How Netflix’s Andy Warhol Diaries Include A Strange Artist’s Legacy: “I Hope We’ll Never Understand Andy”

In the Netflix documentary series Andy Warhol’s DiariesWriter and director Andrew Ross removes layers of art that have had an indelible impact on American culture. Referring to Warhol’s writings published in 1989 by his co-worker and friend Pat Hackett (whom Warhol dictated in his diaries from the mid-1970s until his death in 1987), Ross sought to find a man who was beyond public personality. by Pop. Artist, celebrity and provocateur. The series uses Warhol’s own words, and his version of voice, aided by artificial intelligence technology, and the readings of actor Bill Irwin as narrative, to suggest a side of Warhol rarely seen by his co-workers (or hear). Superstars and hangers at the famous Factory in New York.

Rossi also applied for a Jessica Beck Fellowship, curated by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the artist’s home, to discuss Andy’s love affair with two important men: Jed Johnson and John Gould, with whom he has long been an artist. time. . – Time relationships. Throughout the series, we see the intimate side of a charming figure as Ross explores his legacy as a stone artist.

Andrew, how did you become interested in Warhol as a subject?

André Ross In high school I read newspapers. I grew up in New York and Andy Warhol and his work looked great in my imagination and blogging seemed like a critical way to understand a person behind a myth. It was almost a piece of literature that I thought I would discover, and Andy, as a character, would appear in 1000 pages. And it really is a love story, which is why Jessica’s scholarship was so critical as she was also working on an amazing read of Andy’s work.

Jessica, can you talk about blogging about your scholarship?

Jessica Beck Part of my mission with Warhol is to reveal this complex depth to the artist and give the work the same reading and allow for these complex layers. I started to think about him Ბ The Last Supper paints; Everyone was always reading. [as] Respect for the confinement of Da Vinci and Warhol in this traditional art-historical archive. But it goes after Christ, bodybuilders and advertising language in these truly unique ways. [People said] Warhol was not the activist they wanted for the AIDS crisis. What people ignored were these religious paintings, which, for me, were their response to the crisis. The Catholic Church at the time was such an arrogant monster to the gay community. You see how people want to ignore it Ბ The Last Supper Series and any kind of Catholic image because that’s the hard answer. it was john gould [someone who] Everything has been unlocked for me. Who was John Gould? Why haven’t I read about it? He appears on many blog pages and is one of the most filmed people in the later years of Warhol’s career. A lot of people wrote this, but I wanted to take a closer look. How has this crisis affected Warhol personally and how do you feel about painting differently in a political and personal way?

rossi Apparently, not everyone appreciated John and his importance to Andy. The blogs cover the years 1976-1987. [and those years] There is often a footnote in his biography, and especially in art historical science, that draws so much attention to the 1960s. It seems the ranks of Warhol’s group will come together to support Jedi as life’s last great love. of Andy, and regarding Johnny as an inauthentic romantic partner. But what doesn’t appear in the diaries, especially in 1981, when Andy cuts Jed for the first time, is his search for John Gould. It’s a look, almost a harlequin’s romantic language around Andy’s desire for him, and also his self-loathing, his feeling that he’ll never be good enough to win Johnny over. Was Johnny the partner who didn’t give Andy enough if Andy could never find someone to feel good about? Those were the questions I wanted to ask as they come up in Andy’s work. You can have a lot more meaning when you think of Andy as an odd figure looking for his place in the world.

Warhol is everywhere and I assumed he was far away in his life. But as I watched the documentary, I realized that his sexual identity was more complex.

Flow the biggest myth [that’s] Warhol was gay. To me, this is essentially a kind of innate homophobia. Even today there are questions to look at the work in relation to this stony identity and remove from the page a work clearly related to stony desire. That’s what blogs are all about, because Warhol clearly writes about love, emotions, and desires. He says very clearly: “I cried myself to sleep. “John didn’t call me from California.” Or, “I’m trying to fall in love with John Gould. I don’t know what to do.” I’ve never heard such talk from Warhol. If you look in the archives, you’ll find all these poems and love cards and photographs, little faded pictures that seemed to be tucked away in your pocket. Blogs are essentially self-portraits.

rossi The big paradox is that Andy was somehow out there but not personally perceived as someone in a rocky space. Through his great efforts, he occupies a unique cultural space where he transcends sexual identity and is a guru figure, with an alien robot. [voice] To protect yourself from falling into the gay and freemason categories.

There are still those who feel that the offer of “stone artist” is limited, that in fact the restriction of this identity is something humiliating. It’s very unfortunate that it continues because, again, when you don’t appreciate Andy’s love life and his humanity, which is largely due to his romantic dimensions, you lose a lot of importance. This is another reason why Jessica attracted me. He appears throughout the series not only as an expert, but also as a dramatic figure who sometimes comes into conflict with Warhol’s group. As he says in one of his essays, understanding Andy’s love affair also confirms the room for rocky love.

Flow We reached out to Warhol through the idea of ​​taking a marginal figure in his life and bringing him back to the center, making John one of the key figures in his history and his art. I wonder how his sexuality is treated differently every decade. When he arrived in New York in the 1950s, he was described as “Swiss”, very gay, very exposed. He’s not an ’80s activist, he’s not with us in the fight against AIDS. He was constantly criticized, criticized and cursed.

What was the reaction to Warhol circles? Have his opinions changed?

rossi I look at Twitter, see what people are saying with squinted eyes. It’s incredibly heartbreaking. There are people tweeting about their cathartic experiences while watching the show. And then there are the people who experienced the moment they saw him. At least [photographer] Christopher Makos, who I think was a little helpless reading about Andy Cyrus or his legacy as a Cyrus artist, would otherwise have understood his place in Andy’s life. There are people on both sides of this spectrum, and it could be: the work is open to interpretation. I hope the series is another growth in the current conversation. I hope we never hear from Andy.

Flow I was surprised at the number of people who saw him in Pittsburgh; Warhol sensitivity We are a little. When you go beyond the Pittsburgh bubble, people take it seriously. I really feel that Christopher Makos has had a whole new perspective on his life and contribution to Warhol. See his images and listen to Warhol [say how much he] I loved traveling with Christopher, I think that really resonated with him. Andrew provided [framework], which is quite remarkable. Warhol’s group of scientists is such a critical group. I don’t know where they landed on it. I personally haven’t heard of many of them. Like any file, resistance to change is always present. This offers a new perspective option. We all love Warhol at 60, but there’s so much more to his life and career, and so much more to the man.

The interview is edited for length and clarity.

The story first appeared in a separate June issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.