Larry Gagosian

Larry Gagosian enters the diary through two linked forms of access: a business dinner from which Andy Warhol suspects he was excluded, and a California exhibition for which Gagosian has obtained a Rorschach Test painting. Their exchange over the work turns a gallery connection into a direct dispute over who may show it; later, Warhol’s crowded opening at Gagosian Gallery places the relationship in the setting of his own exhibitions.

A dinner Warhol suspects was concealed

In an account immediately preceding the November 7, 1986 entry, Warhol expected Gagosian to host a pre-opening dinner for him. Fred told him, in effect, that the dinner had been cancelled. Warhol says he would explain the matter later and suspects that Fred did not want him there, but the diary does not establish why the dinner was called off or whether Gagosian intended to exclude him.

Paige then invited Warhol to a business dinner at Chantilly’s, where he arrived with her forty minutes late. Afterward, the party went to Nell’s. There Warhol saw Gagosian seated with Fred, Faye Dunaway, and Jerry Hall. The scene made him think this might have been the very dinner he had been told was cancelled. Fred mumbled that he had wanted to discuss business with them alone, which sharpened Warhol’s suspicion without resolving it: he presents the apparent concealment as his interpretation, not as a confirmed arrangement.

The Rorschach Test dispute

At Nell’s, Gagosian told Warhol that he had obtained Warhol’s Rorschach Test for his California show. When Warhol asked where it came from, Gagosian said Leo had supplied it on consignment, not by selling it. Warhol responded that Gagosian could not have the work. His objection was not merely about its provenance: he described it as one more show he would lose, connecting control of this single painting to his sense of being denied another exhibition opportunity.

The exchange reveals a tension within their gallery-world dealings. Gagosian could assemble work for a California exhibition through a consignment from Leo, while Warhol asserted that the painting was not his to exhibit in that way. The diary records Warhol becoming angry and firm, but gives no account of what happened to the consignment afterward or whether the dispute was settled.

Gagosian Gallery and Warhol’s opening

On Friday, November 7, Warhol’s opening took place at Gagosian Gallery. The exhibition included the Piss Paintings and Oxidation Paintings, and the gallery was so crowded that Warhol described the room as packed. Older women stood close to the surfaces and asked how he had made the works; he chose not to tell them what they really were, because they were standing with their noses right up against them.

Stuart called the works masterpieces, though Warhol wondered whether he was simply flattering him. The opening thus supplies a contrast to the earlier uncertainty over the California show: here Warhol’s work is on view at Gagosian Gallery, receiving praise and drawing close inspection, even as Warhol remains wary of how others frame or respond to it. The diary establishes Gagosian’s gallery as a venue for Warhol’s work, but does not say whether Gagosian attended the opening or connect him directly to the visitors’ reactions.