Isabelle Collin Dufresne obit

Her 15 Minutes at an End: Ultra Violet dead at 78

 

She was not on the list.

Isabelle Collin Dufresne, known as Ultra Violet, died this morning after a battle with cancer. She was 78.

Dufresne was perhaps the most famous Mormon artist that most Mormons haven’t heard of. But at the height of the Pop Art movement and Andy Warhol’s Factory, Ultra Violet was well known in the New York art scene, and she is still well remembered for her memoir of that time, Famous For 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol.

Born in France in 1935, she met Salvador Dalí in 1954, becoming his muse and student. Then in the early 1960s Dufresne became interested in the Pop Art movement, and after Dalí introduced her to Andy Warhol in 1963, she became one of the participants in Warhol’s unorthodox studio, The Factory, and acted in more than a dozen films between 1965 and 1974. In 1969 she was replaced as Warhol’s primary “muse”  by Viva and by the 1980s she left Warhol’s group.

In the 1960s, Dufresne began to follow the progressive American Pop Art scene including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and James Rosenquist.

After a 1973 near-death experience, Dufresne began a spiritual quest that eventually led to joining the LDS Church in 1981. She has been a participant in the New York City-based Mormon Artists Group in recent years, and has been well known among many members in her stake.

She is the author of three books and appeared in 19 films, including a small part in the academy award winning film Midnight Cowboy (1969).

In 1967 Ultra Violet played a part (with, among others, Taylor Mead) in the surrealistic play Desire Caught by the Tail by Pablo Picasso when it was set for the first time in France at a festival in Saint-Tropez. She would eventually appear in more than 20 films, not counting numerous documentaries made at the Factory.

At various points in her career she would meet numerous celebrities, including John Graham, John Chamberlain, Edward Ruscha, Rudolf Nureyev, Miloš Forman, Howard Hughes, Richard Nixon, Aristotle Onassis, Maria Callas, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Marc Chagall, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono. In later reminiscences, she would name Ruscha, Nureyev, and Forman among her past lovers.

In 2000, she was featured in Message to Andy Warhol, a "concept art documentary" by Laurent Foissac.

On April 10, 2005 she joined a panel discussion "Reminiscences of Dalí: A Conversation with Friends of the Artist" as part of a symposium "The Dalí Renaissance" for a major retrospective show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her conversation with another former Dalí protégée, French singer/actress Amanda Lear, is recorded in the 236-page exhibition catalog, The Dalí Renaissance: New Perspectives on His Life and Art after 1940.

In 2006, she had a solo show at Stefan Stux Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan. In 2007 she gave a retrospective lecture at the New York Institute of Technology.

In 2010, filmmaker David Gerson released Ultra Violet for Sixteen Minutes, a short documentary showing her perspectives on fame, art, religion, and her current artistic practice.

In 2011, she was featured in a brief article about the surviving former Warhol "Superstars". Regarding her famous past and her artwork today, she has said, "People always want to know about the past, but I'm much more interested in tomorrow". In 2011, she exhibited a series of artworks as her personal memorial of the September 11 attacks, which were displayed in the exhibit Memorial IX XI at Queensborough Community College.

In a 2012 interview, she said, "I'm a New Yorker, I'm an American, and I'm an artist. Because of those three things, I had to do something about 9/11, and the question was what to do, which is not simple."

On August 12, 2014 independent record label Refinersfire released a posthumous limited edition 2-disc collection of original music and private conversations of Ultra Violet and Andy Warhol. The music was recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and features cover performances of "La vie en Rose", "Mojo Queen", and the original songs "Famous for Fifteen Minutes" and "Moon Rock". Ultra Violet also had recorded private telephone conversations between herself and Andy Warhol, which feature topics such as police harassment, their films, the business of art, the RFK assassination, and Valerie Solanas and her attempt on Warhol's life.

Filmography

 

    Blackout (1994) .... Arlette

    An Unmarried Woman (1978) .... Lady MacBeth

    Curse of the Headless Horseman (1974) .... Contessa Isabel du Fren

    Bad Charleston Charlie (1973)

    Savages (1972) .... Iliona, a Decadent

    Believe in Me (1971) .... Emergency Room Patient

    The Telephone Book (1971) .... Whip Woman

    Simon, King of the Witches (1971) .... Sarah

    Taking Off (1971) .... SPFC Member

    Dinah East (1970) .... Daniela

    Brand X (1970) .... Singer

    The Phynx (1970) .... Felice

    Cleopatra (1970)

    Maidstone (1970) .... Herself

    Midnight Cowboy (1969) .... The Party

    The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez (1969) .... Daughter of Montezuma

    **** (The 24 Hour Movie) (1967)

    I, a Man (1967)

    The Life of Juanita Castro (1965)

    Cinématon #1084 (1988) by Gérard Courant ... Herself

    Lire #27 (1988) by Gérard Courant ... Herself

    Portrait de groupe #92 : Avec Ultra-Violet à Paris by Gérard Courant ... Herself

    La Collection secrète de Salvador Dalí (1992) by Otto Kelmer ... Herself

    Message to Andy Warhol (2000) by Laurent Foissac ... Herself

    Wie ich lernte, die Zahlen zu lieben (2014) by Oliver Sechting & Max Taubert ... Herself