"Andy Warhol Photography"

ArtForum, April, 2001 by Rhonda Lieberman

And his films Kiss and Screen Tests provide a rare yet trying treat. Staring at Susan Sontag's wall-sized face for several minutes, one is rewarded with Zen-ish insight into Warhol's power and boringness. Excited by the slightest relief from the monotony, be it flicker or twitch, our sense of palpable anticlimax puts us where celebrity and nothingness are one. We expect the famous thing to offer up its secret--but wind up with nothing save our fantasy. The show ends with understated "still lifes" of money: crumpled bills styled in tidy rolls and dumped loose, the ultimate fetish demystified, like just stuff.

My only complaint regards the unworthy offerings in the gift shop. You'd think such a tour de force of spin-offs would inspire better tchotchkes! One hoped for high-low fun like, say, socialite fridge magnets or Liz flasks, only to find dreck like a $35 Andy doll with Cabbage Patch--like face and Campbell's T-shirt and icky Planet Hollywood--esque neckties. Dommage!

Rhonda Lieberman is a writer living in New York.