Is there another artist of the second half of the 20th century who’s more famous and made a deeper impression on our culture than pop artist and moralist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) ? Oh, I can’t think of any right now, but I know there have to be a few …
Oh … ‘So what? Fame has become a farce. In the future every modern person will be famous for 15 minutes. If everyone can be famous, what’s the point of being famous?’ Andy would have brought to this discussion.
What is Andy really saying?
Go see that for yourself. One of the best exhibits in the world going on at present on Andy Warhol’s work and artistic philosophy is on during this XMAS season. It’s the ‘ANDY WARHOL: OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS’ exhibit held in The Hayward, Southbank Centre, London, UK. Ending 18 January 2009.
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Now, 40 years after Warhol’s first high drama show in Europe of his infamous shooting by Valerie Solanas, The Hayward holds another major exhibition, ‘Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms’, featuring a fresh perspective to his work.
The gallery really presents a new take on Warhol’s work. Using the moving image as its starting point to explore Warhol’s core concerns – voyeurism, celebrity, the mundane, and the blurring of distinctions between high and low culture, the exhibition illustrates his prophetic insight into today’s media-obsessed society.
The Hayward has done a good job in transforming the gallery into a giant multi-media installation. This presentation allows visitors to be immersed in Warhol’s way of thinking, living and working. Paintings and prints of famous icons including Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup tins, are shown alongside video, TV programmes, films, Polaroid photos, delicate drawings, album covers and wallpaper patterns. It vividly reflects Warhol’s egalitarian maxim, ‘all is pretty’; with all media presented on the same level.
Eva Meyer-Hermann, Curator, says “Andy Warhol once wondered about how it would be if one mirror would reflect another. He declared that everything which we want to know can be seen on the surfaces of him and his works. I thought I had to look behind these surfaces, but realised that what we are looking for is not behind but in front of them. Warhol’s surfaces reflect the world; his works are about you and me.”
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The New Media Focus
“Before I was shot I always suspected I was watching TV instead of living life. Right when I was being shot, and ever since, I knew that I was watching television.’ ~ Andy Warhol, 1968
Andy Warhol was obsessed with film and television and the exhibition explores the relationship between the moving image and the still image in his work. It brings together films, screen tests, videos, and TV programmes, which combined with extraordinary archive material, seminal paintings and installations, illuminates his creative process, sheds new light on his work and explores his genius for discerning the way pop culture penetrates our lives.
Exhibition Sections
The three exhibit sections are Filmscape, TV-Scape and Cosmos: ‘Filmscape’ a cinematic landscape showing 19 films; ‘TV-Scape’ showing simultaneously all 42 episodes from the three TV series Warhol created between 1979 and 1987; and ‘Cosmos’ providing insight into Warhol’s character and work, with paintings, drawings, photographs, audio listening booths, a Brillo Box, album covers, Interview magazines, artists books and Time Capsule 92.
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Highlights of this Andy Warhol Exhibit
Make sure you see some of the best parts of this show, including:
- Iconic ‘Pop Art’ works including screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, Campbell Soup Tins, Flowers and Electric Chairs
- 19 of Warhol’s films, including Sleep (1963), Empire (1964), Poor Little Rich Girl (1965), and Chelsea Girls (1966) presented together simultaneously in a unique installation. A further eight films will be shown in a separate screening room.
- Screen tests of artists, writers and musicians such as Allen Ginsberg, Marcel Duchamp, John Cale and Salvador Dali.
- Factory Diaries – video diaries showing the inner workings of the Factory – capturing regulars and celebrities such as David Bowie and Liza Minnelli, as well as Warhol’s creative process.
- All 42 episodes from his 1980s cable TV serials, ‘Fashion’; ‘Andy Warhol’s TV’; and ‘Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes’; in which he appeared with friends such as Debbie Harry and Jerry Hall. These have never been shown together before and will be screened synchronously in a unique installation.
- The entire contents of Time Capsule 92 featuring a treasure-trove of ephemera collected by Warhol, including letters, invitations, receipts, newspaper cuttings and photographs of The Beatles, Dennis Hopper and Jackie Kennedy.
- A room filled with Warhol’s helium inflated pillow-shaped ‘Silver Clouds’.
This exhibition has been organized by Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Moderna Museet Stockholm in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. Ticket info: southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts
Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms ~ The Book
Can’t make it to London in this busy holiday season? No worries, get the book! It’s really good.
The evolution of self, as interpreted by one’s visual and psychological reflection and through the lens of society and various forms of media is a concept with which Warhol endeavored to illustrate through a variety of artistic modes of expression.
Like the show, the book is divided into three sections, and I’d say, even get the book if you go to the show, as it provides lots of insights and behind the scene information. It outlines for us once again the impact that Warhol had on art, music, photography, and pop culture.
Whether you are purchasing this book to add to your collection, or as home study guide following your visit to the ‘Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms’ art exhibition, you will find that this book offers a broad survey of Warhol’s work. It offers satisfying viewing material for veteran Warhol fans and novices lookers alike.
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