Warhol’s Factory and Its Contribution to Its Era

Andy Warhol is an icon in the world of the arts. He was an avant-garde artist that took seemingly ordinary things and turned them into masterpieces that would become iconic pop culture pieces. This visual artist and filmmaker was extremely popular in the 1960s in New York City. Because of this popularity, he created The Factory. Celebrities and all types of artists would flock to this location and it was especially a popular choice for people who were dying to experiment. The Factory was originally located on the 5th floor of 231 East 47th Street in Midtown Manhattan. This building was scheduled to be demolished in 1968 so he vacated the premises. It was relocated to the 6th floor in the Decker Building, which was located on 33 Union Square West. It existed here until 1973. In 1984, The Factory opened in a traditional office building located at 22 East 33rd Street.

The Silver Era

The original Factory, which was often referred to as the “Silver Factory”, was decorated using tin foil, broken mirrors, and silver. While the Factory was located here, Andy Warhol’s commissions were said to be from the “Silver Era”. This was a popular location for people to use drugs, and the artists that visited here would party hard. Warhol had workers that would make lithographs and silkscreen as directed by him. During this era, Warhol would not only commission silkscreens but he would also produce things like shoes, sculptures, and film. The Warhol Superstars, which was the name given to the clique that was often seen hanging out with him and appearing in his artwork, also frequented this location.

Warhol and Creative Minds of the Time

The factory was not only a location for artists; it was also a popular location for musicians to come out and get inspired. Popular musicians at the time like Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, and Lou Reed. Warhol would collaborate with the band The Velvet Underground, which was fronted by Lou Reed in 1965. He designed the cover for their debut album “The Velvet Underground & Nico”. He also created the iconic album from The Rolling Stones titled “Sticky Fingers”. The Velvet Underground would actually use this location as their rehearsal location in addition to the place that they hung out. The Velvet Underground was actually in the “Exploding Plastic Inevitable”, which were multimedia events that would combine rock music, Warhol films, art, and more controversial things like S&M enactments.

Writer Truman Capote also frequently visited the Factory. Andy Warhol looked up to this troubled writer and he was Warhol’s mentor during the early days of Warhol’s career. These two frequented Studio 54 together to party. Warhol painted a famous portrait of Truman Capote as a gift for Capote’s contributions to his “Interview” magazine. Capote would contribute one article a month for an entire year.

Beyond the Factory

It was named a factory because he would mass produce his works for sales. This was also a factory for ideas. He was surrounded by a wide variety of people. These people would end up becoming his inspirations and he would collaborate. One such person, Edie Sedgwick, was an actress, model, and socialite that frequented the Factory in 1965. She started getting cast in the avant-garde films that he created. This was what helped launch her into stardom. She could be seen in “Vinyl”, “Poor Little Rich Girl” and “Kitchen”. She was nicknamed “Superstar” by Warhol. She ended up dying as a result of an overdose in 1971. She was 28.

This was also a location where he would conceptualize films. He would do the entire film process all the way to the actual filming and editing here as well. His films were sometimes not allowed to be shown at traditional movie theaters and he would have to show his films at porn theaters or nightclubs. There are nearly 100 films that were filmed mostly or entirely at the Factory.

Defying Conservatism

Andy Warhol would use his art as a way to defy the more conservative social views in America. Pretty much all of his art that was film here at the Factory would feature nudity, drug use, transgender characters, graphic sexuality, and same-sex relations. This was more featured in his works than in the mainstream entertainment at the time. Because of the sexually lenient atmosphere of this location, there was a lot of free love in the Factor. Sometimes Warhol would film some of these happenings and use them in his work as he did in “Blue Movie”. The stars of this film are friends Louis Waldon and Viva engaged in sexual activities. He would also rent out his location for porn films to be filmed here and perform rather vulgar plays. There would also be fake weddings that would take place here between drag queens.

Noted drag queens Jackie Curtis and Holly Woodlawn were associated with his Factory group, as was the notable member of the transgender community Candy Darling. These were people that he would frequently use in his films. This was also a hot spot for drugged orgies as the Factory was frequented by people who were more sexually liberal. There was a story that Warhol was attempted to be thrown out of an orgy because he was not an active participant.

Warhol’s Factory Embodied the Era

Through the heavy drug use and the free love seen here, the Factory truly embodied the feeling of the time. This was a time when people were becoming more liberal and moving away from the repression and the conservatism of the previous eras. He was someone who inspired many artists after him and would be a huge inspiration for the creative minds of his time. We have come a long way since then and one could argue that he was a huge factor in this.

Where is today’s Factory?

No, not China. What if the internet existed in Warhol’s era? It seems as if communities based around creativity have fallen to the rise of freelancing. The great work that came out of The Factory was hugely influenced by it’s community. We’ve been inspired by this ideology and decided to create CREATORS NEVER DIE. The hope is to get great minds talking and working together to create iconic work. We can’t promise drug fueled orgies, but what we do offer is a home base for creatives to chat and collaborate. Check us out at creatorsneverdie.com