Andy Warhol's Brain: Creative Intelligence For Survival

by Phillip Romero, Christopher Makos (Foreword by)

Overview

To this day mention the name "Andy Warhol" to almost anyone and you'll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But although Pop Art became synonymous with Warhols name and dominated the publics image of him his life and work and worldwide influences are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that. And Phillip Romero MD is just the person to explain exactly what that impact was and is and from whence it derives.In Andy Warhols Brain esteemed psychiatrist Phillip Romero takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. The book is essentially a return to renowned psychiatrist Phillip Romeros scheduled interview with his friend Warhol that never happened as it was scheduled for the day after Andys untimely death. The book is both homage to Warhol for his inspiring friendship with the author and a platform for Romero to explore his thesis Art for Survival. Romero here presents the extraordinary results of an agreement between the approaches to a topic of different academic subjects: in this case science and the humanities. It offers a unique and exceptional advance in thinking about artistry and intellect.Doctor Romeros work as a family/child psychiatrist led him to formulate the concept of Creative Intelligence which he defines as the effortful attention of the individual mind to recruit both these attributes to change oneself to evolve social systems and to sustain the environment to improve the quality and duration of human life. Romero found himself deep into researching the brain-mind/art-culture continuum of Creative Intelligence and in doing so his friend Andy Warhol presented a perfect example of the concept. This book is an effort to integrate the life and art of Andy Warhol with the brain-mind/art-culture system that informs the evolution of human civilization. The struggle between Creative Intelligence and adversity exists within each human being. Romero uses Warhols life as a mirror to inspire the readers Creative Intelligence in reinventing themselves through the complex and challenging times we live in.In this groundbreaking work that comes from the unique perspective of a world-class psychiatrist and practicing artist himself Romero explains that for individuals creativity protects us from our painful pasts and inspires us to create a better present for a more secure future. Creative Intelligence harnesses our inborn resilience and creativity. It is an ongoing mind-body process of effortful attention: remembering reflecting reframing reimagining reinventing and reconnecting with oneself and the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781943876396
Publisher:	G Editions
Publication date:	12/19/2023
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Phillip Romero, MD, Child-Family Psychiatrist, is retired Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Medical College-Cornell University, in New York City.  He is also a practicing artist, author of five books, and filmmaker. He had an ongoing conversation with Andy Warhol  during the last decade of his life about art, child development, and culture. His lifelong research and experience integrate three domains of knowledge, consciousness, creativity, and medicine.  He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Contents

acknowledgments xi

Part One ORIGINS

Introduction

Andy’s Creative Intelligence

Andy’s ACE

Andy’s Phantom Stress

Andy’s Autopoiesis

Andy’s ‘As If” Personality

Part Two EMERGENCE

Andy’s Body

Andy’s Mind-Body

Andy’s Identity

Part Three CREATIVITY

Andy’s Art I

Andy’s Art II

Andy’s Art III

Part Four LEGACY

Andy and Halston

Andy’s Global Mind

After Andy

Andy’s Paradox

Preface

I’ll be your mirror

Reflect what you are, in case you don’t know

Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground (1966)

My last conversation with Andy Warhol

My last conversation with Andy Warhol was at a Christmas party in December 1986 two months before he died on February 22, 1987. We were watching Keith Haring play pool in the game room. I had asked Andy if we could do an interview for my book project, The Art Imperative: The Secret Power of Art. We had been talking about art, creativity, and culture for a decade. He always reflected some insight on my research into the healing power of art and how art shapes culture. Andy embodied my thesis more than any living artist; 

my view is that both artists and art viewers get stress relief and inspiration for creativity in beholding art. I believe that art inspires us to change ourselves. I think artmaking is as instinctual as eating or breathing. When I told Andy the book title, The Art Imperative, he had quickly answered, “Oh sure. I like the title. I have that ‘art imperative’ thing. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t make art.” 

Knowing Andy’s competitive nature, I told him, strategically, that I had already taped conversations with Audrey Flack, Isamu Noguchi, and Louise Bourgeois. 

Andy jumped in, “We can do it at the Factory. We can put it in Interview.” 

I was overjoyed. I had been speaking about the idea with Abrams, the art publisher, and they felt that having Andy would make the book a success.

Two months later, I was traumatized when Andy died.

The Lost Conversation with Andy Warhol: The Day Andy Died

On February 21, 1987, I received a call from one of Andy’s doctors. 

Dr. B: Phil, Andy is going into New York Hospital for emergency surgery. Andy is afraid he’s going to die. Would you visit him as a friend after his surgery? 

Me: Of course, I’ll go first thing in the morning.

As I prepared to visit him the next day at the New York Hospital, where I was assistant professor of child psychiatry, the morning news blared: “Andy Warhol is dead.”

I was dumbfounded, frozen in disbelief, shocked beyond words. I had dropped onto the couch as a cascade of stress hormones triggered an acute reaction. I sat there for what seemed like a very long time. I felt pain in the loss of a friend in my gut. Grief for a great artist hit me like a tidal wave. I was crushed by disappointment in the lost conversation I had hoped to have. 

A few days later, I received a letter from the hospital that the faculty was given a gag order not to discuss the case with anyone. I put my book, The Art Imperative, on hold for twenty-three years before publishing it in 2010, but I have not published any of my thoughts about Andy Warhol until now. I feel that this book, Andy Warhol’s Brain: Creative Intelligence = Survival, is a virtual return to the interview with Andy that never happened. It is both an homage to Andy for his inspiring friendship and a platform for me to explore my thesis, “Art = Survival.”

My aim in Andy Warhol’s Brain is to demonstrate that Andy’s life story reveals how human beings use art to face everyday stress and overwhelming adversities of life, as well as how a single artist can be a tipping point in cultural evolution toward a more humane society by mirroring the best and worst of human nature. 

For anyone who knew Andy, in whatever capacity, I believe that we all would say, “There is no one like Andy.” Far beyond the glitz and glam associated with Andy Warhol, there is much to learn from the genius of his life story that can inspire everyone to activate their own creativity in the face of the challenging stresses of this time.

Andy Warhol: Inspiration/Obsession

Andy Warhol is an iconic figure who inspired me and countless people. I first became aware of Warhol after Valerie Solanas shot him on June 3, 1968, around the time of my high school graduation. I had just started my first job as a firefighter at the Port Arthur Fire Department. Three days later, Robert Kennedy was assassinated, scaring me and the nation forever. 

A few months later, I started my premedical courses, and as an active artist, I took a modern art appreciation class in which Warhol played a vital role. I also discovered our hometown art star, Robert Rauschenberg, who inspired my art. Warhol and Rauschenberg kindled my desire to go to New York to become an artist. 

In December 1968, I saw the film Monterrey Pop. Janis Joplin, another hometown popstar, burst onto the scene. This film kindled the motivation to go to the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Somewhere in my teen gut, I formed an obsessive wish to meet my heroes. My “inner groupie” would drive this curiosity that became research into the brain-mind/art-culture continuum of Creative Intelligence. How could such damaged people—alcoholics and drug users with self-destructive behaviors—become such creative people? 

With perseverance, I had the good fortune to develop a friendship with Andy in the final decade of his life. He was fascinated by my research into creativity, child development, and cultural evolution. He encouraged my book project, The Art Imperative: The Secret Power of Art. As a sequel to that book, I have chosen to focus on Andy’s life, his Creative Intelligence, and how he overcame immense adversities and contributed to changing the world.

As I reconstruct Andy’s history, my own memories, thoughts, and feelings emerge. In authoring this book, Andy’s life is proving to be a mirror for my own self-understanding. Over thirty years after his death, Andy continues to inspire my exploration of Creative Intelligence. 

Galveston, Michael Tracy, and Thomas Downing: Friends and Mentors

I met Michael Tracy in Galveston, Texas, at his art-bar, Stella Maris, while I was an artist/medical student at UTMB (University of Texas Medical Branch).  He had lived in huge lofts on The Strand, at the port for the fishing boats and oil tankers. The port of “Old Galveston” was colonized by a few artists who commanded the loft buildings for studios. 

Michael was amazing. His color field abstract paintings exuded emotional power. The mega-scale of his art filled several museums in Texas. He also was a filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. He inspired my exploration of the links between art and medicine with a performance piece that became a traveling exhibition. Terminal Privileges, 1987, was organized by Alanna Heiss, founder of P.S.1, The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc. in Long Island City, New York. Curated by Edward Leffingwell, it was cosponsored by Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle; Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Ohio State University; and The Menil Collection, Houston. 

I participated in Tracy’s performance art project with Dr. Burke Evans, chief of orthopedic surgery at UTMD, for Terminal Privileges. Michael filmed the process of being encased in a total body cast by Dr. Evans. Michael’s ideas kindled my interest in the links between art, creativity, mind, and medicine. 

Michael introduced me to Tom Downing, Washington Color School painter. Tom had been the visiting artist-in-residence at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston and had moved into a loft in Tracy’s building. Tom and I began long conversations about the brain-mind/art-culture system that powered cultural evolution. He inspired me to interview artists about their creative experiences. Tom’s brilliant vision produced profound minimalist “dot painting” that functioned as triggers for mindful reflection. Keenly aware of the brain-mind/art-culture links, Tom and I laughingly coined the term Pop Zen to describe his art. Tom became a dear friend and mentor for the next decade, up until his premature passing in 1985. 

Tom began his career in Washington and showed in New York, where he met Andy Warhol. He introduced me to Andy in 1976. They knew each other from Eleanor Ward’s legendary Stable Gallery (home to abstract expressionist painters in the 1950s). Andy had his first one-man show in New York there in 1962, and Tom exhibited his Dot paintings in 1965. Tom and I remained close friends after I moved to New York and he returned to Washington, DC. 

Artists and the Brain-Mind/Art-Culture System

Tom inspired me to tape conversations with artists. I interviewed Audrey Flack, Louise Bourgeois, and Isamu Noguchi. Audrey embraced a psychoanalytic approach in her photorealism paintings. She was the first living female artist to be collected by the Museum of Modern Art. Her portraits of Marilyn Monroe probe her feminine mystique with meticulous magic, revealing the human side of the Hollywood facade. Louise also embraced a psychoanalytic framework in her otherworldly creations that reinvented sculpture. Her power to startle and seduce the beholder transcends any preconceptions in the viewer’s expectations. Isamu represented a very personal passion of mine: bridging East-West/Ancient-Modern art and culture. Like Michelangelo, Isamu’s ability to reveal the “voice of the stone” into human comprehension transcends the time-space continuum. Isamu represents what I have come to call quantum art, art that taps into the core of the cosmic creativity apparatus that permeates the universe. 

I saw Andy as the perfect example of a single artist who mastered the brain-mind/art-culture system. He restructured the definition of art and promoted POPism that altered cultural evolution in the last half of the twentieth century. POPism is a cultural wave that continues to shape the global village.