His presence and his creative output made him a myth of the 20th century. The pop explosion and the cultural legacy of its art.

The Andy Warhol Diaries were first published in the late 1980s, but the recent appearance of the documentary series on Netflix has once again drawn attention to those numerous texts by the artist . To the stories recorded in the book, which were made known after Warhol&#39;s death, a new audiovisual dimension is now added , which, hand in hand with valuable archival material, allows access to the life of the pop art icon from a personal and intimate look. Warhol began to record his experiences after the unexpected shooting of the writer Valerie Solanas left him on the verge of death. His assistant and friend Pat Hackett was in charge of transcribing the telephone conversations they had between 1976 and 1987 , in which the artist described his daily life in detail. Over time, those dialogues were forming an affective archive made up of discursive fragments, detailed memories and vivid images.

Diaries records the intensity and boredom, fame and money, insecurity and talent of an innovative and unprejudiced artist, who lived beyond his time. His most emblematic work, Campbell&#39;s Soup Cans , gravitates insistently throughout the pages, reminding us of the impact of the aesthetic revolution that it provoked in the 1960s, when it turned the goods and icons of mass culture into art . After silk-screening 32 canvases with the different flavors of the product, he expanded his creation to other supports: he printed the painting of his favorite soup on A-line dresses chosen by the women of Manhattan&#39;s high society, as ready-to-wear works of art. Those were years in which The Factory, his famous studio, functioned as a pole of artistic irradiation that was at the center of all the modern and countercultural moves of the time . Warhol&#39;s link with the world of fashion was a constant throughout his life . Arriving in New York, before becoming the provocative artist we all know, he made a living as an illustrator for Vogue, Glamor and Harper&#39;s Bazaar magazines. Although it is a less explored facet of Warhol, it is interesting to observe his drawings from those early years, which already herald serial repetition, the use of bright colours, an interest in advertising and a shrewd look at the consumer society that maintained in all his productions. Also the close bond with the designer Roy Halston speaks of his fascination with the fashion environment and the nights and excesses in the famous Studio 54 nightclub. Diaries give indications of mutual admiration and the intense bond that united them and led them to collaborating on several joint projects, such as the Warhol-orchestrated ad campaign for Halston&#39;s menswear line in 1982.

&quot;Newspapers record the intensity and boredom, fame and money, insecurity and talent of an innovative and unprejudiced artist, who lived beyond his time&quot;

Another interesting chapter of his life is his participation in the music industry. He was manager of the group The Velvet Underground and made the cover of their first album. The image used is none other than the famous banana that invites you to “slowly peel and see” a phallic pink banana under its peel, which undisguisedly refers to eroticism and homosexual desire. He also did the cover art for several albums by internationally famous artists such as The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, Miguel Bosé and John Lennon. After the murder of the latter, Warhol devotes several reflections to the question of the fans and tells with shock: “The newspapers still talk about Lennon. Whoever killed him was a frustrated artist. They took out the Dalí poster that was hanging on the wall of his room.” Some Argentine personalities knew Warhol and even formed part of his closest circle. Famous is the friendship that Marta Minujín maintained with the artist and the sarcastic performance they staged together in 1985, simulating the payment of the external debt in corn. “Thinking that I was the queen of pop around here and he was the king of pop over there, it made sense for us to pay off the debt,” Marta says of the exchange . Likewise, Diarios records his meeting with Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, whom he portrayed in 1980, following a procedure similar to that used in the paintings of Marilyn Monroe, Mao Tse Tung, Debbie Harry, Jane Fonda, Truman Capote and Prince. From the most glamorous anecdotes to the mechanized rhythm of a life told in short sentences and various ironies, Diarios They bring us a constellation of memories that are worth rescuing. His stories and evocations allow us to know, from the fragility of a unique and unrepeatable biography, the plots of the advanced culture of much of the 20th century.

The Ones That Warhol Left Us

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