Warhol’s Pleasure Island
Warhol’s Muses: The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine by Laurence Leamer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2025)
Reviewed by Michael Jimenez
A counterculture, by its definition, seeks a deconstruction or a transvaluation of the dominant culture’s values. Within the moment, the movement feels like a shot of adrenaline to the status quo, especially to the youth or the bored masses. But at what cost? As Pinocchio teaches us, nihilist youth with no boundaries at Pleasure Island ultimately end up making asses of themselves.
Laurence Leamer’s Warhol’s Muses is its own kind of deconstruction―challenging Andy Warhol’s status as one of the great American artists. He accomplishes this task by highlighting the most famous bombshells, like Edie Sedgwick, connected to Warhol, pointing out that he often used the beauty and talent of the women he deemed “Superstars” for his own promotion (1-3). The book covers the following: Baby Jane Holzer, Brigid Berlin, Nico, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet, Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov, Viva, and Edie. Edie gets the most attention. Leamer asserts that Warhol: “used these women, and for the most part discarded them” (259).Warhol’s films tended to be pornographic and sadomasochistic, but his appeal centered on transgression.
Leamer does not hold back on his criticism of Warhol’s art or the Factory built around what he considers an empty concept of celebrity (141). Leamer declares, “Those women from largely upper-class families took Warhol into a social world he could not otherwise moved through” (5). While Warhol was socially awkward, the Superstars were often daily conversion partners and accompanied him to parties (3). In addition, as a gay man from an immigrant, working-class background, he would have some difficulty navigating upper class social spaces. The women made a way for him. His talent was seemingly his entry point, but according to Leamer, art became secondary to him (48). Warhol wanted to be the celebrity provocateur at the center of the New York cultural world. Warhol did not usually converse at parties but sat aloof observing―always the voyeur (46). He was also in the habit of recording all of his conversations, mostly with the other person unaware. Leamer seems to suggest that Warhol pioneered our own age of talentless celebrities (see reality TV stars and influencers).
The book introduces a Superstar then continues the narrative around the rise of Warhol’s culture machine. Some come and go in the story. Edie is the glue for most of the story, since she was Warhol’s ultimate protype, and her family story has such a twisted storyline. Among all the Superstars, Edie was born for the camera. However, it did not take long for Warhol to exploit Edie’s life, recording her trauma on film (49). Edie was so central that Ingrid was created as a twisted double for her (140-1). This was payback of sorts for Edie daring to leave the Factory. Viva, with her biting wit, may have had the most talent as an actress. However, her unfiltered mouth eventually led to her being ostracized from the entertainment culture she so desperately wanted to be a part of (211-4).
Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground appear around halfway through the book (131). Nico’s mesmerizing beauty is the vehicle that Warhol uses to manage Reed’s band. Nico’s entrance in the story is a foil to Edie’s waning popularity with Warhol. The two are both ultimately tragic characters who died too young because of drug abuse. In the case of Edie, who may have been the biggest factor in Warhol’s brand, he barely seemed to care (258). The book closes with her death and a concluding point about Warhol’s legacy.
Throughout the book Warhol is portrayed as having a parasitic and unhealthy relationship with his Superstars. Drugs were available and rampant, and Warhol clearly did not discourage drug taking even when he saw the effects. When Candy Darling died, Warhol could not be bothered to go to her funeral (243). The harsh criticism of Warhol might seem like the author is picking on him, but as the book unfolds Leamer’s judgment appears warranted. Leamer presents his qualifications at the end of the book, noting the approval of fellow biographers of the Superstars, transcripts of Warhol’s recordings stored at the Warhol Museum (still not available to the public), and Gerard Malanga, Warhol’s first artistic assistant (267-69). According to the author, the amount of secrecy surrounding these tapes is one reason more research is necessary to tell the complete story. Warhol’s Muses is a great start in this direction and well worth the read. However, it is not for the faint of heart. A disclaimer should be placed on the cover of the book because of the amount of drug and sexual abuse described.
Leamer’s Warhol Muses is a hard-to-put-down book. History tends to work well when there is temporal distance. What might have seemed groovy sixty years ago now appears cringey or borderline dangerous. Even though most of the Superstars lived troubled lives, the story of talented women like Nico and Edie continue to fascinate. Histories about these women will help revise the history around the art culture of the 1960s. Warhol may be the most famous contemporary artist from the last century, his work selling from thousands to millions of dollars. But, as Leamer declares: “Without his Superstars, Warhol might never have become a world-celebrated artist” (5). Hopefully more biographies will come out to paint an even more vivid portrait of 1960s New York.
Michael Jimenez is an Associate Professor of history at Vanguard University. He is the author of Remembering Lived Lives: A Historiography from the Underside of Modernity and Karl Barth and the Study of the Religious Enlightenment: Encountering the Task of History.
