Andy Warhol’s January 9, 1982, openings of Dollar Signs and Reversals brought two exhibitions together as a single social occasion. The crowded rooms, artist encounters, and improvised vantage point on the stairs made the night feel less like a routine gallery event than a return to the company of an earlier art-world moment; the next morning’s silence supplied a sharp counterpoint to its bustle.

Two exhibitions, one opening night

Dollar Signs opened at Castelli Gallery on Greene Street, while Reversals opened at the gallery’s West Broadway location. Warhol described the paired exhibitions as a double opening, moving from one venue to the other as the evening unfolded. Their separate addresses gave the occasion a sequence: first the crowded gathering, then a visit to the Greene Street show and its prominent guests.

Artists and the view from the stairs

Bob Rauschenberg, Joseph Beuys, and Hans Namuth attended, lending the gathering the quality of a busy day in the 1960s. The artists’ presence prompted Warhol to reflect on their attractiveness, a brief personal observation that sits alongside the opening’s public spectacle. Rather than remaining fixed at the center of the room, he found the stairs the best place to watch the crowd and sign things, making the stairway both a practical perch and a point from which to meet visitors.

At the Greene Street opening, James Rosenquist was among the prominent guests. Unsure what to say, he told Warhol that he loved a photograph of him. The exchange brought the evening’s attention back to Warhol himself: the exhibitions gathered people around the work, while a guest’s praise of his photograph made the artist’s public image part of the occasion too.

The morning after

The following morning, Warhol recorded a sudden reversal in the social atmosphere: after the busy opening, no one called all morning. His brother finally rang at 12:45, and Brigid Berlin also called to say that she had visited Viva at the Chelsea, where Viva had just had her baby. The diary’s turn from a crowded, artist-filled night to a quiet morning gives the event an afterimage beyond the gallery: public attention was intense in the moment, but it did not guarantee continued contact once the opening was over.