Here I was walking down 5th Avenue. It was a hot sultry day in July – Wednesday 2nd July 1981 to be exact. Somewhere near the Flat Iron building I was waiting to cross 26th Street when I recognised the person next to me, also waiting to cross. ANDY WARHOL.
I was in New York on a bursary I had won – jointly offered by a Further & Higher Education lecturers union and the Royal Society of Arts. I was fascinated by the history of magazine illustration in the US, with illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker, Steven Dohanos, Austin Briggs, and Coby Whitmore, but it was the 1960s – 1970s period that I was interested in researching. Although magazine sales were declining it seemed to me that illustrators were being allowed much more freedom during the death throes of magazine illustration. Many factors were involved in the dwindling readership of magazines such as Saturday Evening Post and Look, including the rise of television and a new generation of magazines that appeared more contemporary.
Sometimes forgotten, but Warhol was a superb illustrator. His mother, Julia Warhola, added the lettering to his illustrations which helped to make them very distinctive, although somewhat reminiscent of Ben Shahn’s line drawings.
Andy Warhol, Blue Note records 1957 (Julia Warhola signing "Andy Warhol")
It seemed apt for me to ask Andy Warhol about his illustration work and whether he saw the opportunities for illustrators diminishing. We sat down on a ledge. He was happy to express his views about the future of illustration – he thought photography was slowly replacing traditional illustration, especially in magazines. Magazines were struggling to survive – “but mine’s rather special”. At this point he gave me a copy of the June/July 1982 issue of Interview that you see above. It was the days before iPhones and selfies – it did not occur to me to take a photograph with my fixed lens 35mm camera. And NO I did not ask him to sign the magazine… We talked for about 15 minutes.
Addendum: Bob Weaver
I interviewed many illustrators during my visit, but the illustrator I most responded to was the irrepressible Robert Weaver, Bob. My eyes opened wide when I entered his loft (in fact the first ever Manhattan loft I visited) in Greenwich Village. One end of the open plan floor was his studio – with an easel set up with a canvas, surrounded by his commissioned illustrations, experimental work, and posters on the wall. We retired to the roof where he offered me vodka martinis and asked about BBC radio programmes he tuned in to. He wanted to know if Frank Muir and Denis Norden really made up their clever and humorous monologues on the popular quiz radio show of Call My Bluff that he and a good friend listened to in the 1970s and early 1980s. He also told me about dashing down to Atlantic City with a friend immediately after he had seen Louis Malle’s movie, the critically acclaimed Atlantic City (starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon). "I wanted to see the Atlantic City boardwalk in real life".
Although he received commissions from magazine art directors his work was on another planet – but some of it got through to print. He said that Time magazine would commission 3 different illustrators for one final selection. He always assumed his wouldn’t be chosen – although he did do the Ted Kennedy cover on the 5 November 1979 issue – not one of his best. Under the art direction of Richard Gangel Sports Illustrated was one of the most exciting magazines that still favoured illustration. Illustrators were set loose assignments – to research and then present a body of work on sporting subjects. Bob Weaver’s set of illustrations of the New York Yankees in spring training for a March 1962 issue of Sports Illustrated epitomise his uncompromising approach to an illustrative assignment. He was a superb draftsman. I loved his sketches.
Roger Maris in the dugout with fans waving an autograph book and baseballs to sign
Yogi Berra
Sketch for spring training assignment
Bob Weaver's gift to me - signed
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