Democracy Speaks!

At tonight's talk, Hickey played the role of raconteur extreme as only a participant in the early Factory scene (as Hickey was) with Andy Warhol could pull off.  The reason for Hickey's invite to the Nasher was in support of the museum's current exhibition, "Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids."

Early on in the talk, Hickey mentioned that he himself, along with his then-girlfriend, had been photographed somewhere in the nebulous sea of Polaroids that constantly flowed from Warhol's camera. Warhol would typically make two pictures of any one portrait shot:  one for his use, and another to give to the subject as a gift.   Hickey noted that immediately upon receiving his Polaroid, he promptly took it to a local drug dealer friend and traded for an ounce of coke.  Such were the days at the Factory when Warhol confidantes, assistants, artists, musicians, collectors, gallerists, hipsters and seemingly random passers-by all were an endless flow of subject matter and a marvelous cross section of certain segments of New York cosmopolitanism.

Certain recurring themes did come up in the talk:  the battle of mid 19^th-century American Fundamentalism versus Thomas Paine's societal ideals and the concept of American cool versus European irony in particular.  These are themes that remain on Hickey's mind in general more than they were specific to a talk on Warhol.  I was especially glad when Hickey responded to an audience member's questions about the darker side of Warhol--disaster images and electric chair paintings and the like.  Hickey's response was that Warhol had become so embittered about the demands of his own celebrity that it gave rise to an anger about how people would bow down to any of the artist's requests which he found especially demeaning on their part.   The Factory could be a dark place, and I often wonder if casual museum-goers realize this when looking at Warhol's Flowers, Brillo boxes or Marilyn paintings.

In the end, Hickey's talk was not so much about the Polaroids per se as it was about the aura of the Factory and how Warhol fits into American culture in general.  To have been at the Factory back in the day must have really been something.  But to hear Hickey riff on it is also something in itself.