Sunday, August 7, 2011

Celebrity Encounter: Warhol meets Dalí


Photographer David McCabe remembers the artists' first meeting:
"I went with Andy to see Dalí at the St. Regis Hotel. Dalí used to paint his suite at the St. Regis. He was working on two enormous paintings at the time. He greeted us at the door, ordered up all sorts of lavish room service - bottles of wine and so on - and that was that. After "Hello, welcome to my humble atelier for the fabrication of dollars" or whatever folderol Dalí was putting out that day, Dalí and Andy barely said another word to each other. It was not possible. The music was playing so loudly. He had grand opera blasting at ear-splitting level. To add to the chaos, Dalí had picked up a stray cat on the street. It was wild, totally feral, and it was bouncing off the walls, bouncing off his paintings, careening off everything in the room. Dalí would grab it and try to hold it, but he'd have to let it go because it was trying to claw him. Dalí was in shock, I think, because he loved cats. It was a hair-raising situation. Andy was just stunned. It was the first time I'd seen Andy drink. He was slugging back white wine. Dalí turned the whole event into theater, and Andy wasn't theatrical in that way. At one point Dalí grabbed this elaborate Inca headdress that he had been using as a prop - you can see its outline in that painting behind him - and put the headdress on Andy. He positioned himself very melodramatically behind Andy still wearing the silly-looking headdress, glared into the camera, and gestured wildly with his walking stick. A total Dalí performance. Theater of the Absurd. Gala drifted in and out. At one point, I remember Dalí gesturing to her menacingly with his walking stick, as if to say that she shouldn't be in the photograph.
Dalí took over the situation outrageously. He just staged the whole thing. Andy was petrified. He sat there frozen, like a statue, utterly speechless. He couldn't have spoken anyway, because the volume of the music was so loud. An ingenious way Dalí had perhaps devised to avoid having to talk to anyone. But of course with Andy he needn't have worried. Andy wouldn't have said anything anyway."








(Photos by David McCabe.)

9 comments:

Ninja said...

incredible :) Lovely blog. Great name, really illustrates how I feel.

xxx Irinja (1milliondresses.blogspot.com)

original seed said...

wow! the pictures perfectly sum up the atmosphere described

beatlebuddy said...

Wow, your a good writer. I love the pictures too. You always seem to find the best of the best

Kaitlyn said...

Well thanks! Those aren't my words though, they're David McCabe's. He also took the photos! I scanned them from his wonderful book, A Year In the Life of Andy Warhol. Dali and Warhol are two of my favorite artists, so I was hoping some of y'all would like the info. :)

Anonymous said...

What books do you recmmend for sixties lovers?

Kaitlyn said...

Anon: Oh, there are so many great books out there! If you'd send me an email, I'd be happy to send you a little list. For starters though, anything by Barry Miles is usually fab.

Anonymous said...

Well...The thing is, I cannot send emails to you. It simply wont go through or there is some other problem. so if you could by any chance darling, just write down the list here, it would b much more simpler. just recommend me a few books that you have or love reading. Thank you...

Kaitlyn said...

I'm out of the house at the moment, but I can definitely do that when I get home. In fact, I think I'll make a nice little post with photos for you too! I've been meaning to for a while. :)

Anonymous said...

Aww. Thank you soo much! I greatly appreciate that. Your wonderful my darling! You really are. I will try to email you once again, and I might just get lucky that there wont be any problems. Thank you once again.