New Myths

New Myths is a portfolio project in which Andy Warhol recast familiar figures from cartoons, fairy tales, and popular entertainment as material for new images. The diary follows the project through its shifting proposals: found pictures, possible diamond-dust surfaces, a Disney-themed collaboration, and finally a plan to photograph people in costumes to avoid copyright complications. The series’ significance lies not in a documented finished sequence, but in this record of artistic decisions—and in the contrast between the ready familiarity of its icons and Andy Warhol’s uncertainty about how to make them look new.

Subjects and Early Experiments

The project gathered together figures already circulating in popular culture. In one early list, Rupert Smith had been looking for pictures of Mickey Mouse for work on New Myths for Ron Feldman, alongside Donald Duck and the Shadow. Andy Warhol was working on backgrounds and considered changing the treatment by adding diamond dust. The proposal joined instantly recognizable subjects to a deliberately conspicuous surface effect: the characters would be familiar, while the material treatment might distinguish the images. At this stage, however, the diary describes possibilities and preparation, not a completed set of works.

A later conversation widened the project into a Disney/Warhol series. After discussing personal problems and art with Fred Hughes over a glass of Mirabelle, Andy Warhol was thrilled by Fred’s suggestion to use Snow White, some of the dwarfs, Bambi, Donald Duck, and other Disney figures. The proposal gave the project a broader cast while retaining its dependence on existing characters. Andy Warhol hoped Ron Feldman would approve the idea, so the exchange records both creative excitement and the practical need to secure a collaborator’s agreement. The imagined portfolio was not simply a collection of images already chosen; its scope was still being negotiated.

From Existing Images to Staged Photographs

The project’s method changed as Andy Warhol considered copyright. In January 1981, after looking for ideas for New Myths and for Mother Goose pictures, he and his collaborators settled on a different approach: invite people to dress in costumes and take the photographs themselves. The stated advantage was direct and practical—this would avoid copyright concerns. Instead of relying on pictures of familiar figures, the project could produce its own source images through costume and photography.

That decision also altered the character of the work. A picture of a cartoon character could be borrowed as an already circulating image; a costumed person photographed for the project would be a new image made by the team. The diary does not claim that this approach resolved every artistic question, but it records a concrete shift in production: from searching for pictures to arranging subjects and making photographs. The resulting method brought the project’s interest in popular icons into contact with Andy Warhol’s own photographic practice.

Myths, Performance, and the Artist’s Image

The project’s subjects included not only Disney characters but figures associated with fairy tales and horror. On Presidents’ Day, Andy Warhol worked on Myths images of Dracula and the Wicked Witch. He thought he looked good in drag and considered posing himself for the portfolio. Fred Hughes advised saving that idea for later rather than using it up in this series. The exchange made the artist’s own appearance another possible image, while also treating an idea as something that could be spent or reserved. It records a decision about the portfolio’s limits, not evidence that Andy Warhol ultimately posed for it.

The next documented public encounter with the work was less celebratory. On May 7, Andy Warhol went to Mercer Street to be photographed with the Myth prints, with Rupert Smith waiting outside because he was unsure where to go and people from Stern already present. Placed in front of the prints, Andy Warhol felt nearly sick and judged them to look too much like the 1960s. The diary’s blunt reaction gives the project a note of self-doubt: the familiar figures and the visual language assembled around them might read as a return to an earlier moment rather than a renewal of it.

The Big Myths and the Unfinished Record

The series also encompassed Howdy Doody, whom Andy Warhol photographed as one of the Big Myths. The session took place amid the news coverage of John Lennon’s murder. After photographing Howdy Doody, Andy Warhol underwent a mold-making session for a wig hat: material covered the back of his head, ears, and eyes, and the process made him feel sick while he had a cold. The first mold was dropped; an attempted replacement lost parts of his fingers to air bubbles, and the technicians then made a mold of his teeth. This episode does not establish that the mold was part of New Myths, but its proximity in the diary places the portrait project within a working life that moved abruptly between iconic subjects, image-making, and the physical procedures involved in constructing Andy Warhol’s public appearance.

Taken together, the entries show New Myths as a project continually revised in response to its materials and constraints. Cartoon pictures prompted thoughts about backgrounds and diamond dust; copyright concerns led toward original costume photographs; Dracula and the Wicked Witch raised the possibility of Andy Warhol appearing in drag; and the May photo session brought an uncomfortable judgment that the prints looked dated. The record preserves no definitive resolution to that judgment. Instead, it makes the project’s changing methods—and the distance between an appealing proposal and an image Andy Warhol could confidently present—its clearest story.