Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/417540
photography by christopher makos Painting the town: Peter Wise and Andy Warhol on the slopes in Snowmass, where the Pop artist cut his teeth as a skier—and sprained his wrist. Andy Warhol? On skis? "It was totally out of character to get Andy to the top of a mountain, let alone get him in ski gear," says Warhol biographer and Vanity Fair writer Bob Colacello. "He was not very athletic. He had a real hard time breathing out there." Aspen Times editor Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, who inter- viewed Warhol in 1981, also remembers him as being "kind of a klutz." But in 1982, Warhol ventured out to the Roaring Fork Valley, rented a house in Aspen with a few friends from the Factory, and took to the slopes. "He went to the top of the bunny hill and it took him an hour to get down," says artist Peter Wise (pictured here beside Warhol). Eventually, he sprained his wrist. "The bandaged wrist was the badge of honor he was looking for," Wise explains. "Now he could show off his ski injury and be conversant at all the cocktail parties." But he was also drawn to Aspen's glamor. Throughout the '80s, Warhol visited Aspen over the holidays, the celeb-drenched time of year, with Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, Calvin Klein, and Barry Diller at the center of the swirling social scene. Warhol's connection to Aspen dates back to the late '60s, when he guest-edited the third issue of Aspen: The Magazine in a Box, an avant-garde multimedia publica- tion. But it was art collector John G. Powers, former president of Prentice Hall publishers and an Aspen Institute trustee, who first brought Warhol, along with an exhibition of his work, out west to Colorado State University. The two became friends when Powers began collecting Warhol's work; later, Warhol completed 24 silkscreen portraits of Powers' wife, Kimiko. After her husband's death in 1999, Kimiko built the Powers Art Center, which opened this summer in tribute to her husband, to share their extensive art collection with the public (see page 86). Warhol's portrait of Powers with a saxophone hangs in the entrance. This year's 20th anniversary of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has reignited interest in Warhol nationwide. Last summer the 212 Gallery held a Warhol pop-up selling event. On display were one-of-a-kind, never-before- seen, black and white Warhol photos depicting small-town Aspen before it became a popular hot spot, along with snowy scenes of the environment. "Land is the best art," Warhol has said, referring in part, no doubt, to the pristine 40-acre property he owned in Carbondale. For a boy who grew up in a working-class manufacturing town near Pittsburgh, the artist never stopped gushing about the spectacular Aspen scen- ery—the big fir trees, the fresh, white snow—often saying in his whispery voice, "Gee, it's just like a Christmas card." AP Mountain PoP as the powers art center embarks upon its first aspen winter, powers family friend andy warhol's love affair with the city comes into focus. by judy deyoung 18 aspenpeak-magazine.com FRONT RUNNER