In conversation with John-Paul Pryor
“I approach writing and design in much the same way I approach making music with my band The Sirens of Titan. It’s all about creating an atmosphere for me, and then allowing intuition to take the wheel.”
- John-Paul Pryor
John-Paul Pryor. Image credit Andrew Hobbes.
In a new photographic book from The Warhol Kennedy Residence, John-Paul Pryor introduces a vulnerable side to the legendary pop artist never seen before.
The inimitable John-Paul Pryor is a well-known face on the London scene, respected for his work as an arts writer, creative director and editor for various style publications – as well as the songwriter at the heart of critically acclaimed art-rock outfit The Sirens of Titan. Suffice to say that his output is multi-disciplinary and diverse, and his energy and enthusiasm for ideas is nothing short of infectious. His latest project has been to help shape The Warhol Kennedy Residence – an appointment-only destination devoted to the lost archive of the late-photographer William John Kennedy, who shot the legendary Andy Warhol on the brink of fame. The unique London address invites you to get up-close-and-personal with a creative moment that would come to re-shape the landscape of contemporary art, and this week itlaunches the associated book John-Paul has designed and edited – a beautifully produced volume containing both his keen selection of the imagery and an interview with esteemed psychiatrist and Warhol contemporary Dr Phillip Romero. Here, he shares the inspiration behind the book, gives us an insight into his creative process, and shares his take on the man Lou Reed dubbed Drella.
Tell us about the Warhol Kennedy Residence…
It’s a permanent appointment-only residence in London that is exclusively devoted to exhibiting previously unseen photographs of pop art icons Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana by the late-William John Kennedy – a broad-shouldered and handsome ex-soldier who was briefly ensconced in the bohemian netherworld of Warhol’s legendary Factory. It’s a really interesting collection of portraiture that not only shines a light on a more playful Warhol early on in his career, but that also reveals a vulnerable side to the legend. Lost for just over 40 years, these incredible images of two giants of contemporary art captured in the nascent stages of their respective careers were discovered purely by chance, when Kennedy came across a tattered box of negatives at home that he had shot between 1963 and 1964 some 40 years later.
A spread from The Warhol Kennedy Residence book, designed and edited by John-Paul Pryor.
That is an incredible story. Was this an important creative period for both of them?
It was the period in which both artists were presenting key works that would become emblematic of the counterculture movement that would sweep across the world - Indiana’s iconic LOVE image, which would grace the MoMA Christmas card in 1964, and Warhol’s now ubiquitous Campbell’s Soup screen-print, being two of the most recognisable works of contemporary art ever to be mass-produced. Coming from a military background, the young Kennedy was perhaps an unlikely candidate to shoot the two men so candidly, but he was welcomed into both their worlds with open arms. The veteran of the Korean War first met Robert Indiana at an art opening in New York in 1963, and the two struck up a keen friendship that led to him being introduced to Warhol at the now legendary exhibition The Americans at the Museum of Modern Art.
Why do you think Andy was so open to being shot by Kennedy?
Honestly, my guess is that Andy was smitten by Kennedy’s All-American good looks and athletic physique. He immediately invited him to document life at The Factory, which led to very intimate access not only to Warhol, but also to his various friends and acolytes, such as the poet Gerard Malanga, model Ultra Violet and the eccentric star of many of Warhol’s short films, Taylor Mead. While the period captured was one of profound relevance for both Warhol and Indiana, it was something of an anomaly for Kennedy, whose career post-1964 took him away from the glamour of the New York art scene and into the realm of commercial photography, which he produced under the auspices of various advertising agencies for the next 30 years.
A spread from The Warhol Kennedy Residence book, designed and edited by John-Paul Pryor.
How did you get involved in the Warhol Kennedy Residence, and what do you focus on in the book?
Well, I met the founder via the brilliant Lisa Baker, who I work with a lot, and he was looking for a way to get these images out into the public consciousness. It occurred to me to call the address on The Strand that houses the images The Warhol Kennedy Residence, and it has garnered lots of attention since. We've hosted a couple of exhibitions, such as the recent one with David Hill Gallery, and had some great gatherings, most notably with Dr Phillip Romero, author of Andy Warhol’s Brain: Creative Intelligence for Survival, which basically asks what we might find out if we could put Andy Warhol on the couch, and how those sessions might help us better understand our own creativity. It was great to interview Dr Phil for the preface of the book and talk about the various ways in which creativity can make us all more adaptable and fluid – protecting us from our past traumas and inspiring us to create a better present for a more secure future.
A spread from The Warhol Kennedy Residence book, designed and edited by John-Paul Pryor.
How did you curate the selection of images for the book?
I would say that the selection process for the book was pretty much intuitive. It’s just very much about what I’m drawn to. I tend to work that way with everything. I approach writing and design in much the same way I approach making music with my band The Sirens of Titan. It’s all about creating an atmosphere for me, and then allowing intuition to take the wheel. I like to think maybe that is an approach Andy himself would have approved of. It was such a pleasure to work on as obviously Andy is a true icon, and you really feel there is a personal element in the images – a sense of the man aspiring to be an artist rather than the brilliantly constructed persona that soon came after. It’s also the first in a series of associated books we’ll be producing. There is more to the William John Kennedy story to come!
The book is available exclusively from The Warhol Kennedy Residence.
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Marie Bak Mortensen is Director of Create London. Create commissions bold, radical and socially engaged art and architecture in the public realm, collaborating with local communities to commission work that is ambitious, purposeful and useful…