from The New York Times

Warhol-mania: Why the Famed Pop Artist Is Everywhere Again

Andy Warhol is currently the subject of a Netflix documentary series, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and multiple theatrical works.

By Laura Zornosa

“The Andy Warhol Diaries,” now on Netflix, is based on the artist’s own recorded thoughts about his life and career.
“The Andy Warhol Diaries,” now on Netflix, is based on the artist’s own recorded thoughts about his life and career.Credit…Andy Warhol Foundation, via Netflix

Andy Warhol left behind a lot of self portraits.

There was the black-and-white shot from a photo booth strip, from 1963, in which he wore dark black shades and a cool expression. In 1981, he took a Polaroid of himself in drag, with a platinum blond bob and bold red lips. Five years later, he screen-printed his face, with bright red acrylic paint, onto a black background. These and other images of the Pop Art master rank among his best-known works.

But one of his most telling self portraits wasn’t a portrait at all, in a conventional sense. Between 1976 and 1987, the artist regularly dictated his thoughts, fears, feelings and opinions — about art, himself and his world — over the phone to his friend and collaborator Pat Hackett. In 1989, two years after his death, Hackett published “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” a transcribed, edited and condensed version of their phone calls.

And now, more than three decades later, “The Andy Warhol Diaries” has come to Netflix as a bittersweet documentary series directed by Andrew Rossi. In a video interview, the director pointed out that Warhol had intended for the book to be published after he died.

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