1. Andy and His Cats: 25 Cats Name Sam and Holy Cats
Marina Bardash Nebro
CUNY Queens College â MA in Art History
December 2017
2. Andy Warhol, arguably one of the most notable artists of the 20th
century, and perhaps the
most notable artist of the second half of the 20th
century, was not only a prolific and talented Pop
Artist. Throughout the 1950s, Warhol spent his days as a commercial artist, working on
assignments for projects such as magazines, books, and window displays. This era of his life is
often overlooked by scholars and the lay community for a variety of reasons. Once Warhol
entered the Fine Art world through his Pop Art, he tried to minimize his participation in the
commercial art sphere. The antagonism between fine and commercial art still continues to today,
with fine art placed on a higher pedestal and given more importance and attention. Artistic
movements such as the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as the Bauhaus, sought to limit the
distinction, or to remove it altogether. This paper seeks to blur the boundaries between fine and
commercial art, giving the latter its time to shine.
Within Warholâs oeuvre of 1950s commercial work, there is yet more of a breakdown of
what is covered in his autobiographies, biographies, and monographs. Warholâs I. Miller shoe
campaign is mentioned in most publications about the artist, as it was his âbig break,â so to
speak, in the world of commercial art. This paper looks to pay attention to Warholâs lesser
studied works, particularly those that fall into the category of âpromotionals,â or small artist
books that Warhol used to promote himself as a prolific and talented commercial artist. Of these
eight books, as identified by Nina Schleif in her essay âClever Frivolity in Excelsis â Warholâs
Promotional Books,â two are fully dedicated to cats: 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy
(1954), and Holy Cats (1960). They importantly bookend Warholâs commercial art career, with
25 Cats being his first hard cover âpromotional,â and Holy Cats being the final promotional
work before Warhol entered the world of Pop Art. This paper will argue for the significance of
these two works in Warholâs personal life, as well as in his professional career.
3. ***
Andy Warhol truly viewed himself as an outsider, even claiming, perhaps in jest, that âhe
was from another planet⊠[and] didnât know how he got here.â1
The feeling of being different
was not only a figment of his imagination, but a reality in the art world. For the first part of his
artistic career as a commercial artist, Warhol struggled with entering into the gallery scene with
peers such as his former roommate, Philip Pearlstein, and other notables such as Jasper Johns
and Robert Rauschenberg. Warhol was not the only gay artist in the 1950s, but he was unique in
that he did not feel the need to hide it. When his old friend, Pearlstein, was accepted to the
Tanager Gallery, Warhol tried to use the connection to his advantage, hoping to get some gallery
time for himself. Because Warholâs artwork was overtly sexual, displaying men kissing and the
nude male form, Pearlstein ultimately turned him away. Even his fellow gay artists pushed
Warhol to the periphery. Warhol was too âswishâ for the fine art community. As his friend
Emile de Antonio would later say, âââŠthe major painters try to look straight; you play up the
swish â itâs like an armor with you.ââ2
De Antonio, fondly referred to as âDeâ by Warhol, was
the man that pushed Warhol into the world of fine art. Unlike many, De saw little distinction
between fine and commercial art. While he catapulted Warhol into Pop Art, at the same time, he
helped fine artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg find work in window
displays.34
The 1950s art world was dominated by abstract expressionism, and the AbEx movement was
marked by its machismo and heightened sense of masculinity. The 20th
century dandy that he
1
Victor Bockris, Warhol, (New York: Da Capo Press, 1997), 115.
2
Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, POPism The Warhol â60s, (San Diego, Harcourt Brace & Company), 12.
3
Jesse Kornbluth, Pre-Pop Warhol, (New York: Panache Press at Randomhouse, 1988), 18.
4
Warhol, Popism, 12.
5. later also help Warhol in selling and promoting his work. This group of young men would get
together and help Warhol by coloring in his black and white prints. Warhol gave them little
direction, allowing them to â[follow] their own whims in coloring; their mistakes and accidents
[becoming] part of the books and part of their charm.â9
The mistakes fit in perfectly to the naĂŻve
and quirky quality of Warholâs aesthetic.
Julia Warhola was a vital part of Warholâs early commercial art. She would provide the
calligraphic embellishments to all of his works. Perhaps he relied on her for this task because he
was dyslexic, but with his motherâs broken English, her typos were not much better.10
Warholâs
relationship with his mother was very complex. While he tried to hide her away from the public
eye â she only ever ventured out to his first gallery opening â she was also an important part of
Warholâs brand. Her folksy, Eastern-European calligraphy matched Warholâs quirky aesthetic.11
He would use her artwork and the name âAndy Warholâs Motherâ to further his career. Schleif
goes as far to say that he used his mother to â[underscore] his dawning ambition to be perceived
as an artist. The artistâs mother⊠is an art-historical topos that⊠was useful in helping Warhol
to develop an identity as a fine artist.â12
Andy Warholâs promotionals utilized the aid of both his coloring parties and his motherâs
calligraphy. It was common practice at the time for commercial artists to send small gifts to their
magazine editors, but just as Warhol uniquely approached his projects, he also had his own spin
on gift giving. He personalized his offerings, sending âart directors hand-finished work that
looked for all the world like original art⊠or packages of birdseed, with instructions to plant the
9
Lucy Mulroney, âOne Blue Pussy,â Criticism, Vol. 56, No. 3, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014), 572.
10
Nina Schleif, âCarefully Unplanned Books in Andy Warholâs Oeuvre,â Reading Andy Warhol, (Germany: Hatje
Cantz Verlag, 2013), 20.
11
David Bourdon, Warhol, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989), 43.
12
Schleif, âCarefully Unplanned,â 20.
6. seeds and watch as they grew to become birds.â13
Tina Fredericks, the first art editor to pick up
Warhol for Glamour magazine, remembers âeggs, wonderfully painted⊠in traditional,
complicated, colorful Ukrainian patterns.â14
With the addition of his promotionals, it is no
wonder that Warhol was able to turn heads and make himself known in the world of commercial
art.
***
Andy Warholâs 1950s persona was strongly linked to his fondness for his feline friends.
Many biographical blurbs about Warhol would include his proclivity towards cats. A 1954
Interiors example, an important date as it marks the printing year of 25 Cats, writes about
Warholâs contributions to the magazine and his upcoming gallery shows. At the end of the short
paragraph, however, the blurb states, âand after a thorough housecleaning, he has newly acquired
ten cats named Sam.â15
This quote highlights the importance of cats in Warholâs life, and places
them in the same breath as his commercial art accolades.
Warhol graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949 and immediately
moved to New York City with his college friend, Philip Pearlstein. Between 1949 and 1952,
Warhol lived with Pearlstein and a variety of friends and roommates in different residences.
David Bourdon describes Warholâs living situation as a revolving door of roommates,16
the artist
always having people around to keep him company and to keep him occupied. Eventually,
Warhol was able to move out on his own. One way in which he marked this move was by
obtaining his first Siamese cat. Another way in which this notable change in address can be
13
Kornbluth, Pre-Pop, 143.
14
Kornbluth, Pre-Pop, 13.
15
Mulroney, âBlue Pussy,â 577.
16
Bourdon, Warhol, 30.
7. marked is that Warholâs mother, Julia Warhola, officially moved in with her son.17
Not to say
that Warhol was incapable of living on his own and taking care of himself, but the combination
of cat and mother may represent his need for company, and his yearning for love and comfort in
a world where he felt himself an outsider.
At some point between 1952 and 1954, one cat turned into âeight [or] twenty, depending
on how quickly Warhol could give them away.â18
Without spaying and neutering his animals, it
is no surprise that they multiplied quite rapidly. The matriarch and patriarch of this cat family
were Hester and Sam, both prominent figures that would later play into 25 Cats and Holy Cats.
This multitude of cats can be seen as a parallel of the horde of roommates Warhol lived with in
the early part of the 1950s. Mirroring the ârevolving door,â while the number of cats increased,
others would fly the coop â he would give kittens away to friends, and even gift them to
important magazine editors.19
If you can compare cats to cockroaches or rats, Warhol had a true infestation of felines on
his hands. There were cats everywhere. In 1953, Warhol and Julia moved into an apartment on
Lexington Avenue, which later became a sort-of duplex as âthe parlor floor⊠became availableâ
a year later. He relegated his workspace, his motherâs quarters, and his cats all to the second
floor, while the parlor was utilized for entertaining guests and throwing parties.20
Cats would
spill his ink and mark his works, almost imitating his blotted-line technique in real-time.21
When
Warhol later hired an assistant to help keep up with his work assignments, âhalf the job⊠was
17
Bourdon, Warhol, 31.
18
Bockris, Warhol, 102.
19
Kornbluth, Pre-Pop, 13.
20
Bourdon, Warhol, 36.
21
Bourdon, Warhol, 33.
8. keeping the cats from playing with the accessories.â22
The way in which Victor Bockris, an
important Warhol biographer, describes the horde of cats is incredibly vivid: âThey roamed
through the paper jungle, clawing and pissing on Warholâs materials and periodically storming
through the unruly heaps of art work in fits of feline mania⊠the cats appeared to be âlike his
surrogate childrenâ⊠The smell, they said, was something else.â23
Warhol was a collector of art and antiques, and had pieces from artists as notable as Paul
Klee and Constantino Nivola. Even these precious items were fair game for Warholâs cats, as
they climbed and scratched his Nivola sculptures.24
âRaggedy Andy,â a nickname that referred to
Warholâs appearance during the 1950s, even let his pets urinate and tear up his clothing and
shoes.25
As Bockris put it, Warholâs cats âbecame part of his legend.â26
His cats were truly
integrated into his professional and personal lives, marking their territory on his work and his
person.
25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy
Copy number 4 of 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy greets its reader with a hard cover
image of a pink cat named Sam. Floating in space with no environment to ground him, Sam
appears to be laying on his side, without fear of the viewer. His face is somber, and his eyes
have an empty stare. Above him is the title of the promotional, typo and all, written by the hand
of Andy Warholâs mother. Below his hind-legs and his tail is his name, Sam. The colophon on
the first page reads:
22
Bourdon, Warhol, 42.
23
Bockris, Warhol, 102.
24
Kornbluth, Pre-Pop, 98.
25
Bourdon, Warhol, 39.
26
Bockris, Warhol, 102.
9. This edition consists of 190 copies which have been printed by Seymour Berlin
P.L. G. 8070.
This is copy no 4
Andy Warhol
25 Cats name Sam and one Blue was written by Charles Lisanby
Facing the colophon page is the same image of Sam from the cover, this time colored in a cool
purple with piercing red-orange eyes. This particular edition features 17 images of cats, far from
the claim of 25 in the title. Next up is a coy red Sam, propping himself on his front legs with a
cheeky smile, his fur much unrulier than the first Samâs. Sam number three is nothing but sweet,
with cascading locks of dark blonde and an endearing grin. Then follow two more pink Sams,
sitting upright and majestic, one with a tail left uncolored by one of Warholâs coloring party
collaborators. There are fat Sams, baby Sams, grooming Sams, and duo Sams. There are Sams
displayed in all their glory, and Sams depicted as simple profiles (Fig. 1).
The last of the 17 cats is not Sam, however. Without a standard name, he is identified as One
Blue Pussy. Painted in a rich turquoise with green eyes, One Blue Pussy sits on the page with
his head held high in anticipation. He is looking at someone or something; waiting (Fig. 2).27
25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy is a standout example of an Andy Warhol
promotional book. Printed in 1954 by Seymour Berlin, a collaborator who helped on all of his
promotionals, there are many elements that differentiate it from the rest of Warholâs work. Of
the eight books he produced between 1952 and 1960, 25 Cats was made with the most editions,
close to 190 copies. It is unclear how many actual copies were printed, however, because
27
It must be mentioned that One Blue Pussy can also be interpreted as a double entendre, but this interpretation
does not relate to the focus of this paper.
10. Warhol did not have a systematized way of numbering his works. As lower numbers are more
valuable than higher ones, Warhol would randomly assign numbers to each of his books, leading
to easy duplication. One of his favorite numbers to assign, for example, was no. 69.28
Of his promotional books, 25 Cats is the first to be completed with the help of Warholâs
coloring parties. The above description of the book begins with a clarification in number â copy
number 4 â because no two copies were exactly alike. The order of the cats differed, as did the
way in which each cat was colored. The latter is due to the fact that many different people had a
hand in coloring them.
The way in which Warhol used line in 25 Cats is very distinct from his first two promotional
works.29
Whereas his earlier style was very fine and delicate, focusing only on outline, the cats
in this book are given a lot more attention. The Sam featured on the cover and first page is
patterned heavily with consecutive short, parallel lines. The second Sam is textured with curved
groupings of short lines to hint at a fluffier coat. Even One Blue Pussy, with the least amount of
detail, still features these short marks on his face to show shadow on his nose and the texture of
his ear. Similar patterning is seen in his later works such as his Fashion Show Backdrop painted
on window shades a year later (Fig. 3), and The Wonderful World of Fleming-Joffe produced in
1960 (Fig. 4). Interestingly, both works use such texturing to connote the skins of animals.
25 Cats is also the first of Warholâs works to utilize the iconic calligraphy of Julia Warhola.
It marks the beginning of his eclectic and folksy branding. To quote Alfred Carlton Willers, one
of Warholâs first love interests, âAndy, Julia and the cats⊠all seemed to have emerged from a
28
Bourdon, Warhol, 47.
29
Nina Schleif, âClever Frivolity In Excelsis Warholâs Promotional Books,â Reading Andy Warhol, (Germany: Hatje
Cantz Verlag, 2013), 92.
12. Many art historians have compared the look of the blotted line technique to the style of Ben
Shahn, Alexander Calder, Paul Klee, and David Stone Martin. Jesse Kornbluth argues that Paul
Klee, rather than his American counterparts, was a stronger influence in regard to Warholâs
blotted line. âAmerican critics have tended to ignore any European influence on Warhol⊠For
this reason, Swiss painter Paul Klee â whose visionary and whimsical paintings were among the
first Warhol bought when he began collecting â is perhaps a more significant influence than the
politically minded Shahn.â33
With the addition of Juliaâs calligraphy, and Warholâs folksy
branding, Kornbluthâs argument is not so far-fetched.
Apart from being a significant part of Warholâs commercial and later fine art career, 25 Cats
Name Sam was also integral as part of the artistâs personal life. In her 2014 article âOne Blue
Pussy,â Lucy Mulroney argues that 25 Cats was a work that âspeaks in the language of camp,â
and is innately related to Warholâs sexuality.34
She compares the book to earlier works with
underlying queer themes. She claims that the book unified New Yorkâs 1950s gay community,
through Warholâs coloring parties, and suggests that Warhol was a coterie artist, one whose
âwork directly addresses its local [gay] audience rather than a broader and anonymous
readership.â35
Rather than look at the hypothetical impact of Warholâs work on the Cityâs entire
gay community, it would be better to take a more intimate look at 25 Cats and its implications in
Warholâs personal life.
Andy Warhol was an extremely private person where his love life was concerned. Due to
illness throughout his childhood, Warhol became very self-conscious about his physical
appearance. He hated his nose and his complexion, related to a malady from his youth. From
33
Kornbluth, Pre-Pop, 56.
34
Mulroney, âBlue Pussy,â 563.
35
Mulroney, âBlue Pussy,â 573.
13. birth, he also experienced âvery prominent hemangiomas, or collections of blood vessels, chiefly
on the scrotum⊠They looked like little collections of rubies, lots of them.â36
Such a crippling
lack of self-confidence inevitably led to Warholâs privacy and secrecy about his own love life,
but it can also explain his fascination and overt exploration of sexuality through his art.
Throughout his adult life, Warhol experienced crushes on pretty boys, or âunattainables.â37
Perhaps in this sense, Mulroneyâs argument holds. In her essay, she references Jonathan
Flatleyâs âLike: Collecting and Collectivity.â In this essay, he contextualizes Warholâs drawing
collections â his cocks, his shoes, his feet â into his larger habit of collecting. In his specific
argument, he speaks about Warholâs âcollectionâ of drawings of his friendsâ genitals â the
genitals of the unattainables. Similarly, the 17 cats in 25 Cats can be interpreted as yet another
collection, representative of the unattainables with which Warhol surrounded himself. Mulroney
states, âthese cats produce a space of sociality and affiliation that not only reflects the display
tactics and serial logic of commodities but also⊠creatively envisions a way of relating that does
not conform to the norms of the nuclear family or a binary model of identification and desire.â38
During the 1950s, Warhol was smitten with a man named Charles Lisanby, a production
designer with many connections to celebrities. Warholâs infatuation never went anywhere, but in
the early part of the decade, he would constantly hang out with Charles. In 1956, Warhol even
traveled the world with Lisanby, with the hopes of finally being able to consummate his love.
Needless to say, that did not happen. Charles was yet another tick mark on Warholâs list of
unattainables.
36
Scherman, Genius, 8.
37
Bourdon, Warhol, 47.
38
Mulroney, âBlue Pussy,â 563.
14. Charles Lisanby is an important figure for 25 Cats Name Sam because he is credited as its
author. In reality, Charles only helped in titling the book, as Warhol already had the collection
of cat drawings before binding them together in a promotional. Though Charlesâ input is
seemingly trivial, Warhol found it important enough to include his name in the credits. This was
an important distinction, as Warhol did not often include the name of his collaborators â Julia
Warhola was only ever listed as Andy Warholâs Mother, and his assistants and coloring party
friends were never credited.
Not only was Warholâs personal life embroiled into his promotional work â Charles being a
big part of 25 Cats â, but he brought his promotional work â in the form of his printer â into his
personal life. 1954, the year in which 25 Cats was published, was also the year in which Warhol
met Charles. That winter, Warhol enlisted Seymour Berlin to help him improve his physique.
Berlin was the man who printed all of Warholâs promotionals. Warhol wished that his workouts
with Berlin would help âimprove his appearanceâ in the hopes of impressing Charles.39
Warhol, an outcast of the 1950s art world, and the quirky one-off in the world of commercial
art, is the personification of One Blue Pussy. Surrounded by all of the other cats who are
grooming, lounging, and cuddling, he sits and waits. These cats may be zoomorphised versions
of his coloring party friends, or his running list of unattainables. His head is held high in
anticipation, looking off at something or someone â Charles, perhaps? He is both part of the
group, as One Blue Pussy is part of the larger promotional, but separate, as his name does not
conform to all the others â Sam.
39
Bockris, Warhol, 116.
15. Holy Cats
Holy Cats opens with a pink title page featuring somewhat sinister-looking angels, and
one fat, smiling cat. The misshapen catâs outline is drawn as a series of dots. The title and
authorship of the book is written within this dotted border â âHoly Cats by Andy Warholâs
Mother.â The next page is a deep yellow dedication page â âThis little book is for my little
Hester who left for pussy heaven.â Again, a happy cat is drawn out of a series of dots, this time
a little less misshapen and wearing a plumed hat. What follows is the imagined story of Hesterâs
life in heaven. Of Warholâs promotionals, Holy Cats is the only one with a solid narrative.
Some pussys [sic] up there love her; Some donât; Some angels up there love her;
Some donât; Some like it day; Some like it night; Some donât like it at all; Some
wear hats; Some wear chapeaux; Some donât; Some talk to angels; Some talk to
themselves; Some know they are pussycats so they dont [sic] talk at all; Some play
with angels; Some play with bays [sic]; Some play with themselves; Some donât
play with nobody; And once in a while one of them goes to the devil.
The illustrations on the 19 pages of Holy Cats are notably different from the blotted line
images in 25 Cats (Fig. 5). Drawn by Julia Warhola, it is no wonder that the style is different.
Where Warholâs cats are based off of stock photographs, giving them a sort of static nature,
Juliaâs appear to be wholly imagined. Her cats are lopsided and disfigured, and their faces are
generally anthropomorphized. Even further, she dresses up her cats with fancy hats. The book
also includes images of angels, humans, and other creatures. Julia was extremely religious, so
the strong presence of angels, crucifixes, and heaven can be attributed to her Eastern Orthodox
background. Warholâs influence is very present, however, especially on the âSome angels up
16. there love herâ page. The cherubs are very similar to those in Warholâs 1956 In the Bottom of
My Garden promotional book (Fig. 6).
While the drawings in Holy Cats did not undergo a coloring party overhaul â only the
cover features colored-in angels â, the book still utilizes color in an interesting way. Out of all of
Warholâs promotionals, this 1960 book is the only to be printed on colored paper. For most of
the pages, the colors seem to be paired with the drawings at random. However, on the âSome
like it nightâ page, black paper was chosen, and the drawing was inverted to white â a clever
play on the content of the story.
The text itself is straightforward, yet filled with humor. It describes, in short and curt
sentences, the personalities and activities of various characters found in âpussy heaven.â Certain
lines, however, elicit a chuckle or two. For example, âSome know they are pussycats so they
dont [sic] talk at all,â takes a step back from the strong personification of cats throughout the
story, and acknowledges the fantastical nature of âpussy heaven.â Another example, âSome play
with themselves,â is paired with a drawing of a smirking cat â tight smile and narrowed eyes â
perhaps hinting at a subversive, double-entendre message. And glaringly, the final sentence of
the book: âAnd once in a while one of them goes to the devil.â Again, paired with a smirking
cat, one can only ponder why. Why do some cats go to the devil, and why do they seem so sly
about it?
It may seem odd that Warhol would use his motherâs illustrations to serve his own
promotional purposes. As mentioned above, Warhol used his motherâs eclectic, folksy
background and aesthetic as his own brand. The text in the book is written in the classic Julia
Warhola calligraphy. Instead of attributing the book to Julia, he attributed it to Andy Warholâs
17. Mother, âso that one would find the product filed under Warholâs name.â40
Although
opportunities such as Holy Cats, and an earlier 1957 Serendipity show âCats with Hatsâ
demonstrate Warholâs support of his motherâs naĂŻve art, it also always served his own purposes.
For example, Juliaâs inclusion of the onomatopoeic âpurrâ reverberating around her cats, was
coopted by Warhol later on in his illustrations for an unpublished childrenâs book titled âSo.â41
It is unclear who was the mastermind behind Holy Cats. While the illustrations can
definitely be attributed to Julia, as well as the calligraphy, the actual story is up for grabs.
According to David Bourdon, Julia described Warhol as a âharsh taskmaster; sheâd be âso tired,â
but heâd insist âyou have to get up and do another pussycat.ââ42
With this in mind, perhaps
Warhol pushed his mother to create these drawings for the larger purpose of creating a narrative.
Warholâs own personal connection to Hesterâs death may also play a part in arguing his
ownership of the story.
Like 25 Cats, the themes in Holy Cats are important in regard to Warholâs personal life.
Death and afterlife are explicit motifs in this book, both of which were subjects on which Warhol
constantly perseverated due to his own maladies and religiosity. Less overt is the theme of
difference. When analyzing 25 Cats on its own, each Sam seems to be unique and different.
Only towards the end, with the arrival of One Blue Pussy, does the viewer realize that perhaps
they are more similar to each other after all. However, when viewing 25 Cats alongside Holy
Cats, the sameness of the Sams as compared to One Blue Pussy is emphasized from the outset.
Holy Cats constantly points out that in âpussy heaven,â there are cats of all kinds â some do and
40
Schleif, âClever Frivolity,â 124.
41
Schleif, âClever Frivolity,â 130.
42
Bourdon, Warhol, 58.
18. some donât. No one is left out due to their difference. If One Blue Pussy were in âpussy
heaven,â he definitely would not have been relegated to the last page, all on his own.
Warhol was a very sensitive individual, and cared deeply about the creatures around him
â perhaps more so than he cared about his fellow human-beings. In Warholâs Diaries, he
reminisces about his dear cat Hester, and specifically recollects on her death.
I once gave [Bettie Barnes] a kitten and the kitten was crying and I thought it wanted
its mother so I gave him the mother. We had two cats left, my mother and I had
given away twenty-five already. This was the early sixties.43
And after I gave him
the mother he took her to be spayed and she died under the knife. My darling
Hester. She went to pussy heaven. And Iâve felt guilty ever since. Thatâs how we
should have started Popism. Thatâs when I gave up caring.44
Here, Warhol concludes that the cold, manufactured, impersonal aesthetic of Pop Art is
due to the deep grief and loss he felt for his dear Hester. If only he had not cared so
much about the kittenâs cries, Hester would have survived.
Grudin explains that âWarholâs imaginings of animal life were typically
expressed in a tragicomic tone, as though he understood them to be literally utopian â
desirable but unattainable.â45
While never mentioning it in his study, Grudin is perfectly
describing Holy Cats. Filled with chuckle-worthy lines and suggestive kitty smirks, Holy
Cats is comedic while also being a memorial for a dearly beloved pet â tragic. It is
43
For an understanding about the dating of Hesterâs death and the publishing of Holy Cats, read Schleif, âClever
Frivolity,â 130.
44
Anthony E. Grudin, âWarholâs Animal Life,â Criticism, Vol. 56, No. 3, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
2014), 603.
45
Grudin, âAnimal Life,â 594.
19. utopian, in that it describes a world where anything goes, where cats can be as âswishâ as
they like â they can play with boys, dress in hats, and perhaps participate in some
naughty activities that send them, not so horribly and with a smile, to the devil. While
Warhol was not able to attain a world such as this in his real life, a world of full
acceptance, the imaginary world of âpussy heavenâ was his desirable ideal.
***
The reading of 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy and Holy Cats in sequential
order, from 1954 to 1960, emphasizes crucial details of Andy Warholâs personal and
professional lives in a new light. A new arrival to New York City, Andy was grappling
with loneliness, insecurity, and the feeling of being an outsider. At the same time, he was
honing his personal aesthetic, the blotted-line technique, as a way of immortalizing his
work in print. 25 Cats brings the personal and professional together through the motif of
cats, highlighting Warholâs self-doubt and isolation as One Blue Pussy, while
championing his innovative style. By 1960, Warhol was on the precipice of fame, and
though he would always struggle with being self-conscious, he was no longer on the
sidelines, so to speak, in the art world. Similarly, Holy Cats has no lone Blue Pussy, but
rather, features a more accepting plane of existence.
The chronological reading of these two promotionals brings the viewer from the
beginning of Warholâs commercial career to the moments before Pop Art. By looking at
Andy Warholâs commercial art career, and specifically at these books, it is evident that
the aesthetics and processes of his âutilitarianâ art clearly blend into and fed his future
Pop Art. Fortunately, more attention is now being paid to Warholâs early career, with
20. publications such as the Museum Brandhorstsâ Reading Andy Warhol. This paper seeks
to become part of the larger discussion on Andyâs pre-Pop career.
Andy Warholâs fascination and focus on cats and other animals did not begin with 25
Cats in 1954, nor did it end with Holy Cats in 1960. In college, he created a kitty book,46
and he would later produce a series titled Cats and Dogs in 1976 (Fig. 7). Anthony
Grudin has begun to delve into âWarholâs Animal Life,â but there still remains a lot more
research to be done. A study on Cats and Dogs would be very enlightening, especially as
a comparison paper to this one.
While the subject of cats is often treated as trivial or interpreted as kitsch, a deeper
study of the felines in Warholâs life (Fig. 8) proves that cat art can be dealt with in a
serious and academic manner. One of the hopes of this research is to encourage more in-
depth and thoughtful investigations of animals, and more specifically cats, in the history
of art.
46
Schleif, âClever Frivolity,â 92.
21. Fig. 1 Andy Warhol, 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, (New York: Panache Press at Random House, 1987).
22. Fig. 2 Andy Warhol, 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, (New York: Panache Press at Random House, 1987).
23. Fig. 3 Andy Warhol, Fashion Show Backdrop, 1955
24. Fig. 4 Andy Warhol, The Wonderful World of Fleming-Joffe, 1960
25. Fig 5. Andy Warholâs Mother, Holy Cats, (New York: Panache Press at Random House, 1987).
26. Fig. 6 Andy Warhol, In The Bottom of My Garden, 1956
Fig. 7 Andy Warhol, Cats and Dogs, 1976
27. Fig. 8 Edward Wallowitch, Andy Warhol Holding Kitten, 1957
28. Bibliography
Bockris, Victor. Warhol. New York: Da Capo Press. 1997.
Bourdon, David. Warhol. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1989.
Grudin, Anthony E. âWarholâs Animal Life.â Criticism. Vol. 56. No. 3. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press. 2014.
Kornbluth, Jesse. Pre-Pop Warhol. New York: Panache Press at Randomhouse. 1988.
Mulroney, Lucy. âOne Blue Pussy.â Criticism. Vol. 56. No. 3. Detroit: Wayne State University
Press. 2014.
Museum Brandhorst. Reading Andy Warhol. Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag. 2013.
Scherman, Tony and David Dalton. POP The Genius of Andy Warhol. New York: HarperCollins.
2009.
Warhol, Andy. 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy. New York: Panache Press at Random
House. 1987.
Warhol, Andy and Pat Hackett. POPism The Warhol â60s. San Diego: Harcourt Brace &
Company.
Warholâs Mother, Andy. Holy Cats. New York: Panache Press at Random House. 1987.