Andy Warhol and Photography: A Social Media - AGSA
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Fri 03 Mar 2023 - Sun 14 May 2023
The
Andy Warhol and Photography: A Social Media is a huge coup for Adelaide as not only is it the first Australian exhibition to survey Andy Warhol's career-long obsession with photography, it is also exclusive to the
Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide. Warhol's photography was the inspiration for much of his art and has been described as Warhol's way of keeping a visual diary of his life and times. Very much life becomes art. As he said: "A picture means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures. It's a visual diary."
At the time of his death in 1987 Warhol had amassed over 60,000 photographs. His practice was to take photos and then hand the camera around for his friends to use, making the actual process of photographing a social act with Warhol in front of and behind the camera. This exhibition is brimming with photographs of candid moments of the rich and famous, as Warhol stated "'
My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus, and of a famous person doing something infamous." Which is writ large at the entrance of the exhibition. Curator Julie Robinson has spent ten years bringing Warhol's photography into focus for Australian audiences. Many reviewers have noted Warhol was the original influencer, in that he was fascinated by the phenomena of fame, indeed the cult of celebrity looms large in this extensive photographic retrospective.
Warhol was openly gay in the time before it was an accepted part of society. He also led the way in the pop art movement and experimented with film art and photography as a medium. While looking through the rooms full of famous faces one wonders if Warhol was more obsessed with fame than his art. He elevated his own fame by being seen with all the beautiful people, while still remaining something of an enigma. Although he is in many of the photographs his face remains a mask of how he really felt about the world around him. Warhol's photographs were used as a source and basis for his artworks, paintings and screen prints. The exhibition features several examples of his photographic portraits that would become iconic images, such as the Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli and Debbie Harry series.
Warhol also used advertisements and publicity stills as a basis for his art, the commercial became art and was resold as commercial. The studio in New York where Warhol worked was known as the Silver Factory, which was a hothouse of collaboration with studio assistants and frequent guests. Warhol always had his camera ready for polaroid snapshots. An example of this is a session where John Lennon unexpectedly arrived during a photo session for Liza Minelli.
Other photographers were part of Warhol's orbit and their photographs form part of this exhibition. Christopher Makos was Warhol's photographic assistant who consulted with the curator in the making of this exhibition. Makos was an honoured guest at the opening events. Makos was one of the young photographers working for Warhol's
Interview magazine and also art director of the book Andy Warhol's Exposures.
Makos collaborated with Warhol to produce some seminal photographs including the Altered Image series where Warhol wears a female wig. Makos was an enthusiastic speaker at the opening launch about his experience of working with Warhol. When asked if Warhol was having fun during the photographs Makos pronounced: 'Andy was always having fun.' Makos seems to have retained his love of photographing people as he took delight in taking photos of the press crew taking photos of him.
As evidenced throughout the exhibition Warhol was a compulsive documenter of the social scene in his New York studio and beyond in the '60s, '70s and '80s. He took his trusty polaroid camera everywhere and graduated to a Minox 35 EL, the smallest camera he could find. There were very few exhibitions of Warhol's photography in his lifetime. One example of his photographic practice that was exhibited just weeks before he died was his series of stitched photographs, this strange combination of stitching and image is on show in this retrospective.
Allow ample time to investigate all the bold iconic screen prints, intimate portraits, short films, and magazines. A photo booth is available at the end of the exhibition, so remember to bring along a supply of $2 coins. However Warhol himself would be aghast that there is very limited merchandise associated with the exhibition and no catalogue. Perhaps the copyright on some of these iconic images was too exorbitant or the curator prefers to control the narrative.
The viewer of this
immersive exhibition is given a taste of Warhol's fascinations and obsessions where he is both subject, muse, auteur and purveyor of visions, all of which live on long after he has gone.
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!date 03/03/2023 -- 14/05/2023
%wnadelaide
102675 - 2023-06-12 10:15:12