[WARHOL AS PIONEER OF COPY ART] Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls

[New York: Self-published, 1967]. Quarto (28 × 20.8 cm). Original pictorial self-wrappers; [20] pp. with numerous illustrations. Wrappers somewhat finger- and dust-stained; back wrapper with small loss at the edge; still good or better.

Rare advertising brochure made up of xerox copies, produced by the "Factory" to promote Andy Warhol's film "Chelsea Girls". Assembled with simple means yet visually engaging, the brochure features photocopied reviews from various publications, such as "Artforum", the "National Observer", and the "Village Voice". The lead image of the brochure is based on a photograph by Billy Name, who served as archivist and photographer for The Factory from 1964 to 1970. It features Andy Warhol, Mary Woronov, as well as Nico and Susan Bottomly (known as "International Velvet"). As previously mentioned, it is notable that despite the simplicity of both the technical means and the approach (a mere compilation of reviews), the design is nonetheless distinctive. This effect is achieved, for example, through strong contrasts of light and dark, which may obscure finer nuances and details but result in calmer surfaces and more visually impactful images. The parallels to Warhol's serigraphs are unmistakable.

Since the second half of the 1960s, Warhol began working with xerography. He concludes his memoirs of the 1960s, published under the title Popism, with the remark that he purchased a Xerox photocopier for the Factory. In interviews, he also commented on the possibilities offered by the new technology-though without referring to his own use of it. "Well, this friend of mine, named Jean-Michel Basquiat, goes to the xerox machine and puts xerox all over his paintings. So, if we had a printer right here I could do it this way and just sign it as a print. But, I guess if printers ever get really big, like a twenty by thirty or thirty by forty, then it would really be great." That Warhol experimented with the Xerox in his own artistic practice is clearly demonstrated by a self-portrait he created for Playboy magazine in 1969, in which he placed his face directly on the photocopier's exposure glass. (Cf. and Quotes from Ronald Röttel: Verpackungen der Literatur: Typografische und materielle Oberflächen literarischer Texte seit 1960, Berlin 2024, note 186).

The film caused a series of scandals at the time but nevertheless became the first commercial success among Warhol's experimental films. For example, the film poster was confiscated and a screening in Boston was raided by the police. Despite the challenging and disorienting split-screen technique-where two or even three scenes appear simultaneously on the screen-the film was so successful that it was shown in cinemas around the world. Chelsea Girls established fringe or underground cinema as a genre to be taken seriously in the mainstream.

Contrary to what the materiality and low print run of the accompanying promotional brochure might suggest, Chelsea Girls was no longer a niche production for a small, insider audience. Nevertheless, Warhol remained interested in simple, low-cost processes and in exploring their aesthetic potential. This is also evident in the film itself, which was shot predominantly in black and white. When asked why he used four reels of color film, Warhol simply replied, "I don't know. We got a little money, I guess." As recent research has pointed out, Warhol could easily have afforded to shoot the entire film in color at the time. (See, among others, Stephen Monteiro, "Performing Color: Mechanized Painting, Multimedia Spectacle, and Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls," Grey Room, No. 49, Fall 2012, pp. 32-55).

As of September 2025, not in KVK, OCLC.