New York magazine

New York magazine appears in the diary as a client for Andy Warhol’s portrait work, commissioning images of Truman Capote for a cover. The assignment links the practical details of magazine production—an idea, finished portraits, and a usage fee—to Warhol’s broader concern that this work was compensated too cheaply.

The Capote Cover Commission

On September 11, 1984, Warhol wrote that he was making paintings of Truman Capote for the cover of New York magazine. Two days later, he noted that he had worked on the cover. The entries trace the commission as an active piece of work rather than a passing proposal: Warhol returned to it over several days, and the finished portraits were soon collected for the magazine.

The Magazine’s Response

On September 17, Vincent Fremont picked up the small Capote portraits. The magazine’s representatives had expected Warhol to do something new, but he had made them in his usual manner, believing that was what they wanted. The mismatch turned on competing expectations: the magazine wanted a fresh approach, while Warhol understood the commission as a request for his recognizable style. New York magazine agreed to pay a usage fee for the portraits.

Fees and the Labor of Image-Making

The fee led Warhol to question the low prices he received for magazine assignments. He contrasted the portraits’ modest compensation with the production behind a previous New York magazine cover photograph for his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: Carl Fischer had a complete set built and worked with about eight assistants. The comparison made the labor and resources behind a cover image newly visible to him. Thinking about how cheaply he worked for magazines, Warhol became agitated and called Vogue to ask about money it owed him. In the diary, the Capote commission therefore records both the circulation of Warhol’s familiar image-making and his dissatisfaction with the terms on which magazines paid for it.