The National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh, Scotland will open on the fourth of August 2007 an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of Andy Warhol, the iconic leader of Pop Art. The show marks the passing of 20 years since the artist's death, in 1987, and one of the main sponsors in the Bank of Scotland. According to organisers, this is the most comprehensive show dedicated to Andy Warhol ever to be presented in Scotland, focusing on the presence of the life-death duality theme in the works of the American artist.
Curators have selected a great number of Warhol's works, from the 1950s to 1986, ranging from painting and sculpture to drawing, film, works of photography, collage, installations, most of the exhibits being loans from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which boasts with one of the largest exhibitions of the artist's works. Special sections will be dedicated to the most famous of Warhol's series, such as "Marilyn, Liz, Jackie and Elvis", "Portraits of the 1970s and 1980s", "Consumer Products", "Death and Disaster", "Skulls" or "War, Death and Religion".
There will also be an impressive recreation of the famous Warhol 1983 exhibition in Zurich - the best idea of the show - Paintings for Children, the artworks being hung at the level of the child's eye. Another special section will be dedicated to the collection of 125 posters by Warhol, presenting exhibitions, films or advertising, and in another visitors have the chance of watching film made by the unusual and controversial Pop artist. This exhibition is just one of the many events dedicated to Warhol, which are organised worldwide to honour the artist in 2007 - 2008. One such show will be the screening of Andy Warhol's first film, Sleep (1963) at the Tate Modern in London.
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) is still considered to be one of the most important and controversial artist of the 20th century, his works being on high demand at international auctions, where they are always sold for impressive prices. For example, a painting from his shocking series Death and Disaster was sold by Christies, on the 16th of May 2007 for 71.7 million dollars.
Andrew Warhola was born in Pittsburgh and at first he was interested in photography and drawing, attending his first art classes at the Carnegie Institute. He would later study pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and later he moved to New York, in 1949, where he had a successful career as a commercial artist, receiving several prizes and commendations. Warhol had his first breakthrough solo exhibition in 1952, at the Hugo Gallery in New York, where he presented the now famous Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote. But the true success of this iconic 20th century artist came by his interpretations of contemporary artistic and media icons, such as Campbell's Soup Can, Marilyn and Elvis series and many others.
In 1963 the artist opened a studio, at 231 East 47th Street, a place which will later gain the name of "Factory". Besides paintings and box sculptures, Warhol started working with other mediums, such as film making, magazine publishing and even got involved in music production. He was an experimental film maker, his productions being much appreciated by the critics. In the 1970's Warhol returned fully to painting, and in the 80's he made a series of TV programmes, half hour long, called the Andy Warhol's TV. In 1985, shortly before his death, MTV hosted his "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" appeared on MTV, short talk show likes, with celebrities, designers, artists, Warhol being the host.
2007-08-03
