Not P. back to Warhol

[Mark Kohut]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 1:10 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Clearly Warhol was the target.  I think Pynchon also targets Warhol in
>>>> V with the painter in the Whole Sick Crew who painted endless varieties of
>>>> knishes (or was it bagels, I forget).
>>>>
>>>
Reading more into Gopnick's incredibly detailed biography of Warhol. One of
its superlative achievements is to know and
put down granularly the total art scene of the times. The sliding move by
many besides Andy from commercial into 'fine art'; the
competition for art shows at prestigious galleries, etc; Johns,
Rauschenberg, others, some of the hottest now disappeared from art history
as it was judged they didn't have it, do it right. Gopnick tells us of the
national responses to these shows, not just in reviews but as the artists
did or did not get featured in the major mass magazines*, Life, Time*, etc.

Anyway, I was so ignorant of the art world based in New York city, of
course, (but with an important gallery base in LA for Andy, surprisingly)
 and the nation's budding awareness
of the new art---Pop Art was a British journalist's phrase; the artist and
gallery owners preferred other labels but---it stuck.

Anyway, *V. *was finished  between 1961--1963 when Tom lived in
Greenwich Village, correct?

The year 1962 was an immensely important year for all of the above. Late in
the year Andy had his first major NY show, after much attention
and less success with his LA show earlier in that year. But this LA Show
got  words about all the new artists into *Life *mag, etc. And, perhaps
most importantly for what Morris says, many others were doing variations on
key themes, of course a quality of Pop, but Andy DID do his 32 Soup Cans in
LA, which
the couple appreciative critics were acute about, because they recognized
the subtle *painting *in/of the silkscreens...(when a young unfamous
art-loving but well-married Dennis Hopper
saw the soup cans, eh exclaimed, "That's it! The return of reality" which
is why in *V* it is not an AbEx artist and arguably quite different from
the art crowd in *The Recognitions.*..and it is food.)

I am going to say now that I think Morris is probably right. From Gopnick's
book, all in NYC cultural circles were aware of this happening to some
degree, mentioning
one afterparty Gallery show that year--but typical---that included Susan
Sontag and Norman Mailer.

Tom would have heard all this in the cultural air, I think we would agree,
very easily visited galleries, etc.

And re the quote from *Mumbo Jumbo*, clearly meant to be Warhol
characterized as a turd on the wall artist, I did not know
he did some piss paintings earlier than this time period. Moving thru
Pollock and his drip paintings it can be said.