Andy Warhol understood early on that death and fame are the subjects that attract the most people. There is this tension in the exhibit that gives it a great strength. Warhol is someone who found an aesthetic in violence, but he also found real beauty in the shallowness of celebrity. |
Andy Warhol was a pioneer of looking at society as this machine. Warhol looked, in a good and bad way, at the power of media and celebrity images. He looked at violence, and he looked at fame. He looked at consumerism. He was looking at reality like a film, and editing it. His art is more about the idea than the execution of it. |
Andy Warhol was obsessed with the image of celebrities being visual icons. The position of the gun is bold, menacing, and beautiful. Elvis is almost like a Greek figure. |
As you look at these powerful images, you see there is something very dignified about this woman. Warhol was very into the elegance rather than the tragedy of Jackie Kennedy. These images are about sorrow, loss and mourning. |
He was dramatically and desperately sincere in his renunciation of any political or social critique. Images of death, disaster and violence make news and mesmerize people, and that is what Warhol was interested in. |
He was extremely talented, but in a different way. His images are very vivid. He used empty space in an extremely artistic way. He was not so much looking at the history of art. He looked at the images of movies and advertising. He was not looking backwards, but he was always looking at the present in a way nobody had done before. |
The works are very difficult to get because most are from private collections and museums. When a painting travels a long distance, there is always a risk to the stability of the painting. These paintings are very fragile. |
Warhol was using the media as a tool to do his art. He wasn't manipulating it. He was absolutely fascinated with it. |