Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
+45 4919 0719
Andy Warhol and His World
"Andy Warhol and His World" focuses on one of the greatest artistic
personalities of the 20th century. The exhibition sheds light on Andy Warhol
(1928-1987), the artist as well as the man - a visionary figure whose life-style
and work strongly reflected the prosperous, postwar American society. (left:
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Socialite, 1984, acrylic on
canvas, 193 x 263 cm, Courtesuy of Galerie Bruno, Bischofberger, Zurich)
The exhibition opens with photographic documentation of the environment that grew up around Andy Warhol's studio the Factory and the Studio 54 nightclub in New York. The more than one hundred photos were taken by many of the famous people surrounding him. They hang against a backdrop of Warhol's renowned wallpaper, Cow.
The
first paintings encountered are a number of Warhol icons, with four of Warhol's
self-portraits, dating from 1986, as their natural pivotal point. These
portraits of the artist show the most extreme sides of Warhol - the very
"flashy" side and the more shy one. The exhibition has been arranged
so as to surround him by his friends - by portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Liz
Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy, and also of his imaginary friends, the crowned
queens - paintings inspired by his fascination with the upper class and
the glamourous. (left: Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1960, silkscreen
on paper, 10 sheets, each 91 x 91 cm, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek,
Denmark)
The next gallery, arranged in collaboration with scenographer Camilla Bjornvad, suggests the atmosphere of the Silver Factory. The effect is enhanced by the sound of the New York poet John Giorno reading from Warhol's diaries. The main works exhibited in this and the adjoining gallery show Andy Warhol's fascination with violence and the results of it: Elvis Presley with a gun, Car Crashes, Suicides, Electric Chairs and Skulls. As counterpoint to these images, the playful Warhol is seen in the installation Silver Clouds.
Louisiana possesses a unique collection of major Warhol
works, and these, along with other works in Danish private ownership, are
presented in a separate gallery. The exhibition is rounded off by a display
of five of the most significant examples of the Collaborations by
Warhol and his friend and colleague Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Hours of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art are daily from 10 am to 5 pm, Wednesdays to 10 pm..
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.
For further biographical information please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
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