The story of Warhol is the story of the Warhol stars, those who remain glittering and those nameless, erased, absorbed into Warhol himself, never making a name for themselves-or much of anything from being the pulse of the Factory in the ’60s. Anyone who collaborated with or worked for Warhol during that time became a sort of avatar. The films, and the Factory and its stars, served as a constant entourage for Warhol, a crowd in which he could hide.
Without these accomplices to hide behind, Warhol would have had no art. His biographer Wayne Koestenbaum argues that, “His work’s major theme was interpersonal manipulation, sociability’s modules at war.” But despite the co-dependency between Warhol and his stars, and their obvious infatuation with and loyalty to him, few, writes Koestenbaum, seemed to have loved him. The relationships were often described as having a cold quality, with Warhol in possession of an oddness that put even those close to him off.
Warhol, Koestenbaum notes, was never comfortable in his skin, never capable of fully finding a footing in social (or romantic) situations-yet he was eternally obsessed with fame society, sex, and power.
