Gulf News

Not all Warhol works are timeless

- BY NIRAJ CHOKSHI

Almost half a century after it was founded by Andy Warhol, Interview magazine, the arts and culture publicatio­n, is folding.

The news was publicly shared by several employees on Twitter on Monday morning.

Ezra Marcus, an associate editor at the magazine, said by email that the staff was notified in an allhands meeting earlier in the morning that Interview, which was founded in 1969, was closing and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Phone calls to Brant Publicatio­ns, which acquired Interview magazine in 1989, two years after Andy Warhol died, went unanswered.

With its striking style, Interview had long wielded outsize influence in the industry, inspiring the look and feel of many other publicatio­ns. But questions about the magazine’s fortunes have lingered for years, as it faced ever-thinning ranks and churned through staff.

As news of the announceme­nt spread, fans of the magazine posted remembranc­es online, mourning the loss of a one-time bible of the fashion and publishing communitie­s.

Reports of financial mismanagem­ent in recent months had raised questions about the viability of the magazine, which is published by Peter M. Brant, a contempora­ry art collector.

“We’ve all seen the end coming for a few weeks,” Marcus said in the email, citing an article about a lawsuit against the magazine filed this month by its former editorial director, Fabien Baron.

In the suit, filed in a New York court on May 2, Baron and his wife, Ludivine Poiblanc, sued the magazine and its publishing company, accusing them of owing the pair more than $600,000.

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