Chaos and Cool

Follow Edie Sedgwick, Barbara Rubin, Andy Warhol, and Bob Dylan as they traverse the frantic art and underground film world of the mid-60s in New York City New York City, 1964: a new scene is bringing together rock musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, and writers. This scene would go on to have a profound impact on two incredibly influential artists of the time, Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol, shaping the future of pop culture as we know it. And it never would have happened without avant-garde filmmaker Barbara Rubin and iconic actress Edie Sedgwick. Warhol, Rubin, Sedgwick, and Dylan sought out the paradoxical: fame and transgression, attachment and individuality, and making art without becoming objects of art themselves. They helped each other, used each other, stole from each other, desired to be each other, and experimented together. And in their tempestuous, incestuous, and all-too-short time together, they were instrumental in shaping one of the most diverse and experimental art scenes in all of American history.Chaos and Cool—a work of obsessively researched nonfiction weaving together interviews, artworks, underground newspapers, FBI files, and good old-fashioned gossip—narrates the most turbulent and transformative eras in these artists’ careers. Structured like a novel comprising love affairs, friendships, provocations, and inspirations, the book follows these four artists as their lives and art intertwine, juxtaposing their personal dramas with the political, social, and cultural conflicts erupting across the country.