Andy Warhol Time Capsule 21

June 8, 2005 8:27 AM

Andy Warhol Time Capsule 21 - Warhol got in the habit of keeping a cardboard box by his desk and stuffing it with daily correspondence, gifts, clippings, notes, photos, and ephemera. He would seal and date each box, filling more than 600 over time and leaving art historians and fans a rich legacy. This multimedia exhibit highlights contents from 15 of these boxes. (flash) via La Petite Claudine
posted by madamjujujive (12 comments total)

Thanks for the great link madamjujujive. It's funny how the common stuff - receipts, phone messages - can be fascinating.
posted by Staggering Jack at 8:49 AM on June 8, 2005

Bookmarked like three times. As little as I appreciate his media (raised on a diet of the Academy fine arts), I love Warhol as embodiment of "the artist". My personal whimsy is that he made hundreds more keepsakes that he had left in inaccessible, clandestine vaults waiting to be discovered by subsequent generations.
posted by naxosaxur at 9:05 AM on June 8, 2005

Thanks, great stuff.
posted by jack_mo at 9:06 AM on June 8, 2005

This stuff fascinates me. But when Andy Warhol does it it's called a time capsule. When I did it was called "leaving shit in boxes" and my mom wants them out of her basement. Of course, Andy's ephemera is more interesting than mine. But I'll bet he doesn't have 20 year old issues of the Chicago Reader and a takeout menu from Steven Segal's restaurant.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:19 AM on June 8, 2005 [1 favorite]

Interface is madddening!

Still, I adore Warhol, thanks Mjujuv! I remember hearing they'd sometimes find food in a couple of these things, like cake and stuff. Is this in any of them?
posted by Peter H at 9:33 AM on June 8, 2005

It's funny how the common stuff - receipts, phone messages - can be fascinating.
posted by Staggering Jack at 8:49 AM PST on June 8 [!]

celebrity toll
posted by a thousand writers drunk at the keyboard at 10:44 AM on June 8, 2005

I do the same thing, although for me one box generally holds a year's worth.
posted by mischief at 12:23 PM on June 8, 2005

Comedian W. C. Fields was an extreme case. Memories of his impoverished youth brought Fields recurring nightmares about being stranded in a strange city without funds. The wealthy performer recalled opening as many as 700 bank accounts, often in fictitious names, in the cities h visited around the world.

The portion of his estate that could be located was worth $700,000. Because of his secretiveness, and his desire to have cash available wherever he was in the world, Fields had opened some 200 bank accounts under fictitious names and he kept no record of the deposits or the banks.

posted by sighmoan at 1:18 PM on June 8, 2005

ditto on the interface comment. i won't look through this stuff because it's too much of a pain. sounds like it'd be a cool exhibit, though.
posted by ddf at 4:44 PM on June 8, 2005

At the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, they have a room devoted to these time capsules. You can see all (?) of them stored on shelves in this big glass room, and in a small-ish case in the room you're in are spread the contents of one of the capsules, along with a note telling you what number it was and its approximate date. I think they rotate them out every couple of months.
posted by BoringPostcards at 7:45 PM on June 8, 2005

eh - I thought the interface wasn't bad, and it's cool to zoom back and forth between the overall collection in a given box, and actually reading the articles from newspaper clippings.

Independant of how one might feel about Warhol, this is a fascinating site.

Thanks so much!
posted by freebird at 10:37 PM on June 8, 2005

Similar to the W.C. Fields case is Diana Dors.
posted by the cuban at 2:18 AM on June 10, 2005