Photographer Christophe von Hohenberg Unveils his New Exhibition Remembering Warhol: Thirty Years Ago.
30-Year Anniversary Culminates With a Special Warhol Celebration of His Life and Friends. Rare photographs and heartfelt remembrances from Andy Warhol friends are on display in a riveting exhibition, Remembering Warhol: Thirty Years Ago, featuring the works of acclaimed photographer Christophe von Hohenberg. The show opens March 3rd and runs through April 1st at Alfstad & Contemporary in Sarasota, Florida.
Many of us remember that day 30 years ago, April 1, 1987; but while on assignment for Vanity Fair, von Hohenberg actually experienced and captured the end of an era and the bittersweet, yet stellar, send off of the 58 year old Pop icon, Andy Warhol. The memorial service took place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
While the NYPD held back curious crowds, 2,000 invited guests filed into the cathedral. The well-dressed mourners were mainly A-list celebrities including Leo Castelli, Francesco Clemente, Bianca Jagger, Holly Solomon, Raquel Welch, Tom Wolfe, Roy Lichtenstein, Deborah Harry, Halston, Robert Mapplethorpe, Yoko Ono, Julian Schnabel, Paloma Picasso, Liza Minnelli, Calvin Klein, Christo, David Hockney, George Plimpton, Claus von Bulow, Steve Rubell and many others. Many thought it was an elaborate joke — with a living Andy Warhol’s appearance as the punch line. It was April Fools Day, after all.
Christophe von Hohenberg was on the scene with his camera that day — on assignment. He was an acquaintance of Warhol’s, a sometimes Factory visitor and fashion photographer. Vanity Fair had contacted him to document the service. Given the photographer’s track record, they expected fashion shots. Images of sad-eyed young women in yellow hats and mini skirts held back by grim policemen and the like.
But von Hohenberg looked around, and realized history was unfolding. He decided to take that history seriously. Instead of superficial glam shots, he captured the big names in unstudied human moments. He came back with 600 photographs in all. The Vanity Fair editors took one look and told him he could keep the photographs. They never ran the story.
Sixty of these photo subjects, taken in and outside the star-studded Memorial service, are front and center in Remembering Warhol: Thirty Years Ago. His work is dramatic, capturing the cult of celebrity with his raw, honest photographs of human beings sharing a painful day. Being celebrities, they still look good on camera… It’s one of many intimate, personal moments that von Hohenberg shot that day.
“My photographs convey warmth and sadness, despite the glamour factor of that day,” says von Hohenberg. “Thirty years later, I still see the classic Rachel Welch defiantly standing in front of the Cathedral in a full length fur coat. I have framed in my mind a hurrying Robert Maplethorpe, Liza Minnelli on the arm of Halston and perhaps the most Warholian of the subjects I photographed, Stephen Sprouse,. My favorite though, is the outside shot of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, because the Hitchock-ish angle of the shot sums up that whole event for me.”
Remembering Warhol: Thirty Years Ago further humanizes the mourners with handwritten remembrances and anecdotes that von Hohenberg collected years later. Claus von Bulow, dictates his thoughts onto personal stationary while Diane von Furstenberg writes of sharing a love of collecting antiques with Warhol. It’s the kind of thing you’d say about a lost friend, not a lost icon.
Sam Alfstad
Sam Alfstad is the director of the Alfstad & Contemporary Art gallery, in Sarasota.
Remembering Warhol: Thirty Years Ago
March 3-April 1, 2017
Alfstad & Contemporary Art
1419 5th Street
Sarasota, FL 34236
USA
http://www.alfstadand.com/
