Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987)

Or how my I managed to see at lest one major exhibition in 2020

I am quite sure it was long before pandemic times when Tate Modern announced that they are doing their first in 20 years big exhibition of Andy Warhol. I find him fascinating as a person and a life story, as much as an artist, so this was no brainer. I knew this is one event I am not going to miss. Then Covid-19 decided to have its own say about all of our lives and any and all of the plans I have made got pushed to the back of my mind. By the summer things were looking a bit more optimistic. While we were still mostly staying at home, dismissed any idea of international travels, and local travels to be honest as we barely left the suburb we live in, I felt like I needed to at least try and escape the lockdown routine. Safety first, of course, but something had to be done. The exhibition was set to open at the first half of March 2020. We all know how this turned out. At that time, we have just entered our first national lockdown here in the UK and going to museums wasn’t on anyone’s mind (they closed soon after anyway). Initially set to run until the end of summer, the exhibition was extended by Tate Modern until the beginning of November. I knew I would not get many more chances to see such a major retrospective of Warhol’s work, so I had to act fast. At the time my daughter was covering pop art, while doing school online, so it was also a chance for her to see what it is all about. I decided to take her and a schoolmate of hers, she hasn’t had a chance to spend much time with since March. Off Topic - involve as much as you can your teenage kids in the things you find interesting and the activities that are important to you. Play music for them, give them books, watch movies with them. Most likely they won’t appreciate it at the time. They will be annoyed you actually want to spend time with them. They will complain because of the efforts you expect them to do and to actually engage. Yet, without them realising it, every museum visit, every live show attendance, every book signing or festival of any kind, every classic movie will leave something with them. On Topic - going to Tate Modern felt a bit like ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ by Daniel Defoe - empty trains, relatively desolated The Queen’s Walk from Waterloo to the museum and barely anyone around the gallery. Despite the circumstances, the introvert in me was pleased, big crowds were never my thing. The exhibition itself was not the best effort of the Tate curators, at least not for me, but still did the job extremely well - to present Warhol for what he was. His complexed, layered personality, his background and his struggles, his artistic journey. Also, who am I to judge people with vast knowledge and experience in the art world. Most such retrospectives tend to follow a timeline where you can see how the artists have developed their style, changed their ideas and the way they execute them, and what inspired them through different times of their lives, both artistically and personally. No surprises there. Yet this one felt a bit rushed for me. The accents that were chosen to highlight Warhol as a personality and as an artist felt a bit out of place at times, even isolated from each other and with no context. It was a really good exhibition. But for a Warhol fan it felt just a little bit disappointing. However, having two teenagers with me, I kind of get what they were trying to do. The whole thing seemed created to get the attention of new audiences, new generations just discovering Warhol. The emphasis on his ‘queerness’, sex, media celebrity status and obsession with death (all of which are essential part of who he was, so it’s not like it was inaccurate after all) was something I saw catching young people’s attention and hopefully making them curious to know more about Warhol. Thus being said, the essence of what made Warhol a cultural icon was still there - in a constantly changing world he imagined what art could be and made it happen, totally transforming the ordinary image of American culture into something progressive and far reaching at times. 

What I didn’t like that much - choosing mostly a single work from his famous series to represent it and putting them together. While the theme might be common in some, I expected some distinction between them. The section about him being shot by Valerie Solanas was so small that there was no need for me to acknowledge the pandemic in order to feel too close to people. What I liked - all in all it was a good representation of Warhol and seeing some of his best work in person was such an experience for me. The audio guide was excellent and brought to you by the wonders of media technologies. You scan a QR code at the entrance and it takes you to the guide that you navigate from your phone. It was a big hit for my daughter and her friend. 

Going to see the exhibition also gave us the chance to check what was on at the time in the Turbine Hall. Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus was a large-scale piece that took us by surprise and prompted us to spend some time reading her texts on the walls and any information we were able to find there. 

I am already looking forward to 2021 when all the art exhibition spaces will be allowed to open (one can only hope!).

Photo Credit: All photos used are taken by the author