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# How Former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs Built a Pop Art Empire
May 30 2013
Written by Kevin Roderick.
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LA OBSERVED *- (Editor’s note: Joel Wachs was one of Los Angeles City Council’s most interesting and impactive members. And, certainly, one of its most successful post-politics members. Interestingly, Wachs was the inspiration behind the creation of Los Angeles’ Neighborhood Councils. They were a part of his campaign for mayor in 1992 and it was Wachs who created and offered the motion for their creation in 1996.)*
On my KCRW segment today, host Steve Chiotakis asked me what becomes of ex-mayors. We chatted a bit about what Jim Hahn and Richard Riordan are doing, and speculated on the future of Antonio Villaraigosa. But I don't think any politician who moved on from Los Angeles City Hall in recent times has invented a new life for himself (or herself) more successfully than Joel Wachs.
The former city councilman from the Valley has been the president of the Andy Warhol Foundation in New York for more than a decade now. He gets to give away the artist's money and keep Warhol's legacy alive. A [feature in Blouin ArtInfo](http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/905890/how-joel-wachs-is-changing-the-foundation-game?utm_source=BLOUIN+ARTINFO+Newsletters&utm_campaign=e214f8c479-Daily+Digest+5.27.13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_df23dbd3c6-e214f8c479-83209313) says he has become a big deal in the art world, and a game-changer.
Excerpt:
*Short, broad-shouldered, and quicker to smile than most art world power brokers, Wachs looks a decade younger than his 74 years. Since taking over the foundation in 2001, he has done more than give away Warhol’s money, preserve his legacy, and sit in his chairs. As the only former politician at the helm of a major art foundation, he takes a clear-eyed, unsentimental approach. He is not so quietly redefining the way a rapidly growing sector in cultural philanthropy, comprised of single-artist organizations, functions.*
*In his will Warhol specified that nearly all his assets, including thousands of paintings now worth billions of dollars, should go “to a foundation to be created to support the visual arts.” The barebones instructions—no strings, no elaboration—leave lots of room for interpretation. And Wachs has not been shy about seizing attendant opportunities. ([Read the rest … including how Wach’s got Warhol’s name on real Campbell’s soup cans … here.](http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2013/05/how_joel_wachs_built_a_po.php))*
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 44
Pub: May 31, 2013
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