Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms

No artist living in the second half of the 20th century has made a deeper impression on popular culture than Andy Warhol (1928-1987). Almost two decades on from The Hayward’s acclaimed exhibition Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (1989), the gallery presents a major exhibition that brings a fresh perspective to the work of the celebrated Pop Art master, showing works from the 1950s through to the 1980s. Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms displays Warhol’s films, screen-tests, videos, and television programmes, which combined with extraordinary archive material, seminal paintings and installations, illuminates his creative process and sheds new light on his work as a whole. Using the moving image as its starting point to explore Warhol’s world, the exhibition includes some of Warhol’s most famous films Sleep (1963), Empire (1964), Poor Little Rich Girl (1965), and Chelsea Girls (1966), as well as rarely seen screen tests of artists and musicians such as Marcel Duchamp, John Cale and Salvador Dali. Revealing the inner workings of The Factory, the exhibition will screen Warhol’s video diaries, and all 42 episodes from his 1980s cable TV serials, ‘Fashion’; ‘Andy Warhol’s TV’; and ‘Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes’; in which he appeared with friends such as Debbie Harry and Jerry Hall. Paintings and prints of famous icons including Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup tins, will be shown alongside Polaroid photos of his celebrity friends, delicate drawings and wallpaper patterns.

This varied presentation reflects Warhol’s egalitarian maxim, ‘all is pretty’; with no one medium given more prominence over another. Adding to our insights into Warhol’s art and character, the exhibition includes one complete time capsule of the many the artist compiled. The exhibition pulls into focus Warhol’s core concerns; voyeurism, celebrity, the mundane, and the blurring of distinctions between high and low culture.

In 1968 Warhol had his first major show in Europe at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and this show forms a key part of The Hayward’s 40th anniversary programme this year, which celebrates four decades of international exhibitions at the gallery. Curated by Eva Meyer-Hermann and housed in an extraordinary setting by the Berlin designers, chezweitz & roseapple, the exhibition is organised by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. Stephanie Rosenthal, Chief Curator at The Hayward, has collaborated on this presentation of the exhibition. The exhibition began its tour at the Stedelijk Museum last October where it attracted record visitors and is currently on show at the Moderna Museet.

Ralph Rugoff, Director of The Hayward says “If you think you know the work of Andy Warhol, then think again. By drawing us into the mind of the artist, the exhibition makes us look afresh at those familiar Pop Art icons of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup cans, and introduces us to a whole new world of extraordinary images. I’m delighted to be hosting this major Warhol exhibition in The Hayward’s 40th year.”

Eva Meyer-Hermann, exhibition curator “Andy Warhol once wondered about how it would be if one mirror would reflect another. He declared that everything which we want to know can be seen on the surfaces of him and his works. I thought I had to look behind these surfaces, but realised that what we are looking for is not behind but in front of them. Warhol’s surfaces reflect the world; his works are about you and me.”

Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms
Kurator: Eva Meyer-Hermann

Stationen:
08.10.08 - 11.01.09 Hayward Gallery, London
13.09.08 - 15.02.09 Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus / Ohio
09.02.08 - 04.05.08 Moderna Museet Stockholm
12.10.07 - 13.01.08 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam