Mario Banana #2 (1964)
Haircut (No. 1)
(Andy Warhol, US 1963, 24 min., 16mm)
Mario Banana #1 and #2
(Andy Warhol, US 1964, 4 min. and 4 min., 16mm)
Soap Opera
(Andy Warhol, US 1964, 46 min., 16mm)
Warhol. With their static shots and everyday actions, Warhol’s early films are deceptively artless. The two Mario Banana films, one black and white, one color, are typical: in a single 100-foot reel, drag queen Mario Montez eats a banana. Likewise, in Haircut (No. 1), Billy Name gives John Daley a haircut as Freddy Herko watches. But Warhol’s superstars manage to make even the simplest actions erotic. In Soap Opera, “Girl of the Year” Baby Jane Holzer stars in Warhol’s version of a daytime soap whose episodes are intercut with actual TV commercials. Provided to Warhol by TV ad man Lester Persky, these 1950s ads recall those in Warhol’s early black-and-white Pop paintings.
Prints courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.
Introduction by Douglas Crimp, Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History, University of Rochester.