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In January, rumors swirled that the art collector and patron Agnes Gund had sold her prized 1962 Roy Lichtenstein “Masterpiece” for a whopping $150 million, placing it among the 15 highest known prices ever paid for an artwork.
Warhol — who hobnobbed with both the marginal and the 1 percent — crossed paths with Donald Trump and his then wife, Ivana, in 1981 at a party for the infamous power broker Roy Cohn. Later, Andy discussed with Trump the possibility of doing paintings of Trump Tower. "I don't know why I did so many, I did eight," Andy noted in his diary on August 5. "In black and grey and silver which I thought would be so chic for the lobby. But it was a mistake to do so many, I think it confused them." He addressed another possibility further down the entry: "I think Trump's sort of cheap."
The deal fell through, but a few years later Warhol was invited to judge a cheerleading audition in the newly opened building. "I was supposed to be there at 12:00 but I took my time and went to church and finally moseyed over there around 2:00. This is because I still hate the Trumps because they never bought the paintings I did of the Trump Tower."
It's unlikely Trump has ever read the diaries, because he uncharacteristically never took offense. In fact, he quoted Warhol in two of his books (or his ghostwriters did), repeating the same aphorism in both: "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." What Trump will never understand is that while art was once Warhol's business, now, through his legacy, generous philanthropy has become his business.
dead-silent Guggenheim room / Doug Wheeler
Negotiations have been going on for a few months but it's now offical, a number of my films are going into the MoMA archives. I have to admit it was a head scratcher for me, my stuff isn't well known or great but I didn't put up any arguments. It turns out the museum is collecting films made by filmmakers who were living in and active in the east village in the 80's so I squeaked in despite being kind of peripheral to that scene. Also, the assistant film curator, back before she was at MoMA, was on a selection panel for a film festival I entered Buoy in. She argued unsuccessfully that it should be included in the programming but remained a fan.
Yesterday I shipped a hard drive with the complete elements for Buoy as well as an exhibition copy. I'm going to get my super-8 and 16mm films scanned to the highest resolution possible before shipping the camera originals and negatives because once they have them I will no longer have access to the material.
I'm told that one or two of my early films will be included in this show in October but so far it seems they haven't nailed down the programming so nothing's certain.
Alex, I haven't submitted our collaborations yet but I would like to so let's talk.