Time Capsule 21:
Artist Friends

People from all walks of life orbited Warhol’s world, including many artists, filmmakers, and musicians – all those engaged in the creative arts. He collected artwork by famous artists such as Jasper Johns, and often exchanged works with artist friends. The Time Capsules feature many invitations to exhibition openings, photographs of other artists, and occasionally artwork and artist’s books. Famous artists even gave Warhol gifts that he put in the boxes, including a bag full of the used painter’s palettes of Salvador Dali.

Ephemera/Collectibles

Front cover of an accordian style artist print book. It has the words “Frasconi Kaleidoscope” spelled out in white letters on blue, red, and black squares. The word “in woodcuts” is written beneath in black. — Antonio Frasconi, Kaleidoscope in Woodcuts (front view of accordion fold artist print book), 1968
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
TC21.51a-b

TC21 Object: Antonio Frasconi, Kaleidoscope in Woodcuts (front view of accordion fold artist print book), 1968

This artist’s book, perhaps purchased by Warhol or given to him as a gift, features illustrations by Antonio Frasconi, an internationally known woodcut artist who published hundreds of prints and illustrated many books.

Open view of an accordian style artist print book, pulled open to display various individual artworks. Some images include a black hand-drawn outline of a hand, four different portraits of man, and a portrait of a small child. — Antonio Frasconi, Kaleidoscope in Woodcuts (open view of accordion fold artist print book), 1968
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
TC21.51a-b

TC21 Object: Antonio Frasconi, Kaleidoscope in Woodcuts (open view of accordion fold artist print book), 1968

Warhol’s interest in artist’s books such as this is reflected in his own publications throughout the 1950s, which featured his own writings, illustrations, artwork and other materials. In 1967, Warhol produced his first artist’s book in his Pop style, Andy Warhol’s Index (Book).

TC21 Object: Exhibition announcement (Group exhibition / Leo Castelli Gallery, February, 1964)

Front of an exhibition announcement for a group exhibition featuring Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Chamberlain dated February 1964, at the Leo Castelli Gallery.

TC21 Object: Invoice (from Leo Castelli Gallery to Andy Warhol, May 8, 1961)

Invoice indicating a $200 balance due, from Leo Castelli Inc. to Andy Warhol, dated May 8, 1961 for the purchase of Jasper Johns’ Light Bulb drawing.

Marie Menken and Willard Maas

A faded, sepia-toned polaroid picture of a woman with short hair on the left resting her head on a shorter man with dark hair to the right. — Marie Menken and Willard Maas, 1963
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
TC21 73.51

TC21 Object: Marie Menken and Willard Maas, 1963

In the 1950s, painter and filmmaker Marie Menken and her husband, filmmaker and poet Willard Maas, founded the Gryphon Group (which also included Stan Brakhage, Charles Boultenhouse, Gregory Markopolous, Ben Moore, and Charles Henri Ford) as a cooperative organization to further the production and distribution of independently made films. Menken’s stop-motion film Andy Warhol (1965) and Maas’ Andy Warhol’s Silver Flotations (1966) both focus on Andy Warhol. Menken was also in Warhol’s films, The Life of Juanita Castro (1965), and The Chelsea Girls (1966). Warhol also did a Screen Test of both Menken and Maas (1965 & 1966).

Screen Test: Marie Menken [ST215] (1966)

Andy Warhol
Screen Test: Marie Menken [ST215] (1966)
16mm film, black and white, silent, 4 minutes at 16 frames per second
Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1997
©2019 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Reproduction or downloading is prohibited.

Screen Test: Willard Maas, [ST197] (1965)

Andy Warhol
Screen Test: Willard Maas [ST197] (1965)
16mm film, black and white, silent, 4 minutes at 16 frames per second
Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1997
©2019 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Reproduction or downloading is prohibited.

“…the last of the great bohemians. They wrote and filmed and drank (their friends called them ‘scholarly drunks’) and were involved with all the modern poets…. She filmed lots of short movies, some of them with Willard, and she even did one on a day in my life.”

Andy Warhol, POPism: The Warhol '60s, 1980

Les Levine

TC21 Object: Envelope and exhibition announcement (The Troubles: An Artist's Document of Ulster / Museum of Mott Art, December 12, 1972 - January 21, 1973)

Warhol’s biographer and friend David Bourdon was a close friend of Conceptual artist Les Levine, who was born in 1935 in Dublin, Ireland, and who now lives in New York City. Alongside such figures as Nam June Paik and Steina Vasulka, Les Levine is regarded as a pioneer of video and media art, producing his first videotapes in 1964. Since then, he has created environments, installations, sculptures, and mass media campaigns, often exploiting the language of advertising to question the state of art and culture. His work is included in many international collections. His interest in art as a tool to explore social issues is reflected in this photographic series from the 1970s documenting the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, entitled The Troubles: An Artist’s Document of Ulster.

Time Capsule 21: Artist Friends