Lot Details
Lot 1136
BRIGID BERLIN Typed letter signed to Andy Warhol.
[New York:] 7 April 1974. One page typed letter signed in blue ink "Brigid" and with a few ink additions. 11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 22 cm). Usual folds and light handling creases, small toned area in the upper margin.
Brigid Berlin opens this chatty letter "Andy dear, It's no wonder you didn't go to the POP opening at the Whitney! I walked in and out of there today!" She asks "Do you remember Rotten? How's Orion?" Referring to Rotten Rita, an early Factory denizen known as "The Mayor" who was close to Berlin and rumored to be an amphetamine dealer and Orion de Winter who had been featured in Warhol's film The Pope Ondine Story, 1966. Berlin closes the paragraph "Let's not bother to silver the office: PICTURES WERE THE 60's. KEEPING TRACK THE 70'S!" In the next paragraph, Berlin reports on Hank Aaron's progress in chasing the homerun record, which enraptured fans at the beginning of the 1974 season. She mentions the Yankees playing at Shea Stadium due to the renovations at Yankee Stadium and adds in ink "Let's go to games this spring!" The letter closes thanking Warhol for sending yellow roses and closes "Remember when you used to send me daisies and tell the florist to cut the stems real short so you could fit them in your air travel bag?"
In the early spring of 1974, Andy Warhol travelled to France for the opening of his Mao Wallpaper exhibition at the Musée Galliera in Paris. Around this time he was also photographed by Helmut Newton. The tone of the letter suggests a slight distance between Berlin and Warhol at this time and Berlin was known to be reclusive in this period as she attempted the straight and narrow. This certainly changed in 1975 when Berlin became a full-time employee at the Factory and remained as close as anyone to Warhol until his death. Letters from this period are scarce.
C Estate of Brigid Berlin
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