22:06
Faizan
The other day I was hanging out with my brother. We cooked dinner, and while sipping the wine, with the New Year approaching and the old one ending in a few days, we examined the life and its mysterious ways. We traveled a long way to be here, in Chicago, at this particular moment, in this time of our lives. As our experience of live expands, we gain larger perspectives of the events of our life and the mysterious powers that govern it.
Here is one of the fascinating stories my brother told me. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Wroclaw, Poland in the Nineties. On his 20th birthday, his friend gave him a book "Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol". He absolutely loved it!
The book is "Set in the dervish years of the Sixties and Seventies, Famous For Fifteen Minutes is a confession memoir of Ultra Violet. The story recounts of Warhol, a shy, bald, myopic, gay albino from an ethnic Pittsburgh suburb and the "Girl in Andy's Soup," Isabelle Collin Dufresne, a.k.a. Ultra Violet, a convent educated heiress from France. Salvador Dali, her companion for five years, introduced her to Andy in 1963". While my brother was reading the book, he wished he could see Andy Warhol's original work. Living and studying art in Poland in the Nineties, he had very slim chance of his wish to come true. How little did he know...
In the Nineties, the Socialism was still a political and economic system in Poland. The economic situation was very difficult and young people didn't have any good perspective for their future. My brother, my sister and I immigrated to the United States, and made a long and challenging journey of making Chicago our home.
Years past by, and one day, Kasia Kay the gallery owner of Kasia Kay Art Projects, that my brother worked with, called him and asked if he would like to collaborate on the project with Ultra Violet. He could not believe this was real!
He did collaborate with Ultra Violet on her project "Electric Chairs" that was exhibited in Kasia Kay's gallery, but he never met Ultra Violet, since she didn't attend the opening. Few years after that exhibition, Kasia Kay was participating in the art fair in Miami, and she asked my brother to assist her with the preparation and the events at the art fair. He agreed and very little that he knew, Kasia was representing Andy Warhol's Factory Artists! He could not believe this was real!
The art fair was organized in the hotel. Each gallery was given the hotel rooms to set up their exhibitions. Kasia's gallery set up their exhibition in two hotel rooms. Used as an exhibition spaces during the day, the rooms at night ware also used as the hotel rooms for the staff of the gallery. The room assign for my brother to stay overnight was the room in which Andy Warhol's original works ware installed! Whoa! He could not believe this!
As sleeping in the room full of Andy Warhol's work was not enough, one day Ultra Violet stopped by to visit Kasia and my brother was introduced to Ultra Violet. My brother could not believe this! He asked for Ultra Violet's autograph and she in returned asked him what she should write for him. My brother answer: "anything you want"... and that is what she wrote...
Listening to my brother's story I could not help but smile... and think:
Wow!!
Here is one of the fascinating stories my brother told me. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Wroclaw, Poland in the Nineties. On his 20th birthday, his friend gave him a book "Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol". He absolutely loved it!
The book is "Set in the dervish years of the Sixties and Seventies, Famous For Fifteen Minutes is a confession memoir of Ultra Violet. The story recounts of Warhol, a shy, bald, myopic, gay albino from an ethnic Pittsburgh suburb and the "Girl in Andy's Soup," Isabelle Collin Dufresne, a.k.a. Ultra Violet, a convent educated heiress from France. Salvador Dali, her companion for five years, introduced her to Andy in 1963". While my brother was reading the book, he wished he could see Andy Warhol's original work. Living and studying art in Poland in the Nineties, he had very slim chance of his wish to come true. How little did he know...
In the Nineties, the Socialism was still a political and economic system in Poland. The economic situation was very difficult and young people didn't have any good perspective for their future. My brother, my sister and I immigrated to the United States, and made a long and challenging journey of making Chicago our home.
Years past by, and one day, Kasia Kay the gallery owner of Kasia Kay Art Projects, that my brother worked with, called him and asked if he would like to collaborate on the project with Ultra Violet. He could not believe this was real!
He did collaborate with Ultra Violet on her project "Electric Chairs" that was exhibited in Kasia Kay's gallery, but he never met Ultra Violet, since she didn't attend the opening. Few years after that exhibition, Kasia Kay was participating in the art fair in Miami, and she asked my brother to assist her with the preparation and the events at the art fair. He agreed and very little that he knew, Kasia was representing Andy Warhol's Factory Artists! He could not believe this was real!
The art fair was organized in the hotel. Each gallery was given the hotel rooms to set up their exhibitions. Kasia's gallery set up their exhibition in two hotel rooms. Used as an exhibition spaces during the day, the rooms at night ware also used as the hotel rooms for the staff of the gallery. The room assign for my brother to stay overnight was the room in which Andy Warhol's original works ware installed! Whoa! He could not believe this!
As sleeping in the room full of Andy Warhol's work was not enough, one day Ultra Violet stopped by to visit Kasia and my brother was introduced to Ultra Violet. My brother could not believe this! He asked for Ultra Violet's autograph and she in returned asked him what she should write for him. My brother answer: "anything you want"... and that is what she wrote...
Listening to my brother's story I could not help but smile... and think:
Wow!!
Posted in: arts
