Bob Dylan and Patti Smith Lead Homage To Andy Warhol

To coincide with Andy Warhol's birthday (August 6th), Legacy Recordings will release the most ambitious multi-artist, multimedia project upon which it has ever embarked. 15 Minutes: Homage To Andy Warhol, created with the full approval of The Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts, is headlined by Columbia Records artists Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, and 16 other world-renowned fine artists, poets, painters, photographers, actors, and musicians. "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes," Andy Warhol famously said in 1968.

15 Minutes is certain to be the most talked-about project of this fall's box set season. It will gather silkscreen prints and original recordings, created by 18 of the most prominent artists who were associated with or have been influenced by Andy Warhol. In addition to Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, there will be contributions from (in alphabetical order): Yura Adams, Connie Beckley, Brigid Berlin, Susan Breen, Nat Finkelstein Vincent Fremont, John Giorno, Jeff Gordon, Alexander Heinrici, Ivan Karp, Christopher Makos, Billy Name, Carter Ratcliff, Path Soong, Ultra Violet, and Lawrence Weiner.

The limited-edition 12x12 box set, with a lift-off lid, is a D2C (Direct to Consumer) exclusive. It is available now for pre-order at fifteenminutesonline.com in advance of the August 2nd release date through Legacy Recordings, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. There will be two versions of the 15 MINUTES box set: a deluxe edition strictly limited to 85 copies, priced at $20,000 -- and a standard version strictly limited to 1,964 copies, priced at $600. (Further details below on each version.)

The 15 MINUTES art-and-sound box set will be the focal point of a traveling exhibition that will appear in major museums and universities worldwide, through 2012 and beyond. The exhibition will open August 4th (through October 29th) at the Pollock-Krasner House in East Hampton, New York. It is also set for exhibition starting October 1st (through Jan. 8th) at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (See below for more exhibition dates.)

15 MINUTES has been curated, assembled and produced by Warhol associate and conceptualist Jeff Gordon, and his partner Path Soong for Wu-Shan Inc. Gordon, who knew and admired Warhol, has been producing original sound recordings and prints by visual artists and poets for 25 years. Soong is a respected and well-known abstract black-and-white painter. In the early '80s, Gordon conceptualized the idea of producing recordings (spoken word, sound pieces, music) by visual artists, most of whom had never been in a recording studio. Revolutions Per Minute (1982) packaged 20 of these recordings on a double LP, in a box with 20 visual prints by the 20 artists. The idea turned into a traveling exhibition, and the boxes were purchased by art world collectors, museums, galleries, and audio connoisseurs. Deluxe boxes contained signed prints, while regular boxes contained unsigned prints.

In 1995, Gordon and Soong produced Two Dialogues, a CD that featured the only known recorded interview with Jackson Pollock, together with a later extensive conversation with Lee Krasner. All sales royalties went to benefit the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. In 2005, Gordon and Soong created "31 Stones," a site-specific installation of visual and audio art, at the Pollock-Krasner House.

For the deluxe box set of 15 MINUTES, each artist has created a unique visual work which will be represented as a 12x12-inch square silkscreen print. Among the contributions are Bob Dylan's painting for the cover of his Self Portrait album (1970); photographer Nat Finkelstein's black-and-white image of "Andy, Bobby [Dylan] and Elvis"; and Patti Smith's poem "Edie Sedgwick (1943-1971)" (first published in Patti's 1972 book, Seventh Heaven), super-imposed over a photographic image of Edie. The silkscreens are individually printed by Alexander Heinrici, one of Warhol's most trusted silkscreeners. Heinrici created the original silkscreens for Warhol's world-renowned "Mao," "Flowers" and "Merce Cunningham 1," among others. Each will be numbered, signed or stamped by its creator(s). However, there are two exceptions. Ivan Karp, the art dealer who first championed Warhol's paintings, only provides an audio track (no silkscreen). And Berlin and Fremont collaborated on the same piece. So there will be a total of 16 silkscreens in the box.

In addition, each contributor will be represented by an original recording, ranging from music to spoken word (poetry, reminiscences) to abstract sound. These recordings will span three CDs, and will also be repeated across four vinyl LPs. Among the contributions are Bob Dylan's classic "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (1971), and Patti Smith's new recording of "Edie." Berlin and Fremont again collaborated on one piece (the 40-minute "Conversation," which occupies all of CD Two, and both sides of the third LP). So there will be a total of 17 unique recordings in the box.

The deluxe version of the 15 MINUTES box (limited to 85 copies) will be handmade and wrapped in black silk. It will house the 16 numbered silkscreens hand-printed by Heinrici. Along with the artwork are the three CDs and four vinyl LPs, plus individual photographs of each of the 18 contributors.

The regular version of the 15 MINUTES box (limited to 1,964 copies) will house color offset lithographs of the 16 artworks (not signed), along with the three CDs and four vinyl LPs, and the photographs of the contributors.

Among the many notable contributors to 15 MINUTES:

Lighting designer Billy Name, whose visual is titled "Nebula" and whose recording is the 11-minute "Maha Mantra," conceived the now-famous all-silver design of Warhol's Factory, and managed the Factory for many years:

Artist, actor and writer Ultra Violet, whose visual is titled "IX-XI" and whose recording is "Light," changed her name at Warhol's suggestion when they met in 1963, then went on to appear in several of his films, and also served as a muse to Salvador Dali; check out http://www.ultravioletweb.com/thebook.html for information on Ultra's book about her relationship with Warhol;

Photographer Christopher Makos, whose visual is his own black-and-white image of "Andy Warhol and John Lennon" and whose recording is the 11-and-a-half-minute "What About Me," created the "Warhol In Drag" photo series, has published more than a dozen books; for information on "Warhol And the Diva," Makos' newest exhibition at The Lowry gallery in Salford, England, please go to: