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Jon Gould

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Jon Gould
Gould in 1982
Born
Jon Jewell Gould

(1953-05-07)May 7, 1953
Amesbury, Massachusetts
DiedSeptember 18, 1986(1986-09-18) (aged 33)
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNew England College
RelativesNathaniel Currier (great-great uncle)

Jon Jewell Gould (born May 7, 1953 – September 18, 1986) was an American film executive for Paramount Pictures.[1] He had a secret romance with artist Andy Warhol in the 1980s. Following Gould's death from AIDS, his collection of Warhol's works was shown at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont.[2]

Life and career

[edit]

Jon Jewell Gould was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts on May 7, 1953. Gould was born into a prominent Yankee family which has owned a 900-acre dairy farm and estate since the 1700s. Through his mother, Gould was related to Nathaniel Currier of Currier and Ives fame.[3][4] He had a twin brother, Jay Gould, who is a restaurateur and investor.[5]

Gould graduated from New England College in 1975.[6] A former student in Harvard University's Harvard Radcliffe Institute in the publishing program and he was then hired by Rolling Stone as an advertiser.[6] Afterward, he began working as Vice President of Paramount Pictures, where he specialized in marketing films such as Urban Cowboy (1980) and Flashdance (1983).[7]

In November 1980, Gould met artist Andy Warhol through a mutual friend, photographer Christopher Makos.[8][1] Warhol was initially interested in meeting Gould so that he could get Paramount to advertise in Interview magazine.[9][10] Warhol soon began to pursue a romantic relationship with Gould in 1981, but Gould told him that he was not gay.[11] The two men began spending more time together and Warhol made a silkscreen portrait of Gould in 1981.[12]

Gould had a certain pedigree that attracted the artist, becoming the most photographed subject of Warhol's later career.[13] As former Interview editor Bob Colacello wrote in the book Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up, "Old money, Harvard, Hollywood it was a résumé that Andy couldn't resist. And there was something else about Jon Gould that drew Andy toward him: like Jed Johnson, [Warhol's previous boyfriend] he had a twin brother named Jay."[14] "To those of us who were working with Andy at the time, it was obvious that he was suppressing the hurt of losing Jed ... by going completely gaga over Jon Gould," Colacello wrote in an article for Air Mail.[15]

Although Gould was Warhol's "romantic obsession," their relationship was likely platonic.[16] Warhol made an offer to give Makos a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch if he could get Gould to sleep with him.[17] "He said, if you get me a boyfriend, I will get you the watch. So I got him the boyfriend, and I said, time to pay up. He said, well, nothing's happened yet," said Makos.[18] Gould also told a friend that his relationship with Warhol was "asexual."[14] As a result, he had relations with other men and frequented the baths.[14]

An issue of complexity was that Gould was closeted and had not come out about his sexuality.[5] Therefore, their bond was concealed from his family as a friendship.[7] In 1982, Gould moved into Warhol's townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where he had his own room.[17] Because Gould didn't want to receive mail at Warhol's townhouse, he purchased an apartment with assistance from Warhol at the Hotel des Artistes on Manhattan's Upper West Side.[17] Jay Gould said that when he visited his brother at Warhol's home he asked him about the nature of their relationship. "He said there was no sexual contact, that they were just good friends," Jay Gould recalled.[7] After Gould's mother died in 2019, his family discovered his romance with Warhol through letters his mother had kept.[5]

In 1983, Gould worked to get the Showtime network, owned by Paramount, the film rights to the Diana Ross concert in New York's Central Park.[19]

Gould was admitted to New York Hospital with pneumonia on February 4, 1984.[1] Although Warhol had visited him in the hospital, after his release, Warhol instructed his housekeepers to wash Gould's clothes separately from his.[20][21] In an attempt to keep Gould near, Warhol gave Gould the cover story on Shirley MacLaine in the March 1985 issue of Interview magazine.[22][23] In 1985, Gould had his portrait painted by Warhol's collaborator Jean-Michel Basquiat.[24]

In March 1985, Gould purchased the former home of actress Joan Hackett in Beverly Hills and moved to California for work.[25] Subsequently, he sold his apartment on the West Side of Manhattan.[14] He gradually distanced himself from Warhol and they were no longer on speaking terms by the end of the year.[26][21]

Death

[edit]

Gould died of AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 33 in Los Angeles on September 18, 1986.[1] Warhol's collaborator Pat Hackett noted in The Andy Warhol Diaries that Gould "was down to seventy pounds and he was blind. He denied even to close friends that he had AIDS."[27]

Legacy

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In September 2004, the exhibition "Andy Warhol: The Jon Gould Collection" was mounted at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Brattleboro, Vermont.[3][28] The show consisted of 45 paintings and drawings, 20 prints, and 50 photographs taken by Warhol.[7] Gould also had works by artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, Marc Chagall, and Keith Haring.[7]

In January 2018, Gould's alma mater New England College announced The "Jon Gould '75 Legacy Challenge."[6] Two alumni, Gould's twin brother Jay Gould and Lex Scourby pledged a combined $1 Million towards the construction of The Rosamond Page Putnam Center for the Performing Arts.[29] Jay Gould '75 has made his pledge for $500,000, in memory of Jon Gould and the lobby will be named in honor of him.[6]

In 2022, Gould's relationship with Warhol was explored in the Netflix docuseries The Andy Warhol Diaries.[30][5]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Spencer, Samuel (2022-03-11). "What Happened to Andy Warhol's Boyfriend Jon Gould". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-09-09.
  2. ^ Publishing, Here (2004-10-12). The Advocate. Here Publishing.
  3. ^ a b O'Conner, Kevin (September 12, 2004). "A Privat Warhol Art Collection Pops Up in Brattleboro". Rutland Daily Herald. pp. E1, E4.
  4. ^ "McInnis Sells Newly Discovered Warhol Love Tokens". Antiques And The Arts Weekly. 2017-12-12. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  5. ^ a b c d Laneri, Raquel; Gostin, Nick (2022-03-09). "'The Andy Warhol Diaries' reveals artist's secret love life". New York Post. Retrieved 2023-09-09.
  6. ^ a b c d "Jon Gould '75 Legacy Challenge". www.alumni.nec.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  7. ^ a b c d e Kahn, Joseph P. (2004-08-25). "The Muse". The Boston Globe. pp. C1, C4. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  8. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 344Entry date: November 19, 1980
  9. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 351Entry date: December 22, 1980
  10. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 359Entry date: February 19, 1981
  11. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 371Entry date: April 13, 1981
  12. ^ "Andy Warhol portrait worth £570,000 up for sale following release of Netflix series". The Independent. 2022-03-18. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  13. ^ Salvo, Donna M. De; curator), Jessica Beck (Art museum (2018-01-01). Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-23698-9.
  14. ^ a b c d Colacello, Bob (1990). Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up. Internet Archive. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 439, 469, 471–472. ISBN 978-0-06-016419-5.
  15. ^ "The Real Andy Warhol Diaries". airmail.news. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  16. ^ Stockwell, Anne (October 12, 2004). "Art Display of Affection". The Advocate: 103.
  17. ^ a b c Gopnik, Blake (2020). Warhol. Internet Archive. New York, NY: Ecco. pp. 887–888, 890. ISBN 978-0-06-229839-3.
  18. ^ Rajagopal, Mekala (2023-11-07). "Christopher Makos and Honey Dijon Trade Warhol Lore at Free People's Andy in Oz Exhibit". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  19. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 515.
  20. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 552Entry date: February 4, 1984
  21. ^ a b Bockris, Victor (1989). The Life and Death of Andy Warhol. Internet Archive. New York : Bantam Books. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-553-05708-9.
  22. ^ Gould, Jon (March 1985). "Shirley MacLaine". Interview. 15 (4): 41–46.
  23. ^ Colacello 1990, p. 471.
  24. ^ "Portrait of Jon - Jean-Michel Basquiat". Sotheby's.
  25. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 642Entry date: April 14, 1985
  26. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 703Entry date: December 24, 1985
  27. ^ Warhol & Hackett 1989, p. 760Entry date: September 21, 1986
  28. ^ Fritz, Robert (November 11, 2004). "Remembering Jon and Andy". Brattleboro Reformer. p. 23.
  29. ^ "The Rosamond Page Putnam Center for the Performing Arts". www.alumni.nec.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  30. ^ "'The Andy Warhol Diaries' explores how the iconic artist was shaped by his great loves". NBC News. 2022-03-10. Retrieved 2024-03-15.

Sources

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Warhol, Andy; Hackett, Pat (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries. Warner Books. ISBN 9780446514262.

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