Word: warhols
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This theory of art as an object turns every object into potential art. As one philosopher, Columbia Professor Arthur C. Danto, admits: "What in the end makes Rauschenberg's real beds streaked with paint and Warhol's Brillo boxes art is the theory. Without the theory, one is unlikely to see them as art." This does not satisfy all the critics. Says the Observer's Nigel Gosling: "Take a table and put it into a gallery, then it's art. But take eight of them and put them into a gallery, then...
...situation has produced a new kind of patron. "Most collectors today are not just satisfied with buying art, they want to buy a piece of the artist as well," grumbles one dissenter. "They want to belong to the art world, go see dirty movies at night at Andy Warhol's apartment." And Warhol in turn becomes a feature of gossip columns and a fixture at society's tables. Any day now he may be wrapped in plaster by the plaster master, George Segal, and propped against the bar in somebody's penthouse...
...Chelsea Girls. Andy Warhol, the 38-year-old poppa of pop art, is also the Cecil B. DeSade of underground cinema. In the past 3½ years he has made over 60 films that range in length from three minutes to eight hours and in depth from below the belt to beneath discussion. Such films have traditionally been shown in private or at pot-art parties, but Chelsea Girls is currently on view for a $3 admission charge at a mid-Manhattan theater. What the customers are seeing is a very dirty and a very dull peep show. Or rather...
...Warhol's ironic attitude conveys to us that he is above the level of everything he films. In The Chelsea Girls, Warhol shows a condescending attitude todard his characters, illustrated by his willingness to let them overplay and caricature themselves. That is why the camera repeatedly zooms in on the jiggling breasts of the fat lesbian while she phones-in her order for 300 caps of acid. In her way, she's very funny. Warhol lets you enjoy her as long as you give him the credit for seeing her first...
...characters in The Chelsea Girls are also frightening, of course, because they are bizarre and sometimes depraved. But they don't scare Warhol, because he has passed through and beyond the level of their trapped existence. By imposing no order of his material, Warhol appears sure of himself and indifferent to his audience. The Chelsea Girls is therefore too much a self-celebration, and not really relevant to modern life...