‘Andy Warhol: Soup to Nuts’

In another 1960s-bashing column, Will stated that the death of Andy Warhol raises again the insistent question: What did we do to deserve a decade as dreadful as the ‘60s?

This simplistic rendering of the man and his time portrays Warhol’s art as “nothing but the acting out of a simple, dumb idea,” and reduces radicalism of the ‘60s to “a crusade by the comfortable demanding more comfort.”

These statements belie the complexity of a generation immersed in social and political turmoil and concurrently bursting with enormous creativity. Two decades later the fact is the ‘60s continues to serve as a reference point for the last half of the century.

As Will comes to grips with Warhol’s mass-produced art many people are still coming to grips with the body count from the same period. If Will can’t accept a Brillo box as sculpture, I suggest he visit “The Wall.”

In 1983 Andy Warhol produced a series of works entitled Endangered Species, a portfolio of 10 prints. Originally done for the World Wildlife Fund, these prints were donated to environmental groups for fund raising to help save the planet from destruction.

Last year a group called Chain Reaction was formed, an educational organization fighting to protect California desert communities from a corporation called U.S. Ecology, which is seeking to establish a nuclear garbage dump. And Warhol, through the courtesy of New York art dealer Ron Feldman, donated one of these prints to our cause.

Will has presented Andy Warhol as a “banality merchant.” However, Andy Warhol’s significant contribution to environmental defense should be recognized and not go unnoticed.

DAVID SABOL

Twentynine Palms