[ANDY WARHOL] OFFICIAL LEASE FOR THE ARTIST'S FIRST STUDIO

One page. 13 1/2 by 8 3/8 in.; 35 by 21 cm. 
Official City of New York, Department of Real Estate lease, printed on blue paper, annotated and signed by Andy Warhol and Don Schrader as witness. Document faded, some loss at the bottom of the document without affecting the Warhol signature. In a plastic slipcase mounted in a grey paper folder. 

 

Between 1961 and 1962, Warhol's studio was in his house at 1342 Lexington Avenue, between 89th and 90th Streets. During 1963, he worked on the second floor of an abandoned building that he leased from the city - the 13th Hook and Ladder Company, which was located on East 87th Street.

Warhol probably moved into the building at the beginning of 1963, as pointed out in the catalogue raisonné: "In a letter to the Department of Real Estate, dated November 19, 1962, Warhol offered to pay $150 month to rent an 'obsolete fire house' on East 87th Street. This was to become Warhol's next studio. In mid-December 1962 when he was included in the CBS documentary Exhibition: Contemporary American Painters... he still may be seen working at 1342 Lexington Avenue. While working at the Firehouse Warhol usually brought his paintings to 1342 Lexington, where they were stored rolled, or shown unstretched to visitors; visitors to the Firehouse were exceptional... until the Factory period, Warhol continued to show his work and receive friends at home." 

In Popism, Warhol's assistant Pat Hackett says: "by the beginning of '63 [Warhol's] work area at home was a total mess... A friend named Don Schrader had come across an old firehouse on East 87th Street, a hook and ladder company that some guy had leased from the City of New York for about a hundred dollars a year [$150 in fact], and the guy offered to sublet part of it to me. As soon as I moved my stuff over there, I began to look around for an assistant."

The assistant he eventually hired was Gerard Malanga. Malanga recalls that he was first introduced to Warhol in 1962 but did not start working for him until June 11, 1963: "I was introduced to Andy Warhol in the Fall, 1962, at a party given by the underground filmmakers, Willard Maas and Marie Menken... Several months later, June 9, 1963, to be exact, Charles Henri Ford was aware that Andy was in desperate need of an assistant... On June 11, I began working for Andy at what was then his studio, a condemned hook & ladder company located on 87th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues..."

More information is here.