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Uncle Andy's
A " faabbbulous visit" with
Andy Warhol in New York
Andy Warhol’s nephew Jamie Warhola has created a children’s
book that art-loving adults will steal from their kids.
Warhola, 47 and a resident of Tivoli, New York, where he
lives with his family, has worked as an illustrator for more than 20 years,
but this is the first time he has both illustrated and written the story.
Recently released by GP Putnam’s Sons, the book is
called Uncle Andy’s and it works
on many levels. While five-year-olds will love it for its bright pictures
and simple sentences, art scholars will enjoy it for intimate details about
Andy Warhol’s life behind the closed doors of his New York brownstone. In
the end, Warhola clearly conveys a message that will be understood by both
kindergarteners and art aficionados: Everything is art in some way or
another.
This is an idea that Jamie Warhola grasped early. He
learned it first not from his famous Uncle Andy, but from his father, Paul,
the oldest of the three Warhola brothers. Paul owned a junkyard outside of
Pittsburgh and this is where Warhola begins his story, set in August 1962
when Jamie was seven years old.
The opening pages show the junkyard to the reader,
making it seem like a magic kingdom filled with art materials. Paul is
pragmatic about the detritus, mining it for aluminum, copper, brass, and
steel. But he also likes to assemble his finds into fabulous sculptures.
While father and son have fun with these acts of creation, Mom is always
yelling, “For Pete’s sake, Paul, quit junking up the house!”
One day Paul decides to pack Mom and their six kids into
the beat-up family station wagon and head to New York City to visit Andy
and Bubba – otherwise known as Julia Warhola – the family matriarch who
lived in Manhattan with her youngest son for nearly 20 years.
It’s quite thrilling to turn the page from the
Pennsylvania junkyard portion of the story to the double-spread of midtown
Manhattan, circa 1962. Working in pastels in a pleasantly realistic style
full of color and motion, Warhola captures the feeling of hectic New
York. In addition, he adds telling
little details about the world that influenced Andy Warhol at the time: the
store I Miller with its beautiful shoes, a billboard for Coca-Cola, an
advertisement for Campbell’s soup plastered on the side of a tall building.
Soon the family shows up – unannounced – at Andy
Warhol’s “huge black door.”
The author tells us that while Uncle Andy “was very,
very surprised,” “Bubba drowned us with wet kisses as she always did and
fixed us a dinner of salamis, breads, and cheeses.” It’s a sentence that
speaks volumes about Julia Warhola’s sweet nature.
In a phone interview, the author/illustrator said that
these unplanned visits took place every few months for years. “Andy always
took it in stride. He never showed any negativity,” Warhola says. “He was playful
and engaging. It was a side of him many people never knew about.” The rest
of the book details the family’s stay in the fabulous house and the
discovery that, just like Dad, Uncle Andy collected junk and called it art.
Warhola’s painted renderings of the home Andy Warhol
shared with his mother are fascinating and revealing. We’re shown a cutaway
view of the Upper East Side brownstone’s five floors, from cellar to attic,
with Bubba’s rooms on the first floor and the artist’s studio above it. In
vivid detail we see Andy Warhol’s 25 cats – all named Sam – as well as his
cookie jars, antiques, towers of painted soup boxes, and canvases the young
Warhola boys helped their uncle to stretch.
We’re also told about the time, “Maddie surprised Uncle
Andy by going into his room a little too early. He let out a shriek because
he didn’t have his wig on yet!” These are the little insider details that
art fans will love. Kids, on the other hand, will just be charmed by the
picture of the whole Warhola klan wearing funny white wigs.
Charm is more than abundant in Uncle Andy’s, Warhola’s first effort as both illustrator and
author. A 1977 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Warhola’s first
illustration, a representation of the fourth river flowing beneath Pittsburgh’s
three rivers, appeared in CARNEGIE magazine in the mid-70s.
Jamie Warhola says that Andy Warhol always made sure his
nephew had paints, brushes, and sketch pads. That investment has been
returned in a book that pays tribute not just to a great artist…but to a
great uncle.
Hersch by Hersch
Tuesday, April 29, 7:30 pm
The Andy Warhol Museum theater
"The most
talked-about young composer in America"
-- The New Yorker
The Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project concludes its
successful season at The Andy Warhol Museum with the much-anticipated
program, “Hersch by Hersch.” The highlight of the evening will feature
gifted young composer Michael Hersch performing his own solo piano works.
Hersch’s list of credits would be impressive for a
musician twice his age; at 30 years old, his output and accolades are
nearly astonishing. The New Yorker
called Hersch “the most talked-about young composer in America.” The Washington Post said he
“combines a mixture of urgency and facility that is dazzling.” Other descriptions
of Hersch’s music include: “shattering intensity,” "devastating
emotional impact,” and “extraordinarily communicative.” Symphony Magazine wrote of him in
1999: “It’s jaw-droppingly apparent what all the hubbub is about.”
Hersch has received numerous prestigious commissions and
has had his compositions performed at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan,
the Tanglewood Music Center and the RomaEuropa Festival, to name just a few
venues. Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony performed his Ashes of Memory at New York’s
Carnegie Hall in March 2001, and Hersch will appear with the Pittsburgh
Symphony at Heinz Hall in April.
Also promised on the Hersch by Hersch bill are a vigorous Oboe
Quintet by Mozart and tuneful Selections
from Eight Pieces, Opus 83,
by Bruch..
The Pittsburgh
Chamber Music Project is sponsored by The Heinz Endowments.
For more information, call 412.237.8300.
Off the Wall in March and April
The Off the Wall
series of cutting-edge performance art is a collaboration between The Andy
Warhol Museum and New York's P.S. 122, a national pioneer in presenting
performance art.
Jennifer Monson: Keeper
Saturday,
March 8 at 8 p.m.
Dancer and choreographer Jennifer Monson explores
"excavation" in her ongoing
solo project, Keeper. Excavation disrupts, uncovers, and
exposes physical, historical and emotional layers, and Monson has developed an array of movement
characters, culled from years of solo practice, that delve into the
singularity of self, etching an energetic signature of movement. The
performance will consider the interruption of oneself to reveal the
unexpected - to dig one’s own grave, exploring the disruption and
transformation of time and space through movement.
Monson original approach to experimental dance forms in
New York City since 1983 involves a collaboration with dancers, composers
and artists. Her work has been presented at many international venues, and
been honored often in the field of dance.
Miranda July
Saturday, April 12,
8 p.m.
Miranda July is
comfortable both in front of a crowd and behind the scenes of the most
contemporary underground art.
She'll take her place in the spotlight at The Andy Warhol Museum
when she presents her work-in-progress, How
I Learned to Draw, as the season-closer of the museum’s Off the Wall series.
Her video Nest of Tens was included in the
2002 Whitney Biennial and her work has been screened at museums and
festivals internationally. How I
Learned to Draw is described as a work-in-progress in six parts. July
says she will use the audience, sound, video, prayer, levitation, and
herself to build each part. Her goal, she says, is proving the existence of
a better parallel world that lives in the heart of the viewer.
Single tickets are $15; $10 for students. Seating is
open and not assigned. A meet-the-artist reception will follow each
performance. All tickets are sold through The Andy Warhol Museum at
412.237.8300. For information call 412.237.8300.
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