From the archives, check out this letter dated October 19, 1956 by the first director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art to Andy Warhol informing the pop artist that the museum was regretfully rejecting his generously free gift of his drawing entitled “Shoe.” The letter is currently part of the Andy Warhol Museum’s archives located in Pittsburgh. I wonder how the museum today would respond to an unsolicited gift.

I posted earlier about Andy Warhol’s junk being combed through, including that naked poster of Jackie O. Those catalogers will spend six year going through everything the artist meticulously collected during his life, ranging from fan mail to taxi receipts. I am excited to see what other oddities they find.

And speaking about oddities, a painting of Michael Jackson by Warhol, made in 1984, sold this week for over $1 Million. And while that price seems low because of the subject matter and because Warhol’s paintings tend to fetch many more millions, the painting itself is really quite lovely.

Warhol captured the childlike innocence of Jackson and the colorfulness of the 80s. It is one the last images of Jackson that makes me smile rather than squirm.

This morning’s Today Show had Matt Lauer discussing Michelle Obama’s legs and the appropriateness of the First Lady wearing shorts. Yes, sadly, this is news. But wait a minute Mr. Newscaster. Mrs. Obama is not the first First Lady to show some skin. Some have shown even more.

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Web Designer Depot is compiling a collection of Michael Jackson tributes created by various artists and designers from around the Web. Your mileage may vary with some of the results, but what is clear is that the King of Pop’s impact reverberated far beyond simply the world of music.

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If you’re lucky enough to summer on Long Island this year be sure to visit boltax.gallery on Shelter Island. From June 20 to July 6 the gallery is home to a 3rd solo show by the artist Don Florence titled “Them,” a group of paintings dealing with themes of celebrity and worship.

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photo by Bonnie Burton

Currently showing through May 3rd at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Vader Project is a collection of replica Darth Vader helmets that were given to 100 of “today’s hottest underground and pop surrealist painters, artists and designers” as a blank slate for them to “paint, design, mash up and customize.”

[Via]

ART & COPY is a slick documentary about the genuis ad men and women who created such iconic campaigns as “Got Milk?”, “Think Different” (Apple), and Nike’s “Just Do It.” “Sundance gets a lot of grief about getting too commercial and selling out,” director Doug Pray said in introducing the film. “I just want to warn you guys–there’s ads in my movie.”

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After watching last night’s debate, I was reminded of the prophetic words of Andy Warhol.

“In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.”

Well, congratulations Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, you’re famous, whether you should be or not.

Joe is also, apparently, the most important man in America, judging from the attention paid to him in the final (thank heaven) presidential debate. See, Joe wants to possibly buy a new business, one that could make $250,000 – $280,000 a year. He’s afraid that Sen. Obama’s tax plan would tax him to death, and that would be unfair, hypothetically speaking. Obama had already addressed his concerns [blogs.abcnews.com], but to Joe, it was all just so much “tap dancing,” like that other black fellow Sammy Davis, Jr. used to do, only better. [www.cbsnews.com]

Once again, John McCain failed to mention the middle class in the debate, but he had Joe the Plumber, who he portrayed as the quintessential middle class American, and that’s just as good, isn’t it?

Except that Joe hasn’t actually bought that new business, and would currently see a tax cut under Obama’s plan, which might come in handy to help do things like, say, buy a new business. Nor is it clear, even if Joe bought that business that brought in $250K a year – considerably more than most Americans make, and no sure thing given the steady decline of construction projects [construction.com]), would that translate to $250K in taxable revenue. And even if it did, Joe would see whopping tax increase of……3%. Hardly “taxed to death,” as McCain claims. Then there’s the money Joe would save on healthcare for his hypothetical employees his new business would employ, and all the other social-economic programs Joe currently or hypothetically will someday rely on that would get cut under a McCain administration to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

But that’s just “tap dancing” to Joe, who seemed to neither understand nor pay attention to Obama’s response. To Joe, it’s all about the unfairness of raising taxes on the nation’s wealthiest people, which hypothetically might, someday, include Joe. Joe’s afraid it would lead to the slippery slope of encroaching socialism. Why, under an Obama administration, the government might start nationalizing businesses! Like banks! Or they might take over one of the world’s biggest insurance companies! Joe’s fears are unfounded, as that’s already been taken care of by the Republican president whose economic policies John McCain is committed to continuing. The same conservative economic policies that the current financial crisis has exposed as a massive lump of unadulterated FAIL.

But “spreading the wealth?” That sounds like socialism, and Joe no likey. Unless of course he’s on the receiving end of the tax cuts. Then it appeals to him [www.familysecuritymatters.org]. But if he’s got to give up 3% more taxes to help other people, then HELL NO. They’re probably lazy and don’t work hard anyway, unlike the richest 5% of Americans who Joe imagines work even harder than him. Joe doesn’t think it’s up to them to help America. They got theirs, now leave those poor rich people alone! Joe also imagines “tax cuts for the middle class” is the same thing as a “handout.” Joe doesn’t want that. Or rather, he does, but he doesn’t want anyone who makes less than him to get it. Joe hates Social Security, thinks it’s a joke. [www.talkingpointsmemo.com] Joe wants deregulation in the healthcare market, because it worked so well on the financial markets. Not only does Joe not want to pay any new taxes, he doesn’t want to pay the ones he already owes.. [www.politico.com] Joe wants all the benefits of living in America without contributing to keeping the place running. Joe wants the “American Dream” – a house, some guns, a boat, college for his kid. But only for him. And the people who’ve gotten rich from the economic policies that have left the rest of the middle class behind. The middle class that Joe wants to get out of, ‘cause, really, screw them. Slackers.

Have I mentioned Joe is a registered Republican?

And his 15 minutes is, thankfully, almost up.

– Michael Turner