Dad; one of Warhol's "13 Most Wanted Men"
August 22, 2014 5:23 AM Subscribe
George Lawler always knew his father was a criminal — his mug shot had been on New York City’s most wanted list in 1962. What he did not know was that his father had been a muse, of sorts, for Andy Warhol.
13 Most Wanted Men was installed by April 15, 1964 at The World's Fair site in Queens, NY. Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller had the work painted over before the Fair opened to the public.
As Lawler notes in the story, here again Warhol's 15 minutes of fame prediction comes true. I've always been interested in tracking down when/where Warhol first said that. Apparently, via Wikipedia and Wikiquotes, it was in a 1968 Swedish exhibition catalog for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. (I would still love to see the complete context, if anyone has it.)
Later on, Warhol restated the quote when talking about Studio 54: "It's the place where my prediction from the sixties finally came true: "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, "In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous." (Andy Warhol's Exposures, 1979)
posted by beagle at 8:03 AM on August 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Later on, Warhol restated the quote when talking about Studio 54: "It's the place where my prediction from the sixties finally came true: "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, "In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous." (Andy Warhol's Exposures, 1979)
posted by beagle at 8:03 AM on August 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
George Lawler next to a Warhol portrait of his father, Thomas Francis (Duke) Connelly, which he by chance found out existed"By chance he found out existed"? That sounds like something from Google translate.
posted by yoink at 9:44 AM on August 22, 2014
"he by chance found out existed," actually.
That's a noun (he), an adverb (by chance), and a verb (found out), all in the correct order. It's awkward as all get-out, but it's perfectly cromulent.
(There are, however, several other, bigger grammatical problems with that caption if you really need something to shake a pedantic fist at.)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:48 AM on August 22, 2014
That's a noun (he), an adverb (by chance), and a verb (found out), all in the correct order. It's awkward as all get-out, but it's perfectly cromulent.
(There are, however, several other, bigger grammatical problems with that caption if you really need something to shake a pedantic fist at.)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:48 AM on August 22, 2014
I would bet money that the caption originally read "which he found out existed by chance" -- and that was changed by a copyeditor who reasoned -- quite correctly -- that the original version implied that the painting itself existed by chance. No one was really happy with the rewritten version, but no one had time to think of something better. Welcome to the wonderful world of daily newspaper caption writing.
Anyway, great story!
posted by neroli at 3:09 PM on August 22, 2014
Anyway, great story!
posted by neroli at 3:09 PM on August 22, 2014
That's a noun (he), an adverb (by chance), and a verb (found out), all in the correct order. It's awkward as all get-out, but it's perfectly cromulent.
Yeah, it's only the awkwardness I was commenting on--I realize it's grammatically correct (as was my slightly inaccurate quotation) but it's not remotely idiomatic. "Which he discovered by chance" was, I think, what they should have written.
posted by yoink at 5:30 PM on August 22, 2014
Yeah, it's only the awkwardness I was commenting on--I realize it's grammatically correct (as was my slightly inaccurate quotation) but it's not remotely idiomatic. "Which he discovered by chance" was, I think, what they should have written.
posted by yoink at 5:30 PM on August 22, 2014
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posted by arcticseal at 6:07 AM on August 22, 2014 [1 favorite]