Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties

An incredibly readable account exposing the inner workings of Andy Warhol's Factory. Not just an account of the happenings within the "Factory", this author gives a far reaching account of the characters lives who made an indelible effect upon the "Factory". The Downtown scene of NYC in the 60's was alive as a spring pond; full of an energy, drawing a pool of characters together who went on to make the expanding art scene become more reflective of their generation. The theatrical world, the music world, the fashion and art worlds were all breaking from previous tendencies. This book produces an incisive view into how these the young artists transformed the homogenous 50's into a collective rainbow of media possibilities that better represented sexual and stylistic diversity. Tastes were expanding to include homosexual themes, indulgence in drug fueled appetites and fashion derived from street-wise sensibilities. Andy's world of film and fashion exercised its inclusive methods by filming insomniacs of all classes who were living in the moment. This book grasps all of these threads and presents them in a very clear, linear stream.

To anyone interested in the creative zeitgeist of 1960s New York, Steven Watson's FACTORY MADE is a must read.Feelings about Andy Warhol's art aside, Steven Watson's reportorial history may leave younger readers slightly incredulous that so much trail blazing could have been happening then, and older readers will have their memories jarred with recognition of times they lived through. As I read I frequently found myself going,"Ah ha!"--it was as though little pieces came together page by page to put the puzzle of the period into a broad picture that also clarified bits of this reader's own life. I saw Warhol's first show at the Ferris Gallery in Westwood in 1962. I found myself in a restaurant called Max's Kansas City in June of 1966 (an unforgetable experience for a green 21-year-old). I saw Andy Warhol and what must have been the Velvet Underground entourage sitting in an open-air cafe doing nothing--just hanging out in West LA (Watson explains why). My sister-in-law was a nurse at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. She treated this "complete crazy" named Edie Sedgewick. Had I heard of her? She kept talking about Andy Warhol.At first I thought, "Oh, no! Another book on Andy Warhol." Well, as far as I'm concerned this is THE book on Andy Warhol. It is much better than good. For the first time the super-famous Sixties artist is shown as a real-life person. Watson's writing is amazingly descriptive, deducing people's thinking and social interaction from original interview material. The writing style is amazingly fresh and fun, yet serious at the same time. Everything else I've read on Warhol has kept in place the shroud of his own calculated mystique--a mirage of mystery, contradiction, celebrity, and passivity. Watson's text clears that all away. Hey! Andy was flesh and blood after all. Now THAT is a great accomplishment, and I suspect a first in the Warhol literature.A period of only eight years (to 1968) is dealt with which amplifies the concept of the brevity of artistic "periods" with their volcanic creativity. I found myself referring to the personality "map" at the book's beginning again and again for orientation and clarity. This map/chart is actually very important for structural reasons. Watson has always been deeply interested in the social-creative dynamic with it's accompanying synchronicity that mysteriously brings creative people together before they're "famous." He's dealt with this question quite literally in his books and has expressed it by measuring people's physical proximity to each other. Thus, each year, each month that is chronicled in FACTORY MADE is a kind of maping of the characters' actual location and emotional/mental journey with relation to each of the others--almost like watching blips on a radar screen.I found myself looking for one or two characters I liked best in the Silver Factory group. I found them, and they didn't include Warhol. At a deep level Watson's book reveals Warhol's genius at collaboration, and how much he relied on other creative minds to nurture his own. Watson gives credit to other members of the Factory when it's due. At the deepest level this book deals with the topic of the potential that lies simply in meeting people. And to realize that this potential is out there for each of us every day is something we should never forget.

wow... what amazing people, and what an amazing book! i finished it in two days, that's how easy and addicting it is to read. very detailed, and full of great pictures. i closed the book wishing that i could be there, somehow, at the factory in the sixties; i felt like i had bonded with Edie, Billy, Brigid, Candy, Jackie, Holly, Nico... it is a profoundly sad and haunting book, considering how the majority of these people are dead from liver failure, cancer, overdose, suicide. i will definitely read it again and again.

The author does a wonderful job of giving a chronology of Warhol's Factory and its many interesting characters, weaving them in and out in a highly readable manner that takes into account the context of the 60's. Highly recommended!

Billy Name's aluminum-foil walls of the Factory saw and heard everything and FACTORY MADE comes close to repeating all of it with photos.

It's all here, Thank you Mr. Watson!

BIL loves it

Great Value! It was a really great and awesome book and I couldn't find it any cheaper any where else.

Wow what a crazy book! Nevertheless very in depth and entertaining about the characters made famous by Andy Warhol.