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 The Warhol retrospective, organised by Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery, is exclusive to Brisbane. The opening long weekend, Friday 7 to Monday 10 December, is jam-packed with events for all ages, from film screenings to a symposium.
An unmissable highlight will be the special performance of Velvet Underground music by former Go-Between, Robert Forster. Warhol is best remembered for his striking visual art, but as the GoMA retrospective demonstrates, his work in a broad range of media has profoundly affected many forms of popular culture, from film and television, to magazines and music.
The works date from the 1950s, when he was employed as a New York commercial artist, until 1987, when he died aged 59 from complications after routine surgery. During that time, Warhol’s unique approach and wide experimentation led to new artistic techniques and visual aesthetics. In addition to his obsession with the mundane (think soup cans), many of the items that will be on display at GoMA illustrate his preoccupation with glamour and fame. This is evident in his portraits of icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, and his celebrity magazine, Interview, among many others.
Examples of Warhol’s television work from the ’70s and ’80s have been assembled and there will be episodes from Fashion, Andy Warhol’s TV and Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, which originally aired on MTV. For those more interested in the man himself, Warhol is the subject of many objects in the collection, such as photographs by Billy Name, Nat Finkelstein and Christopher Makos, and Warhol’s own self-portraits. Warhol’s writing can be found in books like The Andy Warhol Diaries and his artefacts exposed in the ‘Time Capsules’, cardboard boxes into which he collated remnants of his daily life.
GoMA’s Australian Cinémathèque will host a comprehensive review of Warhol’s films, videos and screen tests, supplemented by other films and documentaries that provide context to his work. The ‘Cinema in Revolt’ program positions his films as part of post-war queer experimental cinema and investigates the genre’s impact on contemporary independent artists and filmmakers. Landmark works by Kenneth Anger, Warren Sonbert, Jack Smith, Gregory Markopoulos, The Kuchar Brothers, John Waters, Todd Haynes, Sadie Benning, Gregg Araki and Gus Van Sant will be screened.
‘Warhol and his Superstars’ looks in-depth at the people who appeared in the films Warhol produced at his studio, The Factory. The documentaries and biographies that will be revealed include award-winning works about Brigid Berlin, Danny Williams, Lou Reed, Jack Smith, Taylor Mead, Jackie Curtis and Edie Sedgwick. ‘Screen Stars’, on show during the summer children’s festival (18-28 January), draws on Warhol’s childhood fascination with Hollywood screen idols and features Shirley Temple and Judy Garland films, such as 1939 classics The Little Princess and The Wizard of Oz. In addition to being able to watch these films, children can engage with Warhol’s art through ‘The Silver Factory’ – free activities provided by the gallery at the Children’s Art Centre.
And if that’s not enough Warhol for you, there are the Friday night ‘Warhol Up Late’ events between 4 January and 28 March, and GoMA’s Warhol Supermarket, where you can consume mass-produced Warhol-related merchandise and books.
For more information about the Warhol retrospective, 8 December to 30 March, visit www.qag.qld.gov.au.
Tickets: adults $20, concession/QAG members $16, family (1 or 2 adults plus any number of children 13-17) $50, children 13-17 $10 (children 12 and under free), booked adult groups (min.10 people) $16 per person. Season tickets: adult $50, concession $40.
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