Philip Pearlstein, Andy Warhol in New York City, c1949, Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. Used by permission.
Melton-Pippin, Andy Warhol with head cradled in hands, c1950, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Used by permission.
There’s a historical tendency to present events in a neat, linear fashion. However, contrary to accepted notions, Warhol, who amassed fashionable clients such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Tiffany and Co. as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, didn’t just wake up at the dawn of a new decade as a central figure in pop art.
Says exhibition curator Nicholas Chambers, “He actually continued producing commercial work in the vein of his 1950s output until at least 1965.” And it is this grey area between historical dates and professions that underpins Adman: Warhol Before Pop. The exhibition, opening at the AGNSW in February, gathers some 300 objects from the Andy Warhol Museum in Warhol’s city of birth, Pittsburgh. Drawings, photographs and artists’ books reveal that along with his immensely successful commercial art career, Warhol was concurrently working and exhibiting as an emerging artist.
“We’re particularly excited to be exhibiting numerous objects that have never before been placed on public display,” says Chambers, this includes sketchbooks and works from Warhol’s debut exhibition, previously only available for scrutiny by researchers at the museum. Of particular note are his works that use his inventive blotted line technique, and early stamped compositions that are precursors to his silk-screen printing.
Interest in Warhol is near inexhaustible. Subsequent generations find new avenues to the artist through his rapacious appetite for all manner of artistic expression – music, publishing, filmmaking, fashion, painting and design. Warhol viewed art in its potential to be inclusive of all forms. “He crafted a practice that moved fluidly between different creative pursuits,” says Chambers.
Adman: Warhol Before Pop
Art Gallery of New South Wales
25 February – 28 May
Elysha Rei’s exhibition Shirozato to Shinju (White Sugar and Pearls) at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Townsville QLD, explores the interconnected histories of the Japanese diaspora in Australia.
Described as “a space for reflection, remembrance, and the sharing of truth”, Kattidj Nagãr, now showing at John Curtin Gallery, is dedicated to the Aboriginal people who once resided at the Carrolup Settlement in Western Australia.
With an approach to artmaking drawn from the “fieldwork of life”, twin brothers and artistic collaborators Man&Wah, who are now showing at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, use plant migration to explore duality and movement.
It feels like everything is slowly but surely being affected by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). And like every other disruptive technology before it, AI is having both positive and negative outcomes for society. One of these negative outcomes is the very specific, yet very real cultural harm posed to Australia’s Indigenous populations.
The works of Thom Roberts are immediate in their charm, yet underpinned by poignant reflections on identity, perspective and belonging. His exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra marks the artist’s first major solo show, bringing together more than a decade’s work spanning painting, installation, sculpture, animation, and works on paper.
As I walk through the suburban streets, I find myself thinking about the publication Speech Patterns: Nadia Hernández & Jon Campbell. It accompanied their two-person exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2022, which explored their shared preoccupations with class, identity and value systems.
