Firestone sparks Hamptons with Warhol exhibit

Eric Firestone closed his short-lived gallery on North 6th Avenue last month, but may be poised for a grander success in the Hamptons.

The furniture and art dealer, whose main gallery is on North Campbell Avenue, is opening his "East Coast Space" in East Hampton, N.Y., on Saturday with the "Warhol: From Dylan to Duchamp" exhibit that debuted in Tucson.

Says the NY Post:

Expected at the opening are Warhol superstars Taylor Mead, Viva and Jane Holzer, Lou Reed, fashion designer Betsey Johnson, plus lensmen Michael Halsband, Anton Perich and Patrick McMullan. Who won't be there? Director and one-time Warhol collaborator Paul Morrissey, who, when invited, groused, "Andy never shot anything, I did it all. He just stood around the camera and posed." Septuagenarian Sylvia Miles, who went to so many parties in the 1970s it was said she'd attend the opening of an envelope, demanded to be paid to show up. Sylvia, don't you know we're in a recession?

Firestone told the Village Voice:

"These photos are show-stopping because you're looking at an era where things don't feel contrived. Warhol and his crowd were really creating a scene. He was on the edge of everything -- music, experimental film, painting, and fashion, the whole downtown scene of New York in the '70s. What you see from this show is that Warhol was constantly moving in all these different circles so you couldn't pigeonhole him."

From TucsonSentinel.com's preview of the show before it's February opening here:

Much of the work is the previously unseen body of Warhol-related work by Tucson photographer Bob Broder. Broder shot black-and-whites of the Warhol clan when they arrived in Tucson to film the oddly compelling, western-themed sex romp, "Lonesome Cowboys," in 1968.

Broder's work is sure to appeal not just to Warhol fans, but to the nostalgic Tucsonan. Tucson in 1968 is, to be sure, a different place to look at from the contemporary landscape. Broder, then the chief photographer at the University of Arizona, describes the experience of documenting Warhol:

"I haven’t looked at those negatives in over 40 years. I was a stringer for The Arizona Republic then. I drove my '65 Mustang with the white, vinyl top to the Old Tucson set. It was a non-union production, so I didn’t get booted out...besides, I knew the sheriff.  I remember [Warhol] didn’t say much. And he had high heels. He didn’t bother me, and I didn’t bother him."