Long-lost Andy Warhol portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry discovered

[Christopher Hitchens]

Excerpt:

“A long-lost Andy Warhol portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry from 1985 that has been hanging in rural Delaware, is going up for sale, we hear, for potential millions.

The Harry portrait — and a signed disk of 10 Warhol images — was created on an early home computer when Warhol was an ambassador for a now-defunct tech outfit.

Nearly 40 years ago, the famous artist signed on as a brand ambassador to early tech company Commodore and created a portrait of the “Heart of Glass” singer on an Amiga 1000 home computer as part of a promo at Lincoln Center.

According to the Warhol Museum, the artist later made digital creations on the computer of a Campbell’s soup can, flowers and Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.” Warhol planned to distribute the images as artworks, he told Amiga World [magazine] at the time, but never did, the museum says.

However, Harry has mentioned that at least two printed copies her Warhol portrait exist.


She recalled in her 2019 memoir, “Face it,” “Andy called and asked me to model for a portrait he was going to create live, at Lincoln Center, as a promotion for the Commodore Amiga computer. It was a pretty amazing event.”

She wrote, “They had a full orchestra and a large board set up with a bunch of technicians in lab coats. The techs programmed away with all the Warhol colors, as Andy designed and painted my portrait. I hammed it up some for the cameras, turning toward Andy, running my hand through my hair, and asking in a suggestive Marilyn voice, ‘Are you ready to paint me?’ Andy was pretty hilarious in his usual flat-affect way, as he sparred with the Commodore host.”

According to Harry, “I think there are only two copies of this computer-generated Warhol in existence and I have one of them.”

Turns out the other image has been hanging in the home of a former Commodore technician for nearly 40 years.

A source explained to Page Six of the other Harry portrait, “The second — which has just surfaced after being out of the public eye for nearly four decades — was gifted by Warhol to Commodore’s digital technician Jeff Bruette, who had taught the artist how to use the then cutting-edge computer to create the portrait.”

Bruette now plans to sell off the Harry work, as well as the original Amiga disk — holding 10 digital image files — that’s signed by the artist.”


Full Article: Exclusive | Long-lost Andy Warhol portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry discovered in Delaware, going up for sale for potential millions

 

[Zargonthe great]

Blondie is (or was) The most beautiful woman in the new wave music scene. Only Marilyn Monroe would be more gorgeous. Her songs and her band had hit after hit. Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, Dreaming, The Tide is High. Andy Warhol must have agreed as his iconic Marilyn painting is a classic.

 

[slickrick27]

Oh wow I almost lost sleep over where it was.

 

[montster]

She was fit as fuck....probably still would,I was obsessed with her song maria when I was young.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Blondie is (or was) The most beautiful woman in the new wave music scene. Only Marilyn Monroe would be more gorgeous. Her songs and her band had hit after hit. Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, Dreaming, The Tide is High. Andy Warhol must have agreed as his iconic Marilyn painting is a classic.

Yea I recently discovered their early work which I quite like, I made a post in the “what are you currently listening too” or whatever it is. But yea I learned about the CBGB’s NYC scene after becoming a Ramones fan and I have their early albums a listen. I hate their later stuff, like past album three but otherwise 👍

She was fit as fuck....probably still would,I was obsessed with her song maria when I was young.

Yea she looks iconic like she has that look ya know. Never heard of that song though.

 

[Violent-Habits]

Blondie is (or was) The most beautiful woman in the new wave music scene. Only Marilyn Monroe would be more gorgeous. Her songs and her band had hit after hit. Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, Dreaming, The Tide is High. Andy Warhol must have agreed as his iconic Marilyn painting is a classic.

Fun fact: Blondie was technically the first white female rap artist. A song called Rapture, featuring Grand Master Flash of the Furious Five.

 

[Cauntsniff]

That looks lile a screenshot from that cronenberg film fuckn james woods.......video tape snuff thingy ffs wats it called........... 3 joints later......... FUCKN VIDEODROME wasn't it Debbie Harry in that as the bird in the video ........🤔🤔🤔........... short google trip later....... it fuckn was!! Man that was fucked up movie to see as a 14yr old.......

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Fun fact: Blondie was technically the first white female rap artist. A song called Rapture, featuring Grand Master Flash of the Furious Five.

No shit that’s a pretty sweet milestone! I had no idea.

Blondie is (or was) The most beautiful woman in the new wave music scene. Only Marilyn Monroe would be more gorgeous. Her songs and her band had hit after hit. Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, Dreaming, The Tide is High. Andy Warhol must have agreed as his iconic Marilyn painting is a classic.

Here is a song from them that I like.

Not devious lyrics like the others I like but a nice little tune of their.

You mention heart of glass, I never liked that song and still don’t but I really this earlier version, it’s like the mother song of Heart of Glass, is has the same dna as it but is a different person type thing, you might like it:

 

[Bruno Schulz]

Yea I recently discovered their early work which I quite like, I made a post in the “what are you currently listening too” or whatever it is. But yea I learned about the CBGB’s NYC scene after becoming a Ramones fan and I have their early albums a listen.

If you're interest in that era, there's a book that you might like called "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" by Legs McNeil. It's oral history, so it's a collection of first-person stories (via interviews) with lots of the people that were involved in that scene.

 

[Violent-Habits]

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Oh shit I posted the wrong song, that’s a clash song not blondie lol

This is the one I meant:

 

[dark skies]

Blondie is (or was) The most beautiful woman in the new wave music scene. Only Marilyn Monroe would be more gorgeous. Her songs and her band had hit after hit. Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, Dreaming, The Tide is High. Andy Warhol must have agreed as his iconic Marilyn painting is a classic.

Unless he was just cashing in and trying to appeal to a younger generation.
Blondie wasn't all that. She wasn't exactly young when Blondie formed, about 30 I think. And that was in the early 70's so we're they New Wave? Or just synth pop? There were far better looking women in the punk/New Wave scene than DH....

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

Unless he was just cashing in and trying to appeal to a younger generation.
Blondie wasn't all that. She wasn't exactly young when Blondie formed, about 30 I think. And that was in the early 70's so we're they New Wave? Or just synth pop? There were far better looking women in the punk/New Wave scene than DH....

Yea they aren’t in my top tier music but some of their songs I like. Their early stuff I like and it is different from the late stuff which I see as crap 80s pop music and disco. But the very early CBGB era where they were new and playing with all those bands I like that era song I have discovered. I guess in a word their music is “new wave” but really it’s like the Ramones in that it’s a reaction against the progressive rock and all the fancy glory costumes and hair and stuff that was popular in rock in the late 70s. If you to some of their early songs I posted in this thread, if very bubble gum poppy which is a music starting in the early 60s and peaking in the late. A song like this is a classic example of this genre of music from 1969:
Just to get a taste so you have a reference. But yea the early stuff of Blondie is a throwback to that against the contemporary rock music I’d argue and I think.

 

[dark skies]

Yea they aren’t in my top tier music but some of their songs I like. Their early stuff I like and it is different from the late stuff which I see as crap 80s pop music and disco. But the very early CBGB era where they were new and playing with all those bands I like that era song I have discovered. I guess in a word their music is “new wave” but really it’s like the Ramones in that it’s a reaction against the progressive rock and all the fancy glory costumes and hair and stuff that was popular in rock in the late 70s. If you to some of their early songs I posted in this thread, if very bubble gum poppy which is a music starting in the early 60s and peaking in the late. A song like this is a classic example of this genre of music from 1969:
Just to get a taste so you have a reference. But yea the early stuff of Blondie is a throwback to that against the contemporary rock music I’d argue and I think.

I agree...to be honest I wasn't overly enamoured with much of the NY punk scene. I liked some of it, The Ramon's, The Dead Boys (even though theyd broken up when i first heard them), to name but two. I was more involved in the UK scene from about '79 so a little late to the party but in time for the much harder UK82 Punk sound. A lot of the mid 70's Punk still had that chaotic, 'noscene' vibe where everything was a backlash against big label Prog that meant nothing and alienated it's audience rather than involving it. So, as soon as I was old enough to get an electric guitar I was off and running amd playing in bands.
Sorry, got sidetracked...Blondie, oh yeah...it was all a little lightweight for me. But women vocalists can have that effect on a bands sound. I still listen to The Dead Boys and other Stiv Bators bands pretty regularly.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

I agree...to be honest I wasn't overly enamoured with much of the NY punk scene. I liked some of it, The Ramon's, The Dead Boys (even though theyd broken up when i first heard them), to name but two. I was more involved in the UK scene from about '79 so a little late to the party but in time for the much harder UK82 Punk sound. A lot of the mid 70's Punk still had that chaotic, 'noscene' vibe where everything was a backlash against big label Prog that meant nothing and alienated it's audience rather than involving it. So, as soon as I was old enough to get an electric guitar I was off and running amd playing in bands.
Sorry, got sidetracked...Blondie, oh yeah...it was all a little lightweight for me. But women vocalists can have that effect on a bands sound. I still listen to The Dead Boys and other Stiv Bators bands pretty regularly.

Oh wow, see I’m 30 so all the bands I like are all disbanded or members dead. Like I just got into the Ramones, you mentioned them. All original members dead. Pretty soon there will be no more Rolling Stones or Beatles alive. It’s depressing really. That’s cool though that you were involved then and picked up guitar, I admire that. How did you learn guitar?

Oh and I understand the lightweight comment, I just don’t mind that and even like it if it’s the right band and song. It’s a matter of taste i guess.

 

[dark skies]

I'd been learning Spanish/Classical guitar at school from about 10yrs old, so the transition to playing Punk Rock wasn't too difficult. Lol I just started a band with some friends and we went from there...it was a blast and we played with some fairly big bands thanks to our singer writing a fanzine and I terrifying different bands, he'd always give them a demo tape and ask if we could support them. We were only 15 at the time, had to skip school to play gigs. We were called, rather embarrassingly, 'Illegal 15'.

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

I'd been learning Spanish/Classical guitar at school from about 10yrs old, so the transition to playing Punk Rock wasn't too difficult. Lol I just started a band with some friends and we went from there...it was a blast and we played with some fairly big bands thanks to our singer writing a fanzine and I terrifying different bands, he'd always give them a demo tape and ask if we could support them. We were only 15 at the time, had to skip school to play gigs. We were called, rather embarrassingly, 'Illegal 15'.

That’s awesome haha! I played trumpet in school lol. Do you have any of the recordings of your music still?

 

[hedgerow]

Oh wow, see I’m 30 so all the bands I like are all disbanded or members dead. Like I just got into the Ramones, you mentioned them. All original members dead. Pretty soon there will be no more Rolling Stones or Beatles alive. It’s depressing really.

we're all on the same conveyor belt heading to the same destination, just at different places on it

why is it depressing, when you're alive you're alive, when you're dead you're dead...so make the most out of life

 

[Tinkle_Star]

Oh shit I posted the wrong song, that’s a clash song not blondie lol

This is the one I meant:

I got into Blondie when I was nine or ten, I had all the albums, including this one…and with exception of Rapture, I was sorely dissatisfied with Autoamerican…wasn’t “Rip Her to Shreds” on the first album…I loved that one

 

[Christopher Hitchens]

we're all on the same conveyor belt heading to the same destination, just at different places on it

why is it depressing, when you're alive you're alive, when you're dead you're dead...so make the most out of life

Yea I know we are all gonna die, it’s depressing to think about that I’ll never see the bands or go to the shows I really want to and also I’ll never have the experience of having the bands I likes albums released new. Like I’ll never know what it feels like when a new Beatles album is released for example. Those aren’t pleasant thoughts of course and in life it’s not that big a deal or important but it’s something I have experienced