Jed Johnson moves out of Andy Warhol's home

Jed Johnson’s move out of Andy Warhol’s home ended their shared domestic life and left Warhol negotiating the difference between being relieved to live alone and fearing the loneliness of a large, emptied house. The diary first records the decision with striking reluctance, then returns to it months later as a rupture that continues to shape Warhol’s attempts at intimacy.

The Decision to Leave

On December 21, 1980, Warhol wrote that Johnson had decided to move out and that he did not want to talk about it. Johnson had bought an apartment on West 67th Street to work in; now he had decided to live there as well. The brief entry gives the practical change plainly, but Warhol’s refusal to discuss it makes the departure feel emotionally difficult to approach. The apartment’s double purpose—as workspace and home—also marks Johnson’s move toward a separate life.

Living Alone

By April 1981, Warhol looked back on the fights of the previous Christmas and acknowledged that he had put off telling the diary about his emotional problems. He was living alone and, in one sense, felt relieved. Yet the house seemed too large to occupy with only Nena, Aurora, Archie, and Amos for company. The separation had altered not just who shared the home, but how Warhol experienced it: solitude could bring relief and still feel intolerable.

Turning Toward Jon Gould

Warhol described trying to fall in love with Jon Gould, while recognizing that the attachment could become a fantasy sustained by constant thought and repeated meetings. He also framed the crush in practical terms, imagining that Gould’s career might help generate movie ideas or bring Paramount advertising to Interview. The mix of longing and business calculation did not keep the relationship at a distance: at an Easter dinner, Warhol gave Gould a tour of the house and hinted that it could all be his, even pointing out a room with his name on it. Against Johnson’s departure, the invitation reads as an effort to make the house—and a place within it—available again.