Nervous System

Twenty-five years the artist’s junior, Jon Gould would be Andy Warhol’s longest and last romantic relationship. He was handsome, young and a vice president at Paramount Pictures when the two met in late 1980. Andy was infatuated immediately, spending a good deal of time and effort winning over Jon’s affection. He was so smitten that at one point, Warhol had his Factory assistants silkscreen hearts as a Valentine’s Day present for Jon. Photographed by the artist, Gould is seen wearing another of Warhol's gifts, a double-stranded pearl necklace, during a weekend trip to the beach with Keith Haring, early on in their relationship: “We went to Falmouth Harbor where we chartered that 70’ boat I liked. ...And Jon was wearing the set of pearls I gave him that go down to the ground and it looked sort of beautiful on him” (A. Warhol, The Andy Warhol Diaries, New York, 24 May 1981, p. 383).

Jon and Andy were together between the years of 1981 and 1985. The Hollywood denizen stayed with Warhol in the artist’s Manhattan townhouse anytime he visited the city. The artist even suggested that he would help Jon build a collection of his own, and Gould did in fact make a point of actively acquiring contemporary art. While not blind to the possible business connections the charming executive could introduce, in Jon’s presence, Andy was vulnerable in a way that deviated from his typical distant, mechanical persona. As a sign of their meaningful relationship, Warhol gifted Gould not only pieces of his work, but also pieces of his heart: “I decide that I should try to fall in love, and that’s what I’m doing now with Jon Gould” (A. Warhol, The Andy Warhol Diaries, New York, 16 April 1981, p. 372).