Andy Warhol FBI Files

75 pages of FBI Files related to Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola, emerged from being a commercial artist in the 1950's to being the standard bearer of the pop art movement of the 1960's. Warhol sought to make art of mass produced and well known images, then mass producing that art. Andy Warhol's New York studio, "The Factory" became the center of his productions as painter, photographer, filmmaker, and publisher. Andy Warhol may best be known for saying, "In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes." Warhol died in 1987 after having gall bladder surgery. The files chiefly concern the interstate transportation of obscene matter investigation of Andy Warhol, sparked by his film "Lonesome Cowboys." The film staring "Chelsea Girl" actress Susan Hoffman, AKA Viva, caught the attention of the FBI, nearly as soon as it began filming. FBI agents were sent out to the Arizona shooting locations of the movie, to canvass for information concerning this "hippy" western. On June 3, 1968, during the time Andy Warhol was editing "Lonesome Cowboys," Warhol associate Valerie Solanas, shot and nearly killed Warhol. Solanas was the founder and only member of SCUM, the Society for Cutting Up Men. The files contain the review of the film made by two FBI agents attending a screening at the San Francisco Film Festival. "There was no plot to the film and no development of characters thought," wrote an agent. Despite two thumbs down from the FBI, "Lonesome Cowboy" won the best film award at the festival.