The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London was the site of Andy Warhol’s press conference and an opening in June 1978. The diary presents the ICA through the activity gathered around those occasions: interviews and photographs, a crowded opening attended by punks, and a party that expanded far beyond its original scale. Its significance here lies in how the venue briefly concentrates the work and social performance of Warhol’s London visit.

Press Conference and Interviews

On June 21, Warhol took a cab to the ICA press conference, noting that the fare was four dollars. A huge crowd had gathered, and he thought the show looked terrible. He nevertheless completed twenty interviews and sat for photographs, making the press conference a substantial work commitment rather than a passing stop. The diary records the contrast between the public attention surrounding the event and Warhol’s blunt assessment of the exhibition.

After the conference, Warhol went to Marguerite Littman’s for lunch, where he had hoped to meet Rock Hudson. Hudson’s plane was delayed, and Warhol had to leave for more interviews before they could meet. The diary’s account of the day thus links the ICA appearance to a tightly scheduled circuit of publicity and social engagements without placing those other gatherings inside the institution.

The Opening and Its Guests

At the ICA opening, Warhol noted the presence of many punks. He and Ann Lambton sat near the punk band in the cafeteria and enjoyed themselves, a small, informal scene within an event otherwise described in terms of its large crowd. The cafeteria setting brings the visitors and performers into close proximity, while Warhol’s account registers the opening as both a public occasion and a place to spend time among its guests.

Fred Hughes was arranging a small party afterward at a restaurant in the Dorchester Hotel, but it grew to forty-five people. Rock Hudson arrived with his older boyfriend. Thomas Ammann took a photograph of Hudson, who did not like it; Hughes dismissed Hudson as a bore. Jack Nicholson, in London to work on The Shining, also came, although Shelley Duvall had apparently not been invited. These details show how the opening’s social aftermath gathered celebrities and acquaintances into an occasion whose final size far exceeded its original plan.

Beyond the ICA

The opening also pointed outward to London’s nightlife. Some of the younger guests, described in the diary as smoking joints, left for the Embassy Club, Tramps, and Annabel’s. Warhol was too tired to join them. The movement from the ICA’s cafeteria to the Dorchester party and then to the clubs gives the institution a role in a wider evening itinerary, while the diary preserves Warhol’s own limit: he participated in the opening and its after-party but ended the night before the club circuit continued.

Warhol left London for New York the following day, while Hughes and Bob Colacello stayed behind. That departure closes the ICA episode as a concentrated moment in the visit: press obligations, the opening, and its expanding social orbit, followed by Warhol’s return journey.