International party-goers reunited in photo exhibition

By Kunang Helmi Picard

PARIS (JP): International party-goers are being reunited in a photo exhibition at the Espace Photographique de Paris.

Almost all of them, except the recently-deceased Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, were there. But visitors to the newly opened photo exhibition of Andy Warhol's Social Chronicles of the 1970s can spot her giggling among friends like Liza Minelli at a Halston party in the 1970s.

At the same party Warhol caught Liza Minelli crawling on the floor and Elizabeth Taylor wearing an elephant mask. Halston himself sports plastic nipples and huge fake smiling lips.

Warhol's well-known passion for celebrities is reflected in one wing of the newly-inaugurated Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here one can admire his posters of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, vocalists Grace Jones, Liza Minelli and author Truman Capote.

Warhol's friends still recall how he was obsessed with fame, money, and with his looks, which he altered through cosmetic surgery and his trademark wig.

In Paris, Pablo Picasso's trendy daughter, designer Paloma Picasso, is portrayed showing off her Balinese finery with her husband admiring the newly-born legong dancer. Others caught inflagranti include Salvador Dali, Truman Capote, David Hockney, Lou Reed and his muse Ultraviolet who said: "Through Andy, I revealed myself. A lot of people revealed themselves through Andy. He often comes to me in my dreams."

Warhol only used a simple miniature camera and many of his photos were immediately transformed into other works of art like a series of multiple serigraphs. Remember the multi-colored series of Marilyn Monroe?

Warhol became a 'society photographer' while he himself was the center of attention of high society through the media. The black and white prints on display at the Espace Photographique are the result of Warhol's frenetic party-going in the U.S., especially New York. This King of Pop Art also traveled extensively in Europe.

In 1979 Warhol selected 51 black-and-white prints from a total of 365. Christoph Markos had insisted on exhibiting them and Warhol then added a snapshot of Pope John Paul II who surely did not join the jet-set partying across the continents. However, ill luck befell the show so this is the first time that Warhol fans can actually see them displayed.

A wave of nostalgia emanates from these candid portraits of carefree jet-setters as yet unencumbered by principles of political correctness or the decadent gloom of a fin-de-siecle atmosphere.