Andy Warhol is probably well have it away for his Marilyn Monroe screenprints or his Campbell ’s soup cans series , but he stamped his artistic imprint on quite a numeral of genres . He made dozens of movies ( includingChelsea GirlsandSleep ) , foundedInterviewmagazine , managed The Velvet Underground for a bit , and even coin a phrase—“15 minute of fame”—that ’s still used today . And though his penchant for obsessional documenting and collecting is also well known , his particular fascination with scents might not be .
Warhol ’s grasp of interests was both funnily specific and ostensibly random in range . He had prominent aggregation of Art Deco flatware , Fiestaware , World ’s Fair memorabilia , Hollywood publicity still , crime scene photos , and dental molds . For nearly 30 year , from the former ‘ 60s until his end in 1987 , he deliver all of the seemingly inconsequential ephemera from his daily life story — fan letters , paper and magazine , photos , business and personal correspondence , announcements for poetry reading material , expo catalogs — in composition board boxes he referred to as " Time Capsules . " But perhaps one of the most strange of Warhol ’s collecting projects was his " Permanent Smell Collection . " He had an chemical attraction for smells , which he discover in his 1975 Word , The Philosophy of Andy Warhol ( From A to B and Back Again ):
Warhol hold he had a habit of sneaking forth during political party to see what the host ’s preferred scents were . He write that he would n’t snoop through any of their personal effects , he was just " compulsive about seeing if there ’s some obscure perfume " he had n’t tried yet himself .
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by and by , Warhol shine on the ( arguably underrated ) powerfulness of smell , as well as a perfume ’s power to be a clock time capsule in and of itself :
Warhol seemed to consider the eroding and aggregation of perfume as an art form , a form of documentation , and a way of exerting more control over atmosphere and near - total command over nostalgia . Warhol began amassing his collection of semi - used perfumes in the early ' 60 . " Before that the tone in my life were all just whatever happen to murder my nose by chance , " he wrote . " But then I realized I had to have a form of smell museum so certain smell would n’t get lost constantly . "
By 1975 , the yearPhilosophywas publish , Warhol described his perfume aggregation as " very adult , " though he was n’t specific about how many bottles it comprised . We do know , however , that Warhol ’s perfume vertu extend for the rest of his liveliness — he made several honorable mention of scent throughout theAndy Warhol Diaries , which he stopped writing just five day before his expiry in 1987 .
But what became of Warhol ’s perfume collection ? Pittsburgh ’s Andy Warhol Museum , which address itself the “ world keeper of Andy Warhol ’s legacy , ” is the largest museum in the nation give to a exclusive creative person , and it houses not only bit of his famous work , but also an archive of his personal effects and many of his smaller - scale and lesser - known projects . ( For example , the archive check 3000 of Warhol ’s audiotapes , presumably from the geological era when he compulsively recorded all conversation and bring up to his ever - present taping recorder as his " wife . " )
Warhol ’s " Permanent Smell Collection " still exists , at least to some arcdegree , concord to museum voice Jessica Warchall . " Warhol ’s perfume collection comprises hundreds of hygienics and perfume products , " Warchall toldmental_flossin an email . " The product , from Warhol ’s personal collecting and from several ' Time Capsules , ' are held in the museum ’s archive . " Among the semi - used essence in the museum ’s archives are Halston spray cologne , Penhaligon ’s Blenheim Bouquet eau de toilette , Braggi International cologne , Ma Griffe by Carven , Paris by Yves St. Laurent , and Devin cologne by Aramis .
Warhol speaking with Elizabeth Taylor , who was also a cognoscente of perfumes . Getty
Warchall also pointed out that Warhol represented his honey of essence in his ocular art , include commission silk screen print for bothChanelandHalston , as well as other earlier works such as a 1950s drawing titled " Cat with Perfume Bottle , " a 1953 ink drawing off called " Perfume Bottle , " and a 1962 piece of work titled " Perfume Bottles and Lipstick . "
Eventually , this lifelong obsession with scents became a little more permanent than even Warhol might have intended . Athis burial , a friend rushed over and tossed some copies ofInterviewmagazine into his opened grave accent — along with a bottle ofEstée Lauder Beautiful .
