The Factory
The Factory (Eng. "Factory " ), also occasionally called Silver Factory, were different studios pop art artist Andy Warhol in New York City. Warhol took aim with the choice of words for its studios initially both the old factory building from, in which the first two " Factories" were, as well as on the way, as he " produced" his art.
Naming
The name is derived from two meanings: first, from the fact that about 300 m² loft was previously used as a space in the manufacturing sector, on the other hand to indicate that the artifacts that were produced there, mechanically like an assembly line manufactured goods should be in accordance with the pop- philosophy.
Building and history
The first, founded in 1962 Factory, was located in the East 87th Street, known as " Firehouse ", an abandoned fire station; Here Andy Warhol had worked from the beginning to the end of 1963. The actual legendary Silver Factory was from early 1964 to early 1968 in New York at the address 231 East 47th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, between the headquarters of the United Nations and Grand Central Terminal. In February 1968, she then moved to 33 Union Square West, before the old building was demolished.
After the forced from the landlord extract everything changed: under the increasing influence of employee Paul Morrissey and Frederick Hughes, the factory was finally from bohemian -like experimentation and drug transshipment point "clean " to a security and CCTV monitored office. In July 1968, the Warhol actress and women's rights activist Valerie Solanas in the at that time still open new building penetrated and shot Warhol, who had refused a script for their Manifesto of the Society for Cutting Up Men ( SCUM ) to film. The loose Sixties " Factory Years " were finally over and the once spontaneously thrown together studio gave way to a finance-oriented high-gloss art group, including the Board and managing directors. Because "art is business ," as Warhol put it once dry.
Interior design
The inside of the factory was based on an idea of the employee and photographer Billy Linich (later known as Billy Name ), lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with silver paint. The large windows facing the street were covered with silver foil, so that day and night were indistinguishable from each other by artificial lighting. The factory was equipped with a freight elevator and - essential for the phone -addicted Warhol - with a pay phone. Billy Linich / name worked temporarily in the back of a dark room to which he soon made it his permanent residence.
Audience
The Factory was the place where visual artists, musicians, dancers, actors, self-promoter, homosexuals, drug freaks and - all collectively - Warhol's " superstars " met. First " produced" Warhol in the truest sense of the word with his first assistant, co-workers and tireless " gofer " Gerard Malanga his art: Serial screen prints and objects. Later, the Factory served, but especially the famous red sofa in the middle of the room, as the location and scenario of several Warhol films. At Warhol's employees belonged in the 1980s, the German painter Ingeborg zu Schleswig -Holstein, whom he had met in Dusseldorf.
Many stars and celebrities of film, art and music scene as well as the New York and Boston high society could be seen in a tryst: Warhol's first " Muse" Edie Sedgwick, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and Salvador Dalí gave themselves, mostly nocturnal, the jack in the hand. Moreover, the Factory served as a rehearsal space for the proteges of Warhol and produced rock band The Velvet Underground with her blond, German -born chanteuse Nico.