Empire At 50

6th Avenue and 30th, New York City

The Empire State Building is a star! - Andy Warhol

I attended a 50th Party for Andy Warhol's film Empire, where we watch in its entirety and celebrated Andy Warhol. I have been a fan of Andy Warhol as far back as I can remember, I find his work totally inspiring.

Empire

Empire is a classic example of Warhol’s early work in film, which began in 1963. He ignored Hollywood conventions by making a film that contained a single image for an extended period of time. Warhol said, “I never liked the idea of picking out certain scenes and pieces of time and putting them together, because… it’s not like life… What I liked was chunks of time all together, every real moment.”

From the dusk of 8 p.m. into the darkness of 2:30 a.m., Warhol captured the changing lights of the towering structure and the sky above. When Warhol premiered the film, unedited, the following March, he projected it in slow motion, bringing its length to over eight hours. - Andy Warhol Museum