Age of Warhol

Bryan Waterman
Arts and Humanities Colloquium
bryan.waterman@nyu.edu
AHC-AD 126, Spring 2016, 4.0 pts.
@_waterman
T Th 2:10-3:25
hours: U 3-5; T 4-5
Campus Center W006
A3 room 109

Professor

Office
Office:

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1967

COURSE DESCRIPTION At the global art market's pre-recession
peak in 2007, American Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) edged
out Pablo Picasso to become the world's highest earning painter at
auction. Although he subsequently ceded that position to Chinese
artists Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957), Warhol
remains one of the most influential forces in contemporary art
worldwide, with worldwide retrospective exhibits and enduring
market presence. From his famous Campbell's soup cans to his
enduring aphorism that "In the future, everyone will be worldfamous for fifteen minutes," Warhol's art and thinking saturate
contemporary culture. This seminar uses his diaries and other
writing as a base line against which we will examine his 25-year
career as a painter, filmmaker, publisher and music producer,
photographer, TV personality, and artistic mentor and collaborator,
as well as his legacy in what has been described as our "Warhol
economy." What can Warhol's output and reception tell us about

class, gender and sexuality, religion, and media over the last halfcentury? And how should we understand his role in the making of
global culture today?
LEARNING OUTCOMES Engaged students will gain a general sense
of artistic movements from 1960 to the present and an in-depth
understanding of Pop and its aftermath; develop the ability to
analyze a range of media (painting, film, prose, photography,
popular music); cultivate an understanding of the relationship
between artistic production and cultural and historical context; and
consider the life and work of an artist deemed among the most
significant in the last century. These outcomes will be assessed
through class discussion, short essays, a substantial research
project, and participation in online community.
REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESMENT
Preparation and participation (15%): This course adopts a
seminar format that depends on the diligent preparation, consistent
attendance, and active contribution of each member. Please read or
view all works on the syllabus before coming to class that day. In
addition to the material you contribute to the course blog, you
should arrive on time at each meeting with several possible topics
and specific art works, film scenes, or passages to discuss, pertinent
questions you would like to raise, or specific points from the
secondary reading that you find illuminating or perplexing. Pay
regular attention to the course blog and engage, where possible,
with the online contributions of your classmates. Consider how you
would like to respond to material from the blog in our next class
meeting. Each member is expected to contribute to the discussion
every time we meet; you may be asked without prior warning to
begin or help redirect a discussion. I reserve the right to administer
reading quizzes without prior warning.
Course blog (10%): Some of our discussion each time we meet will
be driven by works or passages flagged by class members as you go
about your reading. By noon on the day we meet, each class
member will post at least one image, video, or significant quotation
to the course Tumblr http://ageofwarhol.tumblr.com along with a
caption: one or two lines of commentary, a juxtaposed quote from
the reading, or a question for discussion. When you post a video
clip, a photo of an artwork, or a quote from the reading to the
Tumblr, please be sure to include essential information, especially
title and date. You are welcome to reblog material from the sites
dashboard or from #warhol or related tags; if you reblog material
from your classmates or other Tumblr users you must add a caption
that contributes to the commentary briefly but substantively. At the
beginning of each of our meetings I will scroll through the images
posted and well decide together how to use this material to launch

our discussion for the day. Ive set up a Twitter feed, @AgeOfWarhol,
to run alongside the Tumblr. Twitter posts related to the course, from
this account or from your own, should be tagged #AoW16; using
Twitter is not required but will contribute toward your participation
grade. The course blog and Twitter feed will be open to the outside
world and other Warhol bloggers will likely engage with us; please
conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the institution, though
you should also have fun with this assignment. Login information
will be distributed in class.
Short response papers (40%): You will complete a total of six
short essays, 1-2 pages (single-spaced, 12-pt font), in response to
work from different media we consider. The material should analyze
closely the formal and/or material properties, generic or media
conventions, and/or cultural preoccupations of a single work or a
concise passage or scene from a longer piece of prose or film. Your
analysis should move beyond mere description of the work and
explain not just what it includes or what you take it to mean but
how you understand meaning to be produced. Further directions will
be given in class. You are free to refer to secondary material in these
short papers but the primary activity should be your own analysis.
Research paper/final project (35%): I have supplied you with
generous materials in the form of course reading that offer you a
starter kit for any research or creative project related to Warhol or
his era. Drawing on these resources you will write a one-page
proposal for a final paper or project and meet with me individually to
discuss it by April 10. You will meet with me again by May 1 to
discuss your progress. I am willing to review draft material by
appointment during office hours. The papers final draftroughly
6,000 words (13-15 pages)is due via email by 8 PM on Sunday,
May 15; alternately, final projects must be accompanied by a
shorter paper of 2,000 words (4 pages or so). Additional details will
be discussed in class.
PREPARATION STRATEGIES This course includes a large amount
of primary material and a substantial amount of critical and
contextual reading. Some tips for navigating the load successfully:
Take good notes, separately from simply annotating passages or
flagging material with post-its. Write down in your own words what
you take to be the central arguments or key works you reviewed;
what you take the big picture to be for the day (the contexts that
seem to matter most); how you understand critics or scholars to
evaluate various kinds of work as evidence; and how the days
material relates to or changes your view of what weve already
discussed. Are there connections to be made? Arguments to be
contested? Contradictions or conflicts to point out? Always try to
have one big point or major question to contribute if called upon; it
makes most sense for you to connect your Tumblr post to these

considerations. For critical material drawn from book-length works,

you might consider searching out reviews in academic journals to
help you get a handle on the major arguments and stakes involved,
but do not let this substitute for your own reading and evaluation.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY In preparing for course discussion,
searching for material to blog, or writing papers, you will likely find
yourself poking around online about the specific works we study.
Please be mindful that plagiarismthe uncredited incorporation into
your own writing of language or ideas not your ownwill result in a
failing grade for the assignment and possibly, given the
circumstances, for the course. If you have any concerns about
whether work you submit has been plagiarizedintentionally or
unintentionallyplease raise these with me before you submit.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Bourdon, Warhol (Abrams, 1989)
Colacello, Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up (Vintage, 2014 [1990])
Danto, Andy Warhol (Yale, 2009)
Davis, The Trip: Andy Warhols Plastic Fantastic Cross-Country
Adventure (Atria, 2015)
Goldsmith et al., eds., Andy Warhol GIANT Size (Phaidon, 2006)
[AWG]
Goldsmith, ed., Ill Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol
Interviews (Carroll & Graf, 2004) [IBYM]
Hackett, ed., The Andy Warhol Diaries (Grand Central, 1989)
Koestenbaum, Andy Warhol (Open Road, 2015 [2001])
McLuhan and Fiore, The Medium Is the Massage (Ginko, 2001
[1967])
Patell, Some Girls (Continuum, 2011)
Warhol, a: A Novel (Grove, 1998 [1968])
Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (Harcourt, 1975)
Warhol and Hackett, POPism: The Warhol Sixties (Mariner, 2006
[1980])
Waterman, Marquee Moon (Continuum, 2011)
Readings marked [C] will be made available via NYU Classes
SCHEDULE (subject to change)
Andy and the Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of
Th Jan. 28: Please look at the following ASAP:
Louis Menand, A Critic at Large, Top of the Pops, The New Yorker,
January 11, 2010, p. 57 [full text available through NYU Libraries];
Bryan Appleyard, A One Man Market, More Intelligent Life,
Nov./Dec. 2011; Jed Perl, The Wildly Over-rated Andy Warhol, The

New Republic, Aug. 22, 2012; Heather Corcoran, Andy Warhols 15

Minutes of Market Fame May Never End, Artsy, Dec. 16, 2015
Once you have received your books for the semester, and before
our first meeting, please read and carefully review the artwork
reproduced in the following: Hickey, Andy and the Dreams That
Stuff Is Made Of and Goldsmith, Success Is a Job in New York
[AWG]; Bourdon, The Kid from Pittsburgh, Success Is a Job in New
York, & If the Shoe Fits
Inventing Andy Warhol
T Feb. 2: Watch before class: Ric Burns, dir. Andy Warhol: A
Documentary Film pt 1
Danto, chs 1-2; Davis, intro through ch 5
Th Feb. 4: Karp, Andy Starts to Paint & Dalton, Matinee Idols
[AWG]; Bourdon, Nosing His Way, Pow! & Stir Up
Controversy; Wolf, intro to Ill Be Your Mirror [IBYM]
Pop: Precedents & Politics
T Feb. 9: Watch before class: De Antonio, Painters Painting
From IBYM, pp. 3-20; Davis, chs 6-17; Hopkins, Art After
Modernism, chs 2 & 4 [C]
Th Feb. 11: Watch before class: Branca, Whats Happening
Danto, ch 3; Bourdon, Black Fancies and Thoughts of Death;
Andreas Husseyn, The Cultural Politics of Pop [C]; Hal Foster,
Death in America [C]
Su Feb. 14: Painting analysis due via email by noon
Film/Factory
T Feb. 16: Watch before class: Warhols Cinema: A Mirror for the
Sixties & Eat
Davis, chs 18-20; Goldsmith, Filmmaking [AWG]; Danto, ch.
4; Ekstract, Pop Goes the Videotape, from IBYM, pp. 71-78;
Bourdon, Sweet Dreams of Cinematic Glory
Th Feb. 18: Watch before class: Warhol, Empire [10 min clip] & Kiss
Malanga, Interview with Andy Warhol on EMPIRE, from IBYM,
pp. 53-58; Koestenbaum, ch 3; Crimp, Epilogue: Warhols
Time [C]
T Feb. 23: Watch before class: selected Screen Tests [details TBA]

Crimp, Face Value [C]; Dalton, Matinee Idol & Goldsmith,

The Silver Factory [AWG]; Bourdon, Star-struck Wizard;
Berg, Andy Warhol: My True Story, from IBYM, pp. 85-96.
Film analysis due in class
Words
Th Feb. 25: New York School poetry packet [C]; Kane, The
Aesthetics of the Little [C]; Wolf, Andy Warhol, Poetry, and
Gossip in the 1960s, chs 3-4 [C]
T Mar. 1: Warhol, a: A Novel [through p. 282; consult Bockriss
readers guide on p. 454]; Tillman, The Last Words are Andy
Warhol [C]
Th Mar. 3: Warhol, a: A Novel [to the end]
Kotz, Conclusion & Mulroney, Editing Andy Warhol [C], &
selection from Dworkin, Whereof One Cannot Speak [C]
T Mar. 8: Warhol, POPism [through 1966]
Th Mar. 10: Warhol, POPism [to the end]; Stadler, My Wife: The
Tape Recorder and Warhols Queer Ways of Listening [C]
Prose analysis due in class

Happenings & Happenings

T Mar. 15: Listen before class: Kaprow, How to Make a Happening LP
Kaprow, Happenings on the New York Scene & The
Happenings Are Dead: Long Live the Happenings! [C]; Joseph,
My Mind Split Open: Andy Warhols Exploding Plastic
Inevitable
Th Mar. 17: No class. Possible trip to Art Dubai?
SPRING BREAK: No class Mar. 22 & 24
Sa Mar. 26: Listen before class: The Velvet Underground and Nico
Bockris and Malanga, Up-Tight, pp. 6-41, 66-89 [C]; Bourdon,
Electric Nights; Savage, A Mirror Reflection: Andy Warhol,
The VU, and 1966 [C]
Song analysis due in class
Warholism
T Mar. 29: Watch before class: Harron, dir. I Shot Andy Warhol (1998)
Bourdon, Gunshots in the Afternoon; Danto, ch. 5: The First
Death; start reading Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Th Mar. 31: Watch before class: Burns, dir. Andy Warhol: A
Documentary Film pt 2
Warhol, Philosophy of Andy Warhol; Mulroney, Id Recognize
Your Voice Anywhere [C]; Colacello, Philosophy On Tour
[Note: Colacellos entire memoir is available as an audiobook,
read by the author, here scroll down]
T Apr. 5: Listen before class: Bowie playlist
Killen, Warholism [C]; Colacello, chs 1, 4, 7, 8, 13, 17;
Peraino, Plumbing the Surface of Sound and Vision
Th Apr. 7: Listen before class: Television, Marquee Moon; Rolling
Stones, Some Girls
Selections from Waterman, Marquee Moon & Patell, Some
Girls; Lott, Sound + Vision: Andys Mick
Warholism response exercise due in class
Su Apr. 10: Deadline by which you need to have met with me to
discuss your research proposal, which you should bring to the
meeting.
Portraits of the 70s

T Apr. 12: Goldsmith, Polaroids and Portraits [AWG]; Colacello,

Portraits and Ads [C]; Bourdon, Taking the Beautiful People
at Face Value; Flatley, Warhol Gives Good Face [C];
Koestenbaum, ch 6
Th Apr. 14: Deitch, Lives catalog; Danto, ch. 6: Andy Warhol
Enterprises; Bourdon, The Shadows Lengthen; Colacello,
Holy Terror, chs. 33-36 [C]; Waterman, Andy Warhol in
Tehran [C]; Harron, Pop Art/Art Pop: The Andy Warhol
Connection
T Apr. 19: Hackett, ed. The Andy Warhol Diaries (selections TBA)
Th Apr. 21: Hackett, ed. The Andy Warhol Diaries (selections TBA)
T Apr 26: Hackett, ed. The Andy Warhol Diaries (selections TBA)
Diaries analysis due in class
Th Apr 28: Goldsmith, Infallible Processes [C]; selections from
Goldsmith, Capital (TBA)
**Class visit from Kenneth Goldsmith**
Su May 1: Deadline by which you need to have met with me to
discuss progress on your research project
Last Call
T May 3: Watch before class: Schnabel, Basquiat; clip from State of
the Art; clips from Andy Warhols TV and Andy Warhols 15
Minutes on YouTube
Munoz, Famous and Dandy like B. n Andy [C]; Bishofberger,
Last Call [AWG]; Buchloh, An Interview with Andy Warhol,
from IBYM, pp. 321-32.
Th May 5: No class: Isra & Miraj holiday
T May 10: Hackett, ed. The Andy Warhol Diaries, 788-807; Bourdon,
Through the Reflecting Glass; Taylor, The Last Interview,
from IBYM, pp. 382-94; Koestenbaum, ch 7
Th May 12: Danto, ch. 7: Religion and Common Experience;
Colacello, Epilogue: Andy Is Everywhere [C]; De Villiers,
What Do You Have to Say For Yourself?: Warhols Opacity
SUNDAY MAY 15, 8 pm, Deadline for final paper/project