In the land of Warhol

Jen Ambrose has a great post about an intriguing event in Pittsburgh - no not THAT ONE...

Saturday afternoon Myles and I went to an annual Carpatho-Rusyn event. There were folk singers, dancing, artisan demonstrations, ethnic food--all the makings of a Pittsburgh church picnic except instead of at a church this was held at the Warhol Museum.

Yeah you read that right.

This was the 9th annual Carpatho-Rusyn Event hosted at the Warhol. Andy Warhol's birth name was Andrew Warhola. His parents were Carpatho-Rusyn emigres from Mikova, which is now in Slovokia. He had dropped the "a" to Americanize his name further, to distance himself from his Old World-in-America upbringing. The rest of his family that remains in Pittsburgh continue to use the Warhola name.

snip

In front of the Warhol-Basquiat collaboration Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) and near several of Warhol's other Last Supper silkscreens played a slideshow of Warhola family photos. The accompanying soundtrack was recently restored recordings of Julia Warhola (Warhol's mother) singing a capella (of course) Rusyn hymns and chants as well as some folk songs. She made the recordings in the 1950s after she followed Warhol to New York to help take care of him (and his cats). That was absolutely beautiful and such an historic treasure played for the first time publicly on Saturday.

Marvelous. Related: "Transubstantiating the Culture: Andy Warhol's Secret" from Godspy.

And check out this book, which I had several years ago and was supposed to write about for OSV, but I don't think I ever did...ahem. Sorry, David! The Religious Art of Andy Warhol.

Comments

[JAne]

I just blogged on Andy today too.
I have looked into his foundation and don't see any monies directed to Catholic charities...odd.

[wolftracker]

Did I not read before that he was a daily Communicant? Someone email Ripley's.

[Maureen]

What a strange and wonderful thing, that Warhol should truly have prayed "in secret".

Boy, it just goes to show how little we know of people, and how wrongly we can judge them. May God be good to him.

[MCG]

The word around St. Vincent Ferrer parish, where I was a parishioner for many years, was that in his last years Warhol attended Mass there every day. St. Vincent Ferrer is a beautiful church, at 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, designed by Bertram Goodhue in French Gothic style and run by the Dominicans.

MCG

[Recusant]

I wouldn't get too carried away with Warhol's alleged piety. He also, among other things, made a film called "Blow Job" which memorialized just what the title suggests. He was also homosexually active for his entire adult life. So, I, too, hope he was repentent at the end of his life and rejected the beliefs and behaviors that my two examples illustrate; however, I have not read anything that suggests such a conversion came to pass.

[Marty]

I guess if he did repent, no one would know except his confessor and/or the priest who attended his deathbed if one did. However, there are many cases of devout believing Catholics who are enslaved to some besetting sin who struggle constantly to overcome the sin and keep falling. The late Chris Farley of SNL fame comes to mind, so seriously addicted to drugs it killed him but a regular massgoer and supporter of his parish and its charities. Or more immediately, Mel Gibson and his struggles with alcoholism.

Sometimes we get all worked up about someone who is not in our view worthy to have a Catholic funeral, for example, when we don't know the whole story. Frank Sinatra comes to mind. Hardly an exemplary Catholic, he led a very scandalous life. However, at the end of his life, he returned to the sacraments, sought annulment of his previous marriage that was performed in the Catholic Church so he could return to the sacraments, and had a priest come to his home to instruct his wife Barbara in the Catholic faith as she wished to convert. Many people didn't know that and raised a stink at him having a Catholic funeral so that the family was obliged to make these details public so it would not be thought scandalous at his having a Catholic funeral. Me, I don't get scandalized if some notorious and scandalous open sinner gets a Catholic funeral. I assume they need it much more than the person who was good and pious all their life. I know we want to be jealous of the honor of the Church and prevent scandal but sometimes I think Jesus' warning about the log in our own eye is apropos.