Vanity Fair UK - 11.2019

Dolly Parton and the Shah of Iran, it’s hard not to agree with

Arnold that “Warhol had an amazing ability to capture a

sense of the times.” This is illustrated in his 1985 portrait of

Joan Collins, who was then playing Alexis in Dynasty, TV’s

most memorable villainess. “He never spoke other than to

say ‘more hair, more hair’,” Collins recalls. “He liked the

backcombed hair to be as high as the sky.”

eing judgemental about Warhol was miss-

ing his point—way ahead of the game, he was

leveraging his own identity—and missing out

on all the fun he inspired. When he was in

London to promote his photographic book Andy

Warhol’s Exposures, there was a brilliant society bash given

at Regine’s by its French owner and the interior designer

Nicholas Haslam. The paparazzi flashed the artist’s

every move as I remained hot on his heels. Andy didn’t

mind, he was busy holding his camera to the side and

aimlessly clicking at the jeunesse dorée crowd. Being my

no-nonsense self, I did say, “Andy, shouldn’t you be

looking through the lens?” My suggestion was ignored.

Our next meeting was at a bene—t dinner. After discuss-

ing various British upper-class families, he suddenly said,

“Natasha, you should write a Mommie Dearest book about

your childhood.” Somewhat surprised, I replied, “You mean

describe how my mother (Antonia Fraser) hit my siblings

and me over the head with her books as opposed to wire coat

hangers?” He laughed, closing his eyes and tipping his head

back. Dining with him at Mr. Chow’s restaurant in Los

Angeles (along with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring,

Hockney and Julian Schnabel) felt dižerent. It was August

1985 and Andy had attended Madonna’s wedding to Sean

Penn. The paparazzi photographers were hanging out of

helicopters to snap the private yet high-pro—le event and he

was delighted that they recognised his white wig. He had just

started making Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, a television

programme featuring interviews with the art, fashion and

rock-and-roll world. Eighteen months later, Fred Hughes

approached me about coming on board. After lunching with

him and securing a contract, I found Andy. Although friend-

ly, his complexion was ¡ushed and he was frantically going

through bags, becoming agitated. I was unaware that he was

B

GETTY IMAGES WARHOL; RON GALELLA/WIREIMAGE /GETTY IMAGES HARRY AND WARHOL; HALSTON AND WARHOL; MINNELLI AND WARHOL; JOHN VAN BEEKUM WYATT AND WARHOL; BUD STRAUSS/GLOBE PHOTOS/ZUMAPRESS BERENSON AND WARHOL; BETTMAN/GETTY IMAGES COLLINS AND WARHOL; JANICE RUBIN VON FURSTENBERG AND WARHOL; © THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC./ DACS/ ARTIMAGE 2019 HARRY; WYATT; COLLINS; VON FURSTENBERG; © ARTWORK © 2019 THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC. / LICENSED BY DACS, LONDON. PHOTO © SEPT 1974 VOGUE / CONDÉ NAST ARCHIVE HALSTON; ARTWORK © 2019 THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC. / LICENSED BY DACS, LONDON. PHOTO © CHRISTIE’S IMAGES / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES MINNELLI; © THE ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM, PITTSBURGH; FOUNDING COLLECTION, CONTRIBUTION THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC. / LICENSED BY DACS, LONDON BERENSON

Famous

FACES

Diane von

Furstenberg

Date painted 1984

Joan Collins

Date painted 1985

Liza Minnelli

Date painted 1978 Lynn Wyatt

Date painted 1980

Halston

Date painted 1974

Debbie Harry

Date painted 1980

Marisa Berenson

Date painted 1983

54 VANITY FAIR ON ART NOVEMBER 2019

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