He was one of the lucky artists to be rich,dead AND alive.
The rock star of art,the rock star of life, he didn’t make his small and silent contribution to the harmony of the orchestra.
He made his shout to the world,and revolutionised the way they saw it.
HE IS:ANDY WARHOL.
||| STEPPING AWAY FROM THE LIGHT OF DAY. |||
I walk into 72-13, mhd sultan rd,the place i know as a bare exhibition space.It is transformed to another world,Andy Warhol’s world.
Stepping away from the light of day,into the dark entrance space,only the two pillars lit,Warhol’s paintings on all four sides.a rotating pink spotlight by the side.
This must have been what it was like for him: ultra-modern,70s 80s duran duran music and a hint of androgyny in the air.
||| A is for Andy. |||
That is the theme of the exhibition.And its logo:a big capital A,with the words, “is for ANDY” right across its bar.At the doorway,a 3 x 2m backdrop,with the logo repeated,like one of those backdrops the celebrities stop to take photos against.
Three excited young girls stopped us: “Excuse me,can you help us take a photo there?”(against the backdrop)
It didn’t matter if it was a handphone camera.They felt famous for three seconds against the backdrop.
OK,
perhaps six:they weren’t too good at posing so we had to do the photo twice.
Andy himself once said:”Everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.”
It got overused,eventually.He revived it:
“I got bored with that line.I never use it anymore.My new line is “In 15 minutes,everybody will be famous.”‘
||| MAO WAS FRAMED. |||
Walking into the main exhibition space, 6 x Mao, welcomes me, all with different coloured lips.Green,pink,hot pink,yellow.
“The focus of these paintings is Mao’s mouth,” said the Frenchman who led the guided tour ard the exhibits.Why? where both the greatest propaganda and greatest truths come from,i guess.
so 6 x Mao, was framed in 6 x special way.It is called float framing– where the painting floats between the frame does not touch the glass nor the backing.It is held there,according to Frenchman, by an invisible acid-free material.
Warhol paintings,including Maos, are framed in simple white or simple black frames.The frame should not call attention to itself, all eyes shld be on the painting.
aside: I don’t doubt that Warhol would be capable of glamorising a picture frame.If he did Campbell’s soup and an electric chair,why not paint picture frames too.Nobody paints a picture frame.
<>
Hugh Grant bought his copy of “Liz” at $3 million.He just sold it for $23 million recently.
Andy said:”It would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor’s finger.”
||| A HYPERREALITY. |||
Some of Warhol’s paintings consist of a real-er image of an object,next to an an abstracted image of it.Ref Perrier line of advertisements and Muratti cigarettes.
It’s not about objects,it’s what we make of them (the abstracted image).The hyper-reality we create out of a concrete object,values,meanings and status attached to them.Im guessing that’s what Warhol meant when he put the abstract next to the real.Out of simple objects, we construct an abstract reality.
Out of Warhol’s painting,I inteprete complexities.
But he would have been disappointed.
Andy only wanted to be known as ” a deeply superficial person.”
||| THANK YOU ANDY. |||
“An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have,but he thinks it would be a good idea to give.”–Andy Warhol
Mr.Warhol,you justify the cause of many bloggers in this world.
||| ART IS FOR THE MASSES. |||
This was an Andy quote along the wall.not whole.i couldnt fish out my notebook fast enough to copy it.
Significantly,it was put next to the world-famous “campbell’s soup” paintings.Andy took something of masses,of everyday life, and turned it into art.
So just to check if he achieved his purpose,I asked the Indian Security Guard next to me:”Uncle what do you think of these paintings?”
He wasn’t expecting a question from any one in a room full of people dressed differently from him.
Diffidently, “Errrr.I don’t know.I’m not the right person to ask.”
“Is it nice?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Would you come for an exhibition to see these?”
No reply.Apprehensive smile.
-social experiment ends-
||| UNCLE. |||
It wouldn’t be correct to say, that he stuck out like a white head among the black.
Apart from flagrant disrespect,the description is technically inaccurate because some artsy caucasians there had their hair dyed white.
But the short old man,60-ish,hunched over,was peering into the short synopsis next to Warhol’s “flowers”.
He looked ripped straight out of a game of chess by the HDB void deck and put in an art exhibition.
Not that he was wearing slippers:a respectable shirt(untucked) black pants and black rimmed eric khoo glasses. Such big bifocals unwittingly put him in the league artistic trendsters,who revived worshipped these big glasses in their new-age old-age confusion.
One would expect UNCLE to come with a relative,a son,a daughter-in law.
But there were none of these people guiding him around.
UNCLE came alone.
No Western man cane either,but an umbrella acted just as well.
(not a golf umbrella,or a fancy japanese umbrella.just,you know.a plain umbrella that heartlanders carry)
He was still concentrating intently on the small ant-like words that were escaped his eye.
Then the female security guard came.
As gentle as a nurse would to a patient in an old folk’s home,she said:
“Uncle,cannot bring your umbrella in ahh…”
(oh! Singlish in a high-end art exhibition.how appalling!)
But UNCLE hardly noticed her presence yet.
Then again, slightly louder was too loud in an art exhibition: “UNCLE!” she tapped his shoulder, “I SAID CANNOT BRING YOUR UMBRELLA IN,HAVE TO PUT OUTSIDE.”
He stirred.
“COME COME FOLLOW ME THIS WAY.THIS WAY ahhh”
yes i am sure,uncle is actually working for the KGB,sent to find out how much exactly warhol authentic American art was worth.they employ the weakest,most harmless looking characters to conceal their tracks. and THAT umbrella might morph into a getaway tool of sorts.:p
UNCLE. was funky,man.He comes to warhol exhibitions.
The Singlish treatment was unecessary.
||| ART: paying for devotion |||
Warhol pioneered the silk screen technique in his studio,called “the factory”,where art was mass reproduced and colour played around with.
A.W’s philosophy:”Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”
In the tour around the hall, 20-odd people clamoured around the warhol paintings, each having their own realisations,perceptions and unique appreciations of the works.Everyone,in a sense,could be an artist if they took the time.Warhol had a new way of seeing things,like many people,from my experience,do.
Just that he took the time to express his perceptions.And got famous,along the way.
I have a feeling that when you’re dead and gone,and someone clears out your living room,they will crush and throw paintings,writings,doodlings away,unless you called yourself an artist and devoted a substantial amt of time to your self-expression ie. art.
People dont pay for perceptions, they pay for time and devotion taken to express them.All the better with something new and revolutionary: like cubism or popart.Everyone has a perception,but not everyone is confident enough to make it into art that feeds or sells.
But Warhol didn’t set out to be a pauper: “Making money is art,and working is art and good business,is the best art.”
||| $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ |||
He had a series of silkscreens of the $-sign:
one of his signature art pieces,besides marilyn and campbell’s
It was by accident that he started silkscreening those:
“I’d asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, ‘Well, what do you love most?’ That’s how I started painting money. “—-Andy.
<<>>
He did Marilyn Superman and Mickey Mouse for the Americans, Venus the goddess for the Europeans(Romans?),Mao for the Chinese and Beethovan for the Germans.
No french?
He did the electric chair too.
||| LITTLE GIRL. |||
The little girl,not more than 7, was in her pretty white spaghetti top and denim skirt.She had dangly earrings already,for her age.With her long hair pulled back into a ponytail,the earrings drew attention to her young and tender neckline,that would someday grow long and defined, like a jaguar or cheetah’s sleek lines:a killer.
She was wearing boots.Brown boots scrunched up at the top,just like her mother’s.Restless, as a young girl would be in any art exhibition,she was moving ,swishing around like she was a fairy.
Then when she stopped,she was standing legs crossed,in one of the most beautiful model-like positions ive seen in my life.A KILLER.
yes,she is going to grow up to be a beautiful someone,marry a rich other, attend more art exhibitions in london,paris,new york after alighting from her private jet.
||| DIAMOND DUST |||
Our Frenchman exhibition guide said “DIAMOND DUST” in a very sexy accent.But he kept repeating it,cos Warhol used quite a bit of diamond dust in his various pieces.
The problem is Frenchman tells me what I already can see.
“DIAMOND DUST” overused,loses its magic.
||| AND THIS TAKES THE CAKE. |||
I wanted a silk screen andy warhol shirt,but the crowd/queue at the souveneir counter was SIMPLY chaotic. that’s it,I missed my $15 opportunity for a great shirt cos I didn’t want to wait.
At that very counter,I see Andy Warhol,silkscreened:onto paper,onto shirts,in many colours.The exact way HE did Marilyn,Liz,Venus,Beethovan,the Electric chair.
the man himself must have seen it coming: THE DAY THAT HE IS IMMORTALISED IN HIS VERY OWN METHOD.
but according to him, “Dying is the most embarassing thing that can happen to you.someone’s got to take care of all the details.”
