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Two years afterthe unexpected death of Andy Warhol in February 1987, Douglas Crimp
the Museum of Modern Art moved to consolidate his reputation as one of
the greatest artists of the second half of the twentiethcentury. The huge
retrospectiveexhibitionof Warhol's paintings seemed dedicated, as if once
and for all, to the idea of "Warhol as Art History," as the titleof one of the
catalog essays forthrightlyput it.1 This constrictingof Warhol's cultural
complexity was already evident a year earlier, when the Dia Art Founda-
tion devoted one of its series of discussions in contemporary culture to
"The Work of Andy Warhol." The five papers and discussion that fol-
lowed sought, in varying ways, to situate Warhol art historically; the
purely disciplinary picture of Warhol presented by the symposium is cap-
tured in Gary Garrels's synopsis introducing the published proceedings:
Social Text59, Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer 1999. CopyrightC 1999 by Duke UniversityPress.
50 Douglas Crimp
The necessity of the word visual attached to this area of study for
Foster and Krauss is not, however, its conservative association with the
prerogatives of high modernism but its radical association with the most
advanced stage of consumer capitalism. In the Octoberspecial issue, this
association is firstposed as one of the four questions submittedto respon-
dents:
When we read Krauss's and Foster's essays in the journal, we learn that
this question-statement, really-is an abstract of the argument they put
forward. Their argument runs something like this: The next stage of
global capitalism is characterized by ever greater alienation of experience
wrought by the revolution in cybernetics, in which everythingmust be
dematerialized and digitized in order to be readily consumed. Visual stud-
52 Douglas Crimp
54 Douglas Crimp
56 Douglas Crimp
58 Douglas Crimp
60 Douglas Crimp
Meanwhile, New York City was assiduously cleaning up its act for the
upcoming 1964 World's Fair. Village coffeehousesand off-off-Broadway
theaterswere shuttered;Times Square tango palaces and taxi dance halls
wereclosed;LennyBruce was bustedforobscenityat theCaf&A-Go-Go...
On February 17, 1964, both the GramercyArts and the Pocket Theater,
whichhad been showingavant-gardefilmssince December,wereshutdown
by the police. [Jonas]Mekas moved his "Film-Makers'Showcase" down-
townto the BoweryTheater on St. Mark's Place in the East Village.Then,
all hell brokeloose. On Monday, March 3, two detectivesfromthe district
attorney'sofficebrokeup a screeningof [JackSmith's]FlamingCreatures,
S. . impoundingthe film,some [ofJackSmith's]NormalLove rushes,and
Warhol's Normal Love "newsreel,"along with the theater'sprojectorand
screen.Mekas, projectionistKen Jacobs,and two otherswerearrested.Ten
days later,Mekas was arrestedagain, this time for showingJean Genet's
1950 short,Un Chant d'Amour. .. as a benefitforthe FlamingCreatures
defensefund.
The same day in Los Angeles,Mike Getz was foundguiltyof having
"exhibitedan obscene film,"[KennethAnger's]ScorpioRising,March 7 at
the Cinema Theater. ...
During the springof 1964, the undergroundnearlywentunder.33
62 Douglas Crimp
Notes
1. RobertRosenblum,"Warholas ArtHistory,"
in AndyWarhol:
A Retro-
ed. KynastonMcShine(New York:Museumof ModernArt,1989),
spective,
25-37.
2. GaryGarrels, to TheWork
introduction ed. GaryGarrels
ofAndyWarhol,
(Seattle:Bay,1989),x-xi.
3. "Discussion," in Garrels,The WorkofAndyWarhol,124.
4. SimonWatney,"The WarholEffect,"in Garrels,The WorkofAndy
Warhol,118.
64 Douglas Crimp
66 Douglas Crimp