Another of my favorite Warhol limited editions, bad image of it though. The loveliest shade of pink with the loveliest shade of yellow on white; it sold quickly every time we had it to sell. I've gotten sidetracked talking about the work when I promised you some gossip. Fred Hughes used to have nuclear meltdown fights with Ed Hayes, who's a very scary dude, in fact just typing his name curls my hair. Google him, you'll see why.

The thing is, some of Warhol's work, like this San Francisco Silverspot from the Endangered Species series, are really quite beautiful. We had this at the gallery forever, and I never understand why people would buy the Dracula, or even the Paramount or Mobil Gas, all which are highly sought after, when they could have this glorious creation on their wall.

Odd choice, perhaps, but it is work like this that confuses people about Warhol's relevance. I have a stack of postcards of this image that have little packs of the perfume glued to back. And just to be belligerent, I've used a few of them for the scent. Fred Hughes would've been horrified, shocked and appalled, but Andy would've just laughed. We had one of these at the gallery where I used to work and it was, in fact, gorgeous.

This was the first Warhol I ever sold, from the Martha Graham suite. Very exciting moment in my career, the guy who bought it didn't know who Martha was, imagine that, and couldn't have cared less about the artist. He just liked it. My kind of customer, thinking with his heart.

A Farewell to Dapper Fred Hughes: He Oversaw Andy's Factory Empire

A Farewell to Dapper Fred Hughes: He Oversaw Andy's Factory Empire

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Another office that I sat in at the Warhol Foundation had this looming over my desk; this is where I was sitting when I first met the infamous Fred Hughes, which somehow seems appropriate. He was Andy's best friend and introduced him to all the socialites who paid gazillions of dollars for their portraits. He also suffered from MS and was always in the foulest, angriest mood imaginable. The Foundation building was made up of several townhouses that had walls knock out so there were odd staircases everywhere and Fred, in his velvet slippers, had to be carried up and down them by one of the art-handlers who all hated him. I have added his obituary above since it says it better than I ever could.

In the ten months I worked as a curator's assistant at the Andy Warhol Foundation, I sat in a variety of offices depending on whose project was most pressing. I input the data the curators collected and created text to go along with it for the Christie's Auction catalogue. I had access to an amazing library of reference books, and sat among some remarkable pieces of art. For a while I sat across from one of the enormous Double Silver Elvis paintings, and it was glorious. Right next to that desk was one of those little Liz Taylor prints that was heartbreakingly beautiful.

An alternate version of the St George and the Dragon, there are actually four versions but I only like the two I'm posting here. Fussy. Definitely. Funny how the damsel in distress has a different facial expression, just by changing the colors that surround her. Perhaps she's a chameleon.

One of my favorite Warhols, from a suite of silkscreens based on Italian Renaissance paintings. This one's source is St. George and the Dragon, and I love that wing and tail and her expression. I have a lot of history with Andy Warhol, never met the man, but he was just getting started with his supernova career when I was in art school and held up as an example, and then much later, after his death, I worked as a curator's assistant at the Warhol Foundation's office while they were preparing his substantial archives for the big Christie's auction. Madhouse, I have to say. Very fabulous, but the cast of characters and their never ending personal dramas were fascinating. Lots of juicy gossip, but not tonight.

One last Keith Haring angel, this time it's one of the original subway drawings from 1984. Has his barking dogs, standing up like Egyptian god of the dead Anubis, as a hand of the Judeo-Christian god plucks at the angel's wings. I took the #6 home from work at this point in time and the Bleecker Street stop, close to where he lived in the Village, was one of the places he liked to draw. I'd look forward to seeing what was new, I remember the spaceships more than anything else he was doing.

One more Keith Haring, the Batman from the Icon Suite. It's actually a nickname of an old friend of his, who now deals in Haring's subway drawings because he used to preserve them after Keith was arrested for doing graffiti. (Yes, it was an off to the hoosegow offense back in those days.) He, Batman, used to race around on roller skates wearing a cape.

Here's the Icon Suite Angel I mentioned in yesterday's post about Keith Haring. He looks like he's clicking his heels. The funny thing about Keith Haring is most people think of his work as the wiggly baby, the barking dog and the funny little men, when it's in fact primarily flat out pornographic, and when it's not about gay sex, it's gruesomely violent.

And Keith Haring did angels as well, this one, painted on a large tarp with grommets to hang it with, is called the Angel Dolphin, and is pretty typical of his angels. There's a very nice limited edition suite of embossings that had color silk-screened on some of the sets that have a yellow angel like this one, only it has legs instead of a fish tail. The suite, titled The Icons, also has a Barking Dog, a Radiant Baby and a Batman that is often mistaken for an angel because of his bat wings.

And there you have it, an angel by Basquiat. With wings and a halo, and his crown graffiti tag, so this is not a self-portrait. Very much a male though, with lots of fingers and toes. Not nearly as beautiful as Cabesa, or as powerful as Ernok, but a Basquiat angel nonetheless.

Another Basquiat, commonly known as Cabesa. Also considered a self-portrait. This is a very small numbered limited edition serigraph from an original painting that had been done on a packing quilt, which gave it that chevron pattern in the background. We had a few of these over the three and a half years I was at the gallery in Soho. I'd start my day standing in front of it, I swear to you that it was incredibly beautiful.

Ernok, by Jean-Michel Basquiat, no crown, his graffiti tag, so it's most likely a self-portrait. I know exactly how he, Ernok, Basquiat, if this is a self-portrait, feels. I had a meeting this evening in a room at the YMCA where middle school kids have art classes; and on the wall were some drawings of things they love - a poodle, several cheeseburgers, some superheroes, and one page with the letters, BASQUIAT. Imagine that.

Yeowza, three days in a row. This is Cosmo, who, if you've followed this blog from the beginning, you've seen before. Did it long before I saw the Haring - Burroughs Valley Suite, but I can see a similarity. Round head, up in arms, this is one of the paper pulp paintings I did right after 9/11.

Two days in a row, but don't get used to this, it won't last. As promised, this is the etching I ended up with from the Keith Haring collaboration with William Burroughs Valley Suite. It's said to be a portrait of old Bill as a DJ of sorts, and while there no wings, it frankly is the better piece.

Okay, I'm back, and I notice I've lost one of my followers. Ah well, such is life, my other blog of photographs is chugging along nicely. Alex at Opla Plaza did a post about one of my angels today so it's time to get back here. The problem is I haven't had time to paint so instead I'll put up some things that have influenced me. These etchings are by Keith Haring from The Valley Suite he did with William Burroughs. I coveted the one above when we had them at the art gallery where I used to work and I spoke so highly of it to client that they bought it from me with the one below as a pair. Taught me a valuable lesson about revealing my favorites, next post I'll show you what I got instead as its replacement.