The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has added more than 400 rarely seen images of famous figures who passed through Andy Warhol’s Factory, from David Hockney and Debbie Harry, to Georgia O’Keeffe and Paloma Picasso. According to the institution, the images were captured by the artist Ronald “Ronnie” Cutrone as stereoscopic slides, pairing two photographs to create the illusion of three-dimensional depth.
Cutrone, a performer (with the Velvet Underground, notably), painter, and nightclub impresario, worked as Warhol’s studio assistant from 1972 to 1982, documenting during that decade the creative constellation that comprised his orbit. He worked closely with Warhol throughout his career—reportedly calling the Pop artist a “second father” following his death—and went on to exhibit his own paintings and illustrations of canonical cartoon imagery alongside downtown titans such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Building on Pop Art’s appropriative ethos, Cutrone’s work was dubbed “Post-Pop.”
A boon for the Smithsonian, Cutrone’s images feature Al Green, Bruce Nauman, Mick Jagger, and Dennis Hopper. Most striking is O’Keeffe gazing at her portrait by Warhol—the sort of creative crossover that, for a moment, makes myths feel human.
