Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music enters Andy Warhol’s diary in two sharply different settings: as the Brooklyn venue for a lively production and as the cause of a confrontation over fundraising. Together, the appearances show the institution not only as a place for performance but also as a point of contact between artists, patrons, and cultural obligations.

Performance and a Night Out

In November 1984, Warhol went with Madonna and others to see Greener Pastures at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Keith Haring had designed the sets, and Willi Smith the clothes. Warhol sat next to Stephen Sprouse, admired him, and talked with him about doing show-business work. The production itself made a strong impression: Warhol praised the show and its hair design, describing hair brown underneath and red on top, with twine incorporated into the look.

The performance was part of a longer evening rather than an isolated visit. Afterward, the group went to Mr. Chow’s and then to Area, where Warhol saw Haring make dresses on John Sex. The diary’s itinerary links the Academy’s stage to the city’s restaurants and nightlife, recording the event alongside the people, conversations, and movements that made up the night.

Fundraising and Conflict

At Thanksgiving, Warhol recalled going to a performance by Boy George with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cornelia Guest. Basquiat then remembered Halston’s Thanksgiving gathering and urged them to go there. By the time they arrived, the turkey had been put away and dessert was being served. Bianca Jagger began punching Warhol and Basquiat, leaving Warhol with a bruise, while demanding that they contribute to Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Warhol’s account turns the fundraising request into an angry dispute about who should be expected to support the institution. He objected to Jagger asking artists for contributions and contrasted that appeal with her access to wealthy people. His resentment was sharpened by his sense that her public seriousness about artists did not match her conduct at the gathering. The diary records the Academy’s name at the center of the demand, but the scene’s immediate subject is the collision of artistic identity, money, and social power.

Place in the Diary

These mentions are brief, but distinct. At the performance, Brooklyn Academy of Music is a working cultural venue, associated with Haring’s sets and a production that Warhol found exciting. At Thanksgiving, it becomes an institution whose needs are invoked in a private social setting, with artists treated as prospective donors. The contrast reflects the diary’s characteristic movement between public culture and intimate encounters: a show is recorded through its collaborators and visual details, while a dispute over support is preserved through its circumstances and consequences.

The entries also sit within a record-keeping practice that was at once personal and administrative. Warhol and Pat Hackett spoke on weekday mornings about the previous day’s activities and cash expenses; the accounts included even small phone charges, and receipts were attached to typed pages stored in letter boxes. That exacting attention to daily events gives the Academy’s appearances their documentary texture: the performance and the argument are not abstract references to cultural life, but moments placed among the people, venues, and practical business of Warhol’s days.