Pop Goes Andy: Warhol Live!

Feb 23, 2009

While I have no plans to officially participate in the Facebook 25 Random Things About Me survey, I will share two brief things:

1) The soundtrack to my college years was informed by The Velvet Underground.

2) Quite shamelessly, I adore (but try to avoid) finger-food that consists of highly-processed, non-organic and hyper-packaged foodstuffs such as mini-grilled cheese, pigs-in-a-blanket and Strawberry Pop-Tarts.

So it was a little slice of psychedelic heaven at the De Young on Saturday for the opening-night party celebrating the museum’s Warhol Live exhibition.

A colorful, quirky and sold-out crowd (many dressed as Andy, Edie and Mick) populated the center of Wilsey Court where the Un-Authorized Rolling Stones rocked the house.

The exhibition explores the relationship of rock ‘n’ roll and celebrity within the world of Andy Warhol and its effect upon art created by this Prince of Pop.

Set to a sizzling soundtrack (the Rolling Stones, Deborah Harry, the Velvet Underground, Grace Jones) the show recreates famous locations that inspired Warhol’s career -- including the Factory, Studio 54 and the hippie-esqe Exploding Plastic Inevitable Room which features a light show cascading over a giant bed covered with pillows.

“Visitors can actually lie on that bed just like people used to do when Andy and the Velvet Underground created spaces for “happenings” at their concerts,” explained the museum’s Jill Lynch. “Of course, we hope that’s all they do!”

In Andy’s world, pretty much any topic was worthy of re-creation and repetition from videos of people sleeping, photo-booths, album covers, silkscreen portraits and Brillo boxes to the ephemera of Warhol’s storied nightlife such as Studio 54 VIP passes.

Fine Arts Museums Director John Buchanan and his wife, Lucy Buchanan

“What is so fascinating about Warhol is his works are so multi-dimensional,” said Fine Arts Museums Director John Buchanan. “Warhol would focus on everyday objects and then translate common ideas into works of art.”

Which made for a lot of fun, and a lot of “googling,” when McCall Executive Chef Lucas Schoemaker and McCall Managing Partner Arnie Ertola dreamed up the menu for this Pop Party.

Tables groaned beneath such calorie-rific dishes such as pigs-in-a-blanket, mini grilled cheese sandwiches, donut holes, peanut butter and banana sandwiches and packages of freshly processed Pop Tarts.

“Warhol was a commercial artist at a time when the kinds of food we have tonight were popular,” said Ertola, with a laugh and a shrug.

And though dainty demitasse cups of tomato soup were passed out in the Piazzoni VIP room, Team McCall does have certain standards.

“I’ve never tasted Campbell’s in my life,” explained Chef Schoemaker, of his from-scratch soup. “So there was no way I was going to serve it tonight!”

Check out the photos below.