Isabelle Collin Dufresne

Isabelle Collin Dufresne (stage name, Ultra Violet; 6 September 1935 – 14 June 2014) was a French-American artist, author and both a colleague of Andy Warhol and one of the pop artist's so-called superstars. Earlier in her career, she worked for and studied with surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Dufresne lived and worked in New York City, and also had a studio in Nice, France.

Isabelle Collin Dufresne was brought up in a strict religious upper-middle-class family, but she rebelled at an early age. She was instructed at a Catholic school, and then a reform school. In 1953, she received a BA in Art at Le Sacré Cœur in Grenoble, France. She soon left France to live with an older sister in New York City.

Salvador Dalí and New York City

In 1954, after a meeting with Salvador Dalí, she became his "muse”, pupil, and studio assistant in both Port Lligat, Spain, and in New York City. Later, she would recall, "I realized that I was 'surreal', which I never knew until I met Dalí". In the 1960s, Dufresne began to follow the progressive American Pop Art scene including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist.

Warhol and "The Factory"

In 1963, Dalí introduced Dufresne to Andy Warhol, and soon she moved into the orbit of his unorthodox studio, "The Factory". In 1964 she selected the stage name "Ultra Violet" at Warhol's suggestion, because it was her preferred fashion — her hair color at the time was often violet or lilac. She became one of many "superstars" in Warhol's Factory, and played multiple roles in over a dozen films between 1965 and 1974.

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.

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 1969, she was "dethroned" as Warhol's primary muse by Viva, a more recent discovery.

Although a full participant in activities at the Factory, she generally avoided the heavy drug usage prevalent at the time, saying that her body reacted badly to drugs. She had tried smoking as a rebellious teen, had gotten very sick as a result, and resolved to abstain from drug usage. She would later observe, "If I had lived like all those young people, I would be dead today".

In the 1980s, she gradually drifted away from the Factory scene, taking a lower profile and working independently on her own art. In her autobiography, published the year after Warhol's unexpected demise in 1987, she chronicled the activities of many Warhol superstars, including several untimely deaths during and after the Factory years.

Later career

In 1988, Ultra Violet published her autobiography, Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol. This autobiography was edited extensively and partially translated from French to English by her New York penthouse roommate Natalie Durkee. After a review of the book in the New York Times, it was published worldwide, eventually in 17 languages. After a book tour, she returned to France; in 1990 she opened a studio in Nice and wrote another book detailing her own ideas about art, L'Ultratique. She lived and worked as an artist in New York City, and also maintained a studio in Nice, until her death.

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 Henry 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".

Personal life

In 1973, a near-death experience launched Ultra Violet on a spiritual quest, culminating in her baptism in 1981. From 1981 until her death, she was a practicing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Following a long battle with cancer, Dufresne died on 14 June 2014 in New York City at the age of 78.

Books

• Isabelle Dufresne / Ultra Violet: Famous for 15 Minutes. My Years With Andy Warhol. (1988) Illustrated. 274 pp. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (English-language edition in paperback. Avon Books, 1990, ISBN 0-380-70843-4)
• Isabelle Dufresne / Ultra Violet: Andy Warhol, Superstar. ISBN 3-7857-0535-2 (German, at present only a second-hand example available)
• Isabelle Dufresne / Ultra Violet: L'Ultratique

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) .... 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
• **** (1967)
• I, a Man (1967)
• The Life of Juanita Castro (1965)