBAs were all the rage and Warhol seemed passé. Looking at this knock-you-on-your-ass show, he seems fresher and grander than ever, infinitely more fun yet profound in a way those Nineties Brits will never, ever be. It manages to be classic and shocking at the same time. What happened to his screen printing meshes? That's probably a question for Alexander Heinrici and the printers he worked with. If those meshes are out in the wild it raises questions about control over counterfeiting (literally, as printing money is a kind of silkscreen process), though I imagine Warhol would love the idea of that. There's a great story about Francis Bacon being shown a forgery of his art where a subject is walking on some stairs and instead of being furious Bacon goes "NO I CAN USE THAT!" - he liked the composition and was going to steal from the stealer! I think being shot elevated Warhol into that Twilight Zone fame he was only ever on the margins of, even though already famous himself. He became the raunchy tabloid superstar martyr himself, like his MARYLIN DIPTYCH that Camille Paglia writes about so brilliantly in her book GLITTERING IMAGES. Pop Art itself has been commodified ad infinitum by society like Impressionism in calendars and puzzles or Pollock in Formica designs or glassware, but when you see it up close like this, the pure uncut archetypal power of it just overwhelms, it has a powerful aura as much as any Roman bust or Babylonian relief.

[@pennykent5687]

Thank you for this video. Such fun!!! Really great!!! So enjoyed it!!!😃❤️👏 And thank you Kate!😀❤️👍

[@missinglink9973]

Much inspiration...im going to paint now. Thanks.

[@nancydoyle595]

So so good.. Thank you!

[@shaunm3206]

Like you I'm a fan of the early works. The drawings are the stuff you never really get to see. Great trip round the show though. Thank you James!

[@slimnics]

That was great thanks

[@dancochrane5577]

He used a paint by numbers version of the last supper. I’m not sure about the Mona Lisa, it wouldn’t surprise me. Nice job.

[@ElectricPid]

Nice coverage James. Tunafish Disaster is my favorite :)

[@jameskalm]

I understand this was based on one of the first outbreaks of botulism in the USA.

[@dancochrane5577]

I think it’s funny that the Andy Warhol foundation ever even considered offering authentication of Warhol’s work, since it was so widely known in his lifetime that everyone, and anyone was encouraged to “sign” his work. Which you eluded to, his thumbing his nose at the whole tradition of authentic, value, etc. A factory indeed.

[@spicedclay]

The breathing!!!

[@Anteroization]

yes, i put it in mute, then enjoy.

[@kareymaurice3236]

Funny you mentioned the fashion collaboration between Malia & Kenny Scharf I traded Malia some artwork for a hoodie of equal value (don’t try this at home.). Scharftees is the brand and they silkscreen over preexisting highend clothing lines.

[@_mixedsignals]

Did the Supreme Court rule on whether his art is considered “substantively new and singular” or whether he was infringing copyright?

[@GrandPrizeFitnesAJAY]

Actually, the Metropolitan had a retrospective of Andy juxtaposed with artists influenced by him in 2010 or 2011.

[@reefmarch8139]

...super!!!...

[@harpo103]

Check out The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh if you can.

[@davidbeckett6019]

tell me about 'thank you Cate' please. D

[@jameskalm]

Kate is the Executive Producer, and the love of my life...

[@davidbeckett6019]

Sweet. I am really enjoying the art tours and education. Thanks

[@marcogentile7292]

👏👏👏

[@KpxUrz5745]

I helped print some Warhol combo silkscreens/paintings on linen. Never thought much of him as an artist. To me he was just a "personality" of the times. Incidentally, he never touched the paintings I speak of. So much for "the hand of the artist".

[@KayAmooty433]

Coming to Chicago AI in October.

[@ohdandan]

so cold and distant. right?

[@theohaegele9011]

49:55 Wait a minute. I know you! You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.

[@Adri25636]

The man was trying to macke point ,and than people took it as an Art and now it gets to be sold for milions WOW!

[@KhalidSajidMuhammad]

I LIKE THE DRAWING ARTWORK WITH NO COLOR... THE ONES HE ACTUALLY DREW NOT PAINT

[@nonplayerzealot4]

Polke used polka dots then. Polke dots.

[@LastTrainToClarkson]

I offer you $5 for the signed Andy Warhol Interview magazine.

[@PAINVALENTINO]

He was from philly

[@JadenJahci]

Man realizing he has more time left before his dorky death @40:38 to 40:41 Sinsarahlee, Preservatives

[@JadenJahci]

Man realizing he has a little more time left before his dorky death @40:38 to 40:41 Sinsarahlee, Preservatives

[@JadenJahci]

. Man realizing he's not quite hungry yet ................................................. @40:38 to 41:16 Sinsarahlee, Preservatives