Warhol, Andy

"C": A Journal of Poetry Vol. 1, No. 4 (September 1963). New York: Lorenz Gude, 1963. 4to (36 x 22.5 cm; 360 x 225 mm). Mimeograph magazine with silk-screened covers designed by Andy Warhol. Rusting to staples and minor wear to edges.

Rusting to staples and minor wear to edges.
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The fourth issue of Ted Berrigan’s landmark mimeo featuring the work of poet and critic Edwin Denby, who is depicted on the cover with Gerard Malanga. Cover design by Andy Warhol featuring silkscreen portraits after Polaroids, the first known instance in which Warhol utilized this technique. One of an unknown but small number of copies signed by Warhol, Berrigan, Denby, Malanga, and John Wieners.This issue also featuring Copies of this particular issue of C are themselves scarce, edition sizes for most issues were typically around 250. Contains corrections in both Denby and Berrigan’s hand.

Berrigan had met Warhol at a reading by Frank O’Hara early in 1963, and a later sent the artist the first two issues of his fledgling literary journal. As Berrigan’s diary notes soon after: “Andy Warhol said he’d like to do a cover for C 4.” Warhol and Malanga met Denby at his apartment where the photographs for the cover were taken. The two images finally selected – of Malanga behind Denby with both men holding hands, and the second for the rear cover of Malanga leaning in to kiss Denby – caused a stir in literary circles when it was published. As Reva Wolf explains in Poetry, and Gossip in the 1960s:

“[Warhol] spontaneously but strategically shot a series of double portraits of Denby and Malanga, using a Polaroid camera and black-and-white film. From these photographs, he selected – again, strategically – two pictures for the C cover, which were then transferred to silkscreen in order to be printed on the cover stock. Regarding technique, these portraits occupy a significant position in Warhol’s oeuvre… This is the first-known instance in which Warhol used Polaroids for silkscreen portraits, a practice he did not pursue at the time but one to which he would return and which would become his standard procedure for making portraits, beginning in 1970.” (22)