The End Of Warhol’s Unconventional Magazine
An end of an era. The historic Interview magazine, founded by Andy Warhol in 1969, has closed down.
A wall of Interview magazine covers is one of the displays seen at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. (Photo: Getty Images)
Interview magazine was one of the most famous arts and culture publications of downtown New York for the last 50 years. Back in its glory days, Interview was nicknamed as the “Crystal Ball of Pop”. David Bowie, Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Cher were just a few names who became covers of this cultural talking piece.
Peter Brant was the owner of the glossy magazine since 1989. The bad news of the magazine’s folding came out this week after facing a series of financial and legal issues. According to Page Six, Fabien Baron, the former editorial director, and his wife, the stylist Ludivine Poiblanc, filed a lawsuit against the magazine earlier this month claiming more than $600,000 for consulting and styling work. But the magazine’s problems didn’t end there. Karl Templer, the creative director of the magazine, was also accused of sexual misconduct. In February, Interview was kicked out of its luxurious Soho offices since the landlords were not receiving the rent checks.
This avant-garde publication has repeatedly monopolized the interest of its readers with its sophisticated covers. Even the most recent ones, such as the September 2017 issue, illustrating Kim Kardashian as Jackie Kennedy photographed by Steven Klein.
The magazine had iconic status. Interview was featured in the CW’s television series The Carrie Diaries, a prequel to HBO’s Sex and the City, where the young Carrie Bradshaw leaves her small town in Connecticut to get a full-time job at Interview, in New York City.
“I tell everyone they can be on the cover of Interview,” once said Andy Warhol to the late editor Glenn O’Brien. Indeed, many did. But, what about now? How will the rest of us get our cover?
