Ultra violet
Ultra Violet (actually Isabelle Collin Dufresne ; born September 6, 1935 in La Tronche near Grenoble , France , † June 14, 2014 in New York City ) was a French-American artist , author and " Andy Warhol superstar".
Life
Isabelle Dufresne grew up in a strictly religious manner and rebelled at an early age. As a teenager she was exorcised by a Catholic priest and sent to an educational institution. In 1951 she left France to try her luck in New York at the age of 16 . After meeting Salvador Dalí , whose brief “ muse ” and student she became, she began to paint herself. Dufresne joined the early 1960s, the progressive American art scene with prominent representatives such as Jasper Johns , Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist and became virtually a " Pop Art - Groupie ". In this environment she inevitably had to come into contact with Andy Warhol and his factory scene. In 1964, at Warhol's suggestion , she chose the stage name Ultra Violet for the Warhol film I, A Man , because her preferred fashion and hair color at that time was predominantly purple-lilac. Ultra Violet was the first significant superstar in the development phase of the legendary Warhol Silver Factory and played various roles in the countless Warhol films.
But the time as a "Warhol superstar" only lasted for a short time for Ultra Violet. It was soon dethroned (towards the end of the 1960s) by Viva (Susan Hoffman), a new discovery by Warhol, and "disposed of" from the factory . After some drug excesses that were not further documented and a breakdown in which she was already considered clinically dead, Dufresne finally broke away from the factory environment and concentrated on her own artistic talent.
In the mid-1970s she published her first autobiographical work: Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol , a balance sheet and account with the Warhol era. After a comprehensive review of the book in the New York Times , her memories of the Factory years were published in several countries. After that, things got a little quieter around the bustling “ex-factory girl” . She withdrew to her native France , opened her own studio near Nice in 1990 and conceived a manifesto for her own art idea, “L'Ultratique” .
She gave her last TV / film interview for the German documentary How I learned to love numbers . Dufresne died on June 14, 2014 at the age of 78 in New York City of complications from cancer .
Works
- Isabelle "Ultra Violet" Dufresne: Famous for 15 Minutes. My Years With Andy Warhol . English-language paperback edition. Avon Books, 1990, ISBN 0-380-70843-4
- Isabelle "Ultra Violet" Dufresne: Andy Warhol superstar . Lübbe, ISBN 3-7857-0535-2
Filmography (selection)
Andy Warhol films starring Ultra Violet:
- 1965: The Life Of Juanita Castro
- 1967: I, A Man
- 1967: ★★★★ (Four Stars)
More movies:
- 1969: Asphalt-Cowboy (Midnight Cowboy)
- 1970: Brand X
- 1990: Superstar, The Life And Times Of Andy Warhol
- 1992: The Secret Collection of Salvador Dalí
- 2014: How I Learned to Love Numbers
Web links
- Ultraviolet in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Ultra Violet in the catalog of the German National Library
- warholstars.org - Comprehensive website about most of the protagonists from Warhol's environment (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anita Gates: Ultra Violet, Warhol Superstar, Dies at 78. Obituary in The New York Times, June 15, 2014 (accessed June 16, 2014).
- ↑ It girl and artist: Warhol star Ultra Violet is dead , spiegel.de, June 16, 2014, accessed on June 16, 2014
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ultra violet |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dufresne, Isabelle Collin (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French-American artist and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 6, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | La Tronche near Grenoble |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 14, 2014 |
| Place of death | New York City |