09/22/2026
Andy with Grace
“Now, it seems like you have to do lots of things really well, and you don’t get to stay famous for long unless you’re always switching. Grace Jones is an example of this.”
Writing about fame, Warhol singled out Jones as an example of reinvention.
Grace Jones model, musician, actress, style icon, and indefinable. Jones appears throughout Andy Warhol’s diaries as a larger-than-life presence.
Warhol’s entries capture that personality in often hilarious moments. He documented her legendary lateness, her relationships, and her obsession with fur coats.
On Tuesday, July 24, 1984, Warhol recorded waiting hours for Jones before discovering that someone had “tracked her down at Bergdorf’s getting a fur coat out of the Revillon cooler.”
Their friendship was a creative exchange. Warhol photographed Jones, capturing her through his own artistic vision, while Jones later brought Warhol into hers with his appearance in the 1986 music video for “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect for You).”
Jones later remembered Warhol as quiet and observant, someone who enjoyed watching the wildness around him and who, she felt, was particularly comfortable with her. Their friendship appeared to reflect a genuine understanding and admiration between two great artists.
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Image Credits:
1. Andy Warhol & Grace Jones. Photograph by Elliott Erwitt, 1986.
2. Andy Warhol & Grace Jones. Photograph by Richard Young, 1978.
3. Andy Warhol & Grace Jones. Photograph by Paige Powell, 1985.
4. Andy Warhol in Grace Jones’s “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect for You)” music video, 1986.
5. Grace Jones. Photograph by Andy Warhol, 1984.
6. Grace Jones. Andy Warhol, 1986.
7–8. Grace Jones. Photograph by Andy Warhol, 1984.