Warhol and the famous soup cans on show at Creative Arts Napier.
Warhol and the famous soup cans on show at Creative Arts Napier.
Opinion by Tania Wright
OPINION
Creative Arts Napier (CAN) is delighted to be hosting the Warhol & Friends exhibition for the month of October, alongside a number of workshops, floor talks, and events that complement a month-long celebration of pop art.
Pop Art is one of the most innovative and creative art movements of the modern era. Andy Warhol and other artists of the 1960′s, such as Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, and Jim Dine, continue to attract attention and interest over 60 years later.
Warhol was uniquely positioned to lead the movement, with a finger on the pulse of popular culture, especially visual imagery that was unparalleled.
Using his skills as a commercial artist, new technologies (especially innovations in photography), and his intimate connection to popular culture and mass consumerism, Warhol stayed at the cutting edge of image creation for almost three decades before his untimely death in 1987.
The exhibition presents rarely seen but significant examples of Warhol’s commissioned graphic commercial projects, which helped pave the way for his iconic treatment of Campbell’s Soup Can and Marilyn Monroe in 1962 and his celebrity portraits starting in 1970.
Dr Adrian Ormsby, the curator of the Warhol and Friends exhibition.
The portraits included magazine front covers, such as Jane Fonda and Michael Jackson on Time, advertisements including his Life Golden Shoe 1962 exhibition ad, poster commissions, the Beatles poster of 1980, signed by Warhol and record cover commissions, such as Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Liza Minelli, the Rolling Stones, Debbie Harry and others.
The different projects demonstrate the application of Warhol’s skill and innovations as a fine artist, which have been developed over decades, making him the most sought-after artist in the commercial world in modern memory.
Not only is the exhibition curated to help the viewer take a deep dive into the how and why of Warhol’s fine art career, but collectors will have the opportunity to acquire all rare graphic works on display dating as early as 1955 to his death in 1987.
Framed high-quality reproductions of key works printed on Arches paper will also be available, including rare framed prints of the iconic 1962 Orange Marilyn commissioned by the Andy Warhol Foundation, made in Germany in 1998.
The exhibition also includes a unique “Andy Warhol Experience” with the opportunity to physically handle and look through the same ‘Big Shot’ Polaroid Camera that Warhol used to take images of his famous celebrities and to create your own instant photographic serial portrait images. A mimesis of the same process that Warhol undertook to create his unique portraits starting in the 1970s.
The “Experience” also includes a 3-dimensional exploration of Warhol’s famous art studio called “The Factory” with the assistance of 3-D glasses, a novel visual phenomenon that Warhol intended as a sensory experience while creating his famous Statue of Liberty work in 1962.
Visitors will experience in three dimensions what it was like to be alone with Warhol in his studio, part of the crowd at a busy Warhol studio exhibition, observe Warhol create one of his own short films and more.
While the exhibition focuses primarily on Andy Warhol, it also addresses selected works from his contemporaries, including Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Oldenburg, Dine, and Keith Haring.
Including iconic popular culture images, such as fiction comic book characters, advertising billboards, and even Mickey Mouse, they made their own unique contribution to Pop Art that continues to inspire us today.
Works include original limited-edition lithographs and posters [several signed by Rosenquist and Oldenburg] available for acquisition only at the exhibition.
Finally, the exhibition showcases lithographs from the iconic “One Cent Life” portfolio of 1964 [compiled and edited by Wallace Ting and Sam Francis] including Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, Lichtenstein’s popular cartoon aesthetic, Rosenquist’s consumer goods imagery and works from important contemporaries including Dine, Kimber Smith, Wallace Ting and Alan Kaprow (the leader of the significant “Happenings” of the early 1960′s).
Curated from a fully intact copy of the portfolio, it is an opportunity rarely afforded the viewing public. Portfolio lithographs by Rosenquist, Dine, Kaprow and Smith are available to collectors attending the exhibition.
A comprehensive catalogue, written, designed, and illustrated by the curator and qualified modern art historians, will also be available to help the viewer make sense of the works on display. As part of the “Andy Warhol Experience,” the catalogue will come with a pair of 3-D glasses.
The exhibition curator and expert printmakers will give several floor talks in the Main Gallery, along with print workshops [including workshops for children] that will accompany the exhibition throughout its month-long tenure.
Of note, on October 18, a special string quartet performance by members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will take place in the Main Gallery, surrounded by Warhol’s creations. This is a ticketed event with limited seating.
We hope this exhibition will interest everyone, from the younger generation and those less familiar with Pop Art to collectors and art lovers who simply want to learn more, see more, and experience for themselves the phenomenon that is “Andy Warhol and Friends”.
