As the father of artistic and social promotion, Andy Warhol used every means of communication to self-promote his reality.  Photography, film, magazine, and paintings were employed to document and showcase his surroundings and the creative social scene.  Turns out that Warhol also wasn’t shy about tapping into television, which only seems natural given its mass appeal and accessibility.  It was the ultimate contemporary tool, a perfect platform for exposing his reality.  Andy Warhol utilized all avenues of the medium from as early as 1964, when he made an imitation Soap Opera, to his guest appearance on Love Boat, in 1985. He was also an early adopter with cable, creating a program back in 1979 on the newly formed New York Cable Network, and his MTV show in 1985, Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes. 

Warhol TV focuses on the artist’s involvement with television and the beautiful talent who were a part of his world.  Marc Jacobs, Tama Janowitz, Kenny Scharf, Glenn O’Brian, and Brigid Berlin are just a few who recall their encounters with Warhol and TV.  The most interesting feature in the book, besides the rare images, is Warhol’s television filmography listing episodes with such guests as Debbie Harry, Courtney Love, Steven Spielberg, Moon Zappa, Cindy Sherman and Pee Wee Herman.  I can only imagine Andy’s relaxed, subtle reaction to the energetic Pee Wee.   

Click here to view the embedded video.

Purchase Warhol TV at the Walker Shop.

“In spite of the current state of they economy, and light attendance at the show by vendors and buyers, we have found some great new merchandise for spring and summer. Some highlights include Alessi’s adding to its already successful line of “Banana Brothers” products by Stephano Giovannoni. We loved the collection, including the placecards, corkscrews, canisters, toothpick holders, etc.

Monday evening, we were invited to a special dinner event hosted by Alessi. We enjoyed connecting with our colleagues from Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (Mark and Maxine) and our Alessi rep, Diane O’Donnel. And for the pasta course, the chef demonstrated Alessi’s ingenious “Pasta Pot”: a crock-pot-like appliance designed by chef Alain Ducasse and designer Patrick Jouin, which allows vegetables, pasta and sauce to cook together and go straight to your table.

One of our favorite companies, Kid-O toys (mentioned in our last blog post), introduced a new, well-designed wooden memory game and also an interactive depth perception toy. Look for them in the Walker Shop in June.

Some other fun things we found were a Ipod speaker with a Lego-like look, a roll of packing tape with Shepard Fairey-inspired graphics, real “Wee Plants” the size of a fingernail that grow in a glass vial, and specialized lenses for your camera phone that create special effects (wide angle, kaleidoscope,etc.).

A fresh color trend we found was citrine yellow combined with grey – a look that we’ve incorporated into our spring assortment of Chilewich placemats. Turns out that Michelle Obama’s Inauguration Day outfit was right on trend!”

The Walker unrolled its first Jewelry Artists Mart, in the Skyline Room, at Free First Saturday.

My name is Marian Schoettle and my work has recently been included in the store – clothing and bags out of Yyvek a featherweight non-woven material with the label post industrial folk wear by mau. It looks like paper but it’s not so perishable. The material is made by Dupont and it is known primarily as a house insulating material and the material of post office envelopes. (tough, right?) It is comprised of 25%recycled HDPE 2 and is recyclable.

This work is part of a twofold project. The work at the Walker consists of modern featherweight clothing and bags (none weighing more that 500 grams) that challenge some of our ideas about suitability’. The Walker has white jackets, coats and bags that are made with hard structure tyvek. They also have jackets that are actually made from house insulating tyvek (with the advertising writing all cut up). Ironically the house insulating material is not as abrasion resistant as the hard structure tyvek, I guess because it’s supposed to be covered over with vinyl siding!

The other part of post industrial folk wear is a global psycho-geography project in which volunteers create interactive scenarios while walking around cities, wearing my jackets (drawing or writing on them). Under the auspices of Chashama and the New York Foundation for the Arts this project will occur in NYC May 18 – 24, 2008.

In the past I’ve collaborated with the weather to create storm dresses, devised sound and image installations in abandoned monasteries in Eastern Europe, built tepee space modules in the National Building Museum in Washington, designed performance clothing and art wear, as well as taught in art and design academies in Western Europe.

This collection is sewn in the New York City garment district, the tyvek material is made in the USA, and the surplus materials are gathered from local computer, snowboard and automotive industries. All cutting room scraps are recycled via DuPont’s in-house recycling.

A quick answer to Rosenbaum’s query comes with a stroll to the Walker shop, where a table of products timed to the Prince exhibition is stocked with dozens of posters, postcards, DVDs of films Prince selected as personally inspiring, and stacks of handsome, shrink-wrapped exhibition catalogues. Alas, no handbags.

“It’s a very high-end line and a very specific distribution. It’s not something (Vuitton) would just sell to anyone, anywhere,” says Nancy Gross, director of merchandising and facility rental at the Walker. “Will I look into it? Maybe.”