By Mark McConville
RARE pictures have offered a glimpse behind the scenes into the whirlwind life of renowned American artist Andy Warhol.
The candid images show Warhol relaxing outside a gentleman’s social club, posing with friends and standing with a group of starry-eyed children.
Other stunning shots depict the artistic movement and protest culture of the 1960s as people can be seen playing bowls on the street and raising an American flag above them at a rally.
The black and white photos are showcased in a new book, Fink on Warhol: New York Photographs of the 1960s, by Larry Fink and published by Damiani.
“Andy floated though time and space amply,” Fink wrote in the book’s introduction.
“When he hit his stride, he in his support of younger artists, was generous as is the foundation.
“I spent four days with Andy and the gang at The Factory and in the streets. It was a lark. While Andy was everywhere, he was nowhere to be found on the political lines of protest and concern.
“He floated around it as if its existence was not any issue he was concerned about. So be it, the days I spent with him were ironic and in a way, fun-filled.”
Andy Warhol was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His best-known works are perhaps the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Diptych.
His New York studio, The Factory, was a well-known gathering place for intellectuals, playwrights, drag queens, celebrities and other wealthy patrons.
Warhol also lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement.
“We now speak of Andy as a renaissance man,” said Mr Fink.
“I am incredulous… Indeed, the renaissance that he brought into play was marketing. Clever, vapid transformations of commodity into artful, often playful objects with no particular depth.
“In some ways, he was the forerunner of all that is often said about too much of the art which one sees today: referential, hollow vessels masquerading as origin. But let me not pose in a grape leaf of sour refrains.
“I thank him and history for the opportunity to weave him into other energies, which were ongoing.
“Now, in other forms will continue to be ongoing. As in life, there are many concurrent worlds all playing music at the same time. Strike up the band. We all are dancing.”
Fink on Warhol: New York Photographs of the 1960s by Larry Fink is published by Damiani, £38.
