Back

16 April 2010

Andy Warhol at Perth Museum and Gallery

ARTIST ROOMS on Tour: Andy Warhol
Early drawings, stitched photographs, posters and prints
17 April – 23 October 2010 at Perth Museum & Art Gallery

Perth Museum and Gallery’s eagerly anticipated exhibition, which focuses on the early drawings, stitched photographs, posters and prints by Andy Warhol (1929-1987), opens to the public on 17 April.

Over 60 works by the American Pop Artist and icon of 20th century visual arts are on show. The themes in the exhibition are fashion, film and celebrity. Some of the images are instantly recognizable such as the Marilyn Monroe lithograph of 1962 with multiple images of the screen star fading from colour to black and white as well as images of the branded products wholly associated with Warhol such as Campbell’s Soup and Brillo.

The exhibition covers the period of 1949 until Warhol’s death in 1987. Many of his key early works are included such as The Nation’s Nightmare of 1951, a line drawing of a young man injecting drugs made for The New York Times to advertise a radio programme. This fascination with depicting life on the edge was a theme that Warhol returned to in the next decade after he had achieved fame as one of the pioneers of Pop art. His avant garde films made from the late 1960s onwards feature his entourage of actors, musicians and artists that gathered in his New York studio known as The Factory. Many posters advertising these films such as Pork, Blue Movie and The Chelsea Girls are included in the exhibition.

Warhol had a lifelong interest in fashion and this is reflected in the Perth exhibition through his drawings for fashion illustrations. Before he achieved international fame as an exhibiting artist, Warhol enjoyed a highly successful career as a commercial artist in New York, creating designs to promote I Miller shoes and the leather goods of Fleming Joffe for example. Latterly Warhol created illustrative designs for the House of Halston and Levi Jeans.

Warhol remains a cult figure of influence on the visual arts today. The exhibition includes a number of self portraits in drawings, stitched photographs and printed images. Warhol used his knowledge of the commercial world to create a very strong branded self image that still resonates today.

A programme of talks, schools workshops, art classes, drop–in craft activities and evening events are planned throughout the run of the exhibition. These include:

Thursday 29 April 5pm-7pm
Late opening with a short talk by Dr Glyn Davis of Glasgow School of Art on Warhol as a learning resource

Wednesday 4 August 12 noon-1pm
Lucy Askew, Managing Curator of ARTIST ROOMS will give an introduction to the collection

Saturday 4 September 1pm-3pm
Family Fun Time based on the Art Styles of Andy Warhol

Wednesday 8 September 12 noon – 1pm
Martin Hammer of The University of Edinburgh will give a talk on Warhol and the
Re-invention of Portraiture

Friday 10 September - Candle making workshop for adults

Saturday 25 September 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Wonderful Warhol: free family fun activities based on the exhibition.

Friday 8 & Saturday 9 October - Screen printing workshops for adults

The exhibition coincides with Perth Festival of the Arts and the Perth 800 celebrations. There is also a partnership between The Heritage Service and Arts Development of Perth & Kinross Council to work directly with young people through social media networks as a way of promoting the exhibition to a new audience.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery, George Street, is open Mon – Sat, 10am until 5pm with Sunday opening from 1pm until 4.30pm until September. Admission is FREE. Please contact 01738 632488 or go to www.pkc.gov.uk/museums for further information.
 

Bookmark with:  Delicious Digg Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon