Finkelstein, Nat: Andy (1–4) (1968–90)

Nat Finkelstein was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a degree in economics at Brooklyn College, but, encouraged by Walter Rosenblum, he switched to photography courses at the same institution. At the age of 21, he acquired his first camera and soon presented his portfolio to the Pix agency, which accepted it. In 1958, he enrolled in the photojournalism program at the New School under Alexei Brodovitch, and began publishing in various outlets, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. His subjects ranged widely: civil rights demonstrations in the East Village, protests against the Vietnam War, 1960s fashion, and the lives of New York’s Native American community. In the early 1960s, he collaborated with Claes Oldenburg, one of Pop Art’s most significant figures. After meeting Andy Warhol, between 1964 and 1967 he documented life at the Factory, photographing the Velvet Underground, Nico, Brian Jones, as well as its many visitors, including Bob Dylan, Marcel Duchamp, and Salvador Dalí. This period was later compiled in The Factory Years album. From 1968 to 1984, he distanced himself from both photojournalism and America, turning instead to a variety of pursuits: he contributed to Up Tight, an informal history of the Velvet Underground, experimented with video art and portraiture (including a portrait of Laurie Anderson), organized exhibitions, and traveled extensively in Europe. In his later work, photography became a medium of pure artistic expression. The Andy I–IV series was created after his Factory years, yet remains deeply connected to that intellectual milieu. Using Warhol’s iconic image, Finkelstein employed the techniques and processes Warhol himself favored: starting from a photographic base, playing with negative–positive effects, applying silkscreen methods, and ultimately producing a reproducible portrait of Warhol as a sequence of variations.