Okay, not Andy in the flesh but his stunning Silk Screen prints are on show at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Surrounded by Marilyn
I love Palm Springs Art Museum and not just for having a great art collection but because the friendly museum docent verified to my husband that my jacket was in fact green. It was St Patrick's day and I wanted to wear the appropriate attire to honor the tradition but my husband was convinced my green jacket was grey and we argued about it all the way to the museum until he asked calmly full of confidence to the unsuspecting museum attendant politely "excuse me what color is this jacket?". What does this have to do with Andy Warhol you might ask? Validation. Andy Warhol said "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes". Isn't the hunger for fame a desire to be validated?
This fascination with fame and celebrity started when he was just a child in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He was very insecure about his appearance with very pale skin and hair which was made worse by an illness during elementary school and resulted in large, pink blotches, another blow to his self esteem. He spent hours cutting up glamor magazine, collecting celebrity memorabilia, and escaping in movies.
His mother encouraged his artistic leanings early in life being artistic herself. Later when Andy made it as a commercial artist in New York he had his mother come live with him till he died and when she came so did the cans of soup. Rows and Rows of canned soup in fact. She had a thing for stockpiling those cans so clearly it was on Andy's mind.
After years as a successful commercial illustrator Andy Warhol started the process of silk screening in 1962 . He began making silk screen paintings of celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger, Mao and of course Elvis. His "Eight Elvis's" sold for 100 million in 2008 making it one of the most expensive paintings in the world.
The Exhibition at Palm Springs Art Museum spans over 40 years and 250 works celebrating his iconic Pop Art glorifying fame, consumerism, sex and death. These topics being just as relevant today as when Andy first released his work more than 50 years ago, he was a visionary and intuitive, tapping in to the collective culture's psyche and turning it into images. His images of Death such as "Electric Chair"from his Death and Disaster series illustrate how desensitized we have become to violence from repeated exposure by the media. Was Andy Warhol a man of depth or was he superficial and just looking for an opportunity? Was he both? He was hard to figure out and kept everyone guessing. My favorite Andy Warhol stunt was sending a impersonator to give a interview and the reporters fell for it.
Andy Warhol gave his friend $50 for giving him the idea to paint his two favorite things soup and money, not a bad investment for launching himself as The Pop Art King. Seeking ideas and collaborations with others became a habit for Andy for the rest of his career. His "Factory" became a full time happening of talented people he would find in the street or at a party, that he could then direct into something marvelous like the music of the "velvet underground".
One of the most famous Artist of the 20th Century yet forever an enigma, Andy Warhol was a amazing rarity in that he had brought fringe and the underground to the mainstream with success. He got his validation as an artist and became the celebrity he had always wanted to be . All he needed was a can of soup as inspiration and a lot of friends
Put on your best beatnik or Pop outfit and head over to Palm Springs Art Museum, the exhibition is running until May 28th 2018
Thanks for Visiting Palm Springs Fabulous
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