Debbie Harry discusses her friendship with Andy Warhol
Debbie Harry is undoubtedly one of the most iconic performers still thriving in the music industry. At the forefront of the inimitable Blondie, she tore through the New York new-wave scene of the mid-1970s and made countless high-profile friends along the way, including none other than the now-famed pop artist Andy Warhol.
In an op-ed published through Artnet, Harry recalled her friendship with Warhol and his impact on her life. She wrote: “Andy was the master of blurring the line between art and commerce. His art played with the conventions of commerce—marketing, mass production, branding, popular culture, advertising, celebrity. He also blurred the line between serious and playful. He was very serious about his work, but he approached it with a sense of humour.”
Harry noted that she had first met Warhol with his extraordinary entourage when she had been waiting tables in a nightclub named Max’s in Kansas City. She had always felt the influence of Marcel Duchamp, Dada and Popism, as had Warhol. It was with great delight that Harry actually managed to befriend Warhol. Her piece continued: “Chris [Stein] and I found ourselves on Andy’s invitation list. He would ask us to dinner sometimes. He didn’t eat much; he’d often cover up his plate with a napkin and take it with him and leave it on a ledge somewhere for a hungry street person. Later on, he invited us to his parties at the Factory on Union Square.”
The parties at the Factory were said to be wild, with all manner of musicians, fashion designers and celebrities all in attendance. Harry noted Warhol’s affable demeanour: “Andy, in his way, was very sociable and hung around with any and everybody. One of his great skills was that he was a very, very good listener. He would sit there and suck all of it in. His curiosity was endless. He was also extremely supportive of new artists. Chris and I adored Andy—and to find out that he was a fan of ours was heavenly.”
Famously, Warhol put Harry on the cover of Interview magazine, and she describes the meticulous method that Warhol used to take photographs. “How it worked was that first Andy took some photos of you,” Harry wrote. “He used one of those unique Big Shot Polaroid cameras that looked like a shoebox with a lens on it. The Big Shot was designed for portrait use only – and the quality of the shots was often striking. Perfect for Andy. After taking the Polaroids, he would show them to us and ask quietly – Andy was very soft-spoken – ‘Well, which one would you like?’ I saw a couple that I thought were good but I said, ‘That’s really up to you.’ He’s the artist; it seemed to be the safest thing to have him choose. “
The photograph on the cover is one of the most iconic of the several taken of Harry, and she revealed a deep love for it: “I’ve lived with that Andy Warhol portrait for a long time now, so I’m much more used to it, but seeing all these portraits of yourself for the first time, by an artist who was so important to you, was startling. I guess I was just stunned. And humbled. The portrait itself has taken on a life of its own – reproduced countless times and exhibited in numerous galleries worldwide. I still have that original Warhol. I can’t imagine parting with it.”