Skarstedt Paris presents Andy Warhol: Who is Who?, an exhibition that delves into the myriad influences art history had on Warhol’s work. The show, which closes on December 21^st, traces his art historical appropriations throughout the 1970s and 1980s, featuring seminal examples of works from series such as Heads (After Picasso), The Last Supper, Mona Lisa, After de Chirico, and The Scream (After Edvard Munch). Above:Details of Renaissance Paintings (Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482), 1984; Below: Still from Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, dir. Ric Burns, 2006

For all of their myriad connecting influences and ideas, Warhol’s decision to paint these chosen works are to some degree a question of where he himself stands in relation to these other masters. Indeed, as he cheekily said in reference to Picasso, “When Picasso died, I read in a magazine that he had made four thousand masterpieces in his lifetime, and I thought, ‘Gee, I could do that in a day.’” Although tongue-in-cheek, Warhol was ever the observer, keenly aware of status and legacy. Perhaps by getting closer to his own idols, he was able to further claim a spot for himself in their pantheon.  Once established as what he called a “money artist”,  Andy never looked back and was almost never without his tape recorder and Polaroid SX-70—and he often carried a Super-8.

With that in mind, today’s DIARY offers the Andy Warhol Interview (by Glenn O’Brien]. for Interview magazine—“The Crystal Ball of Pop”—which the artist founded in 1969.

Glenn O’Brien: What was your first work of art?

Andy Warhol: I used to cut out paper dolls.

GO: How old were you?

AW: Seven. 

GO: Did you get good grades in art in school? 

AW: Yeah, I did. The teachers liked me. In grade school, they make you copy pictures from books. I think the first one was Robert Louis Stevenson. 

GO: Did they say you had natural talent?

AW: Something like that. Unnatural talent. Below: Last Supper, 1986, courtesy of Skarstedt Paris

GO: So, how did you decide to become an artist and move to New York? 

AW: I went to Carnegie Tech. Philip Pearlstein was going to New York during a semester break, so I took a shopping bag and we took a bus. We took our portfolios and showed them around New York to see if we could get jobs. The lady from Glamour, Tina Fredericks, said that when I got out of school she’d give me a job. So I got out and came back. That was my first job. She gave me a shoe to do.

GO: What was your ambition? To be an illustrator or a fine artist?

AW: I didn’t have any ambition.

GO: Who was the first artist to influence you?

AW: It must have been Walt Disney. I cut out Walt Disney dolls. It was actually Snow White that influenced me. 

Above: Andy Warhol, The Last Supper (The Big C) (1986); Photo Andrea Solaro/AFP via Getty Images

GO: Do you think there are any great undiscovered artists?

AW: Uh, yeah, there are. But it’s more important to make money now. 

GO: What advice would you give to a young person who wants to become an artist?

AW: I’d just tell them not to be one. They should get into photography or television or something like that. Above: Screen grab from Whitney website, Andy Warhol: The Culture of Now, Episode 1

GO: Do you think the art world is dead?

AW: Oh, yeah. Being a wall painter or a housepainter is better. You make more money as a housepainter. Ten dollars an hour. 

GO: Who do you think is the world’s greatest living artist?

AW: I still think Walt Disney is. 

GO: He’s dead.

AW: I know, but they still have him in plastic, don’t they?

GO: He’s frozen. 

AW: But I really like them all. Rauschenberg and Twombly and Paul Klee. Dead ones, too. And I like American primitive painters. I just like everyone, every group. Grant Wood, Ray Johnson.  

Right: Andy Warhol, Dollar Sign, 1981. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh

GO: Who is the richest artist in the world? 

AW: I’ll bet there are a lot of artists that nobody hears about who just make more money than anybody. The people that do all the sculptures and paintings for big building construction. We never hear about them, but they make more money than anybody.

GO: Have you made millions on art?

AW: It depends on the expenses. 

GO: Has your work gone up in price compared to what you made on it originally?

AW: No, I try to keep it down. I turn out so much. But I stopped for a while. 

GO: To raise the prices?    

AW: No, I just can’t think of anything to do. I get so tired of painting. I’ve been trying to give it up all the time, if we could just make a living out of movies or the newspaper business or something. It’s so boring, painting the same picture over and over. 

GO: Where do you get your ideas for painting these days?

AW: I do mostly portraits. So it’s just people’s faces, not really any ideas.  

GO: Who do you think is the best business artist in the world? 

AW: Christo. He just finished this $2 million project for a foundation. But I’m sure the government’s going to find something wrong with the foundation. It seems so easy. That’s more like a business. It’s like producing something, a big $2 million project. Someone will come along and do a movie like that, a $4 million art movie nobody has to really like. 

GO: But Christo makes money. 

AW: No, he works on a foundation thing. You don’t get paid, you just take out expenses and things. 

GO: Do you think that’s what’s going to happen to art? It’s going to be all foundations and subsidies?

AW: Yeah, that sounds like a nice, new way. It’s the easiest thing. There are a lot of people working on it and it’s up for only two weeks. 

GO: Do you think Picasso was a business artist? 

AW: Yeah, I guess so. He knew what he was doing. 

GO: But who do you think invented the idea?

AW: I think Americans after the war. It was the galleries. Somewhere along the line, someone did it with Picasso, where it started to be more of a product.

GO: Do you wear a wig? 

AW: It says so in my book. 

GO: How many do you have?

AW: Uh, three. The last maid stole one. 

GO: What’s your natural color?

A GO: Do you believe in the American Dream?

AW: I don’t, but I think we can make some money out of it. 

GO: Are rich people different from poor people?

AW: Yes and no. 

GO: Are they happier? 

AW: If they have a dog. 

GO: Can you take it with you?

AW: Everywhere.

GO: Do you think the world can be saved?

AW: No.

GO: Do you think there should be any censorship?

AW: Of course. 

GO: Where should they draw the line?

AW: Things should be more sexual.

GO: Do you have any secrets you’ll tell after everyone’s dead?

AW: If I die, I’m not letting on.

Read the entire interview in Interview

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