Ultra Violet!

“I wrote the play,” Pascal Blondeau told Hollywood on the Potomac at the Residence of the Ambassador of France Gérard Araud after his multi-art performance headlined as “Ultra Violet & The Factory Tribute” at The Phillips Collection with special guests Laurence Cohen on vocals and Vincenzo Mingoia on piano. His one man show “Only You Could Have a Face Like That” / “Avec ta gueule pas comme les autres” pays tribute to Ultra Violet. Dressed in purple from her hair down to her shoes, the Warhol Factory icon and pop artist was a striking figure on the New York art scene for more than 50 years. Throughout the play, accompanied with songs and reading, the spectators witness personal and vibrant stories of the friendship between Ultra Violet and Pascal Blondeau.

“Pupil, studio assistant, and muse of Salvador Dali in the fifties, central member of Andy Warhol’s Factory in the sixties, Ultra Violet (1935-2014) emerged as a prominent and established avant garde artist who was exhibited throughout the world. Playfully and intuitively, she used time and talent to create works that are infused with energy, light, spirituality, symbolism, profundity, global meaning, and humor. Ultra Violet’s paintings, 3-D constructions, mixed-media installations, and drawings reveal a visual universe filled with rainbows, angel, blue skies and white clouds, but they also contain material related to the chaos and destruction that challenges our 21st century world. Above all, this artist sought to fill the viewer’s eye and mind with light.” Program notes