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Unidentified Male Figure (left); Unidentified Male Portrait and Upper Torso c.1952 (right)
We all know the ANDY WARHOL of mass-produced soup-can art, but what about the earlier private figure? Words: Ruth Hedges
ou‘ve had a bit more than your l5 minutes of fame. haven't you Andy‘.’ An icon of
bleached. sweeping toupecs and thick black- framed glasses. synonymous with (‘ampbell’s soup. lilvis and Jackie () . . . but still an enigma after all these years.
‘If you want to know about Andy Warhol. just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me. and there I am. There's nothing behind it.‘ the artist said of himself. ever self-consciously superficial and famously averse to the artist‘s personal touch. llis best-known works ~ the Marilyn series. the lilvis
shooting from the hip sequence. the stacks of
(‘ampbell's soup cans »- were all produced in his New York Factory. created by teams of workers employed by Warhol. The mass production/consumerism he deified in the soup-can prints -- the aesthetic beauty from the profane. the irony of which has never been agreed on - was echoed in Warhol's own production methods: large- scale money-making enterprises. celebrations and cash. Lots of it.
But what about the earlier Andy Warhol
critiques.
the guy
who‘d just graduated from the (‘arnegie Institute of
Technology and arrived in New York only four years after the Second World War in I‘M‘)? It was a city on the cusp of style/design greatness and pop art was just waiting to emerge in all its bright. primary colours. He was a man discovering life outside of his home town of Pittsburgh. a creative genius who had only just come to terms with his own sexuality. Can you imagine? You come to New York (‘ity and you‘re not
80 THE LIST it)» 2-1 Apt 2003
Lips painted to make a rosy bud and pearls fingered by a mascara-eyed man
spat on for liking other men. the city's blooming in kitsch cherry blossom and fashion magazines want your designs - you could be forgiven for not taking off the pink specs.
And it is from this early period in Andy Warhol's formative life in the Big Apple that the exhibition. Andy ll'ur/ml.‘ l’rii'utt' Drawingsfrom the [9505". at lnverleith llouse comes from. The word ‘private’ is crucial here. Nothing about Warhol's work that we know is private: it was public art fora new generation
prints and copies ensured complete exclusivity impossible. At the huge retrospective last year at Tate Modern. rooms were lined with identikit prints -- lilvis shot you down from every angle. But here. there is a little glimpse into the world that glimmered before Andy Warhol‘s young eyes.
Simple ink line drawings show charming. camp men - such as in the multiple Unidentified Muic Portrait coyly glancing away. fox fur wrapped around a neck. lips painted to make a rosy bud and strings of pearls being fingered by a balding. mascara-eyed man. Butterflies and jewels flutter around the pictures and the quirky little sketches reveal the myriad of new faces Warhol must have beheld and wanted to record.
This is a chance to see the early impressions of Andy Warhol before he became a household name and insisted there was nothing beneath the surface. The lady doth protest too much —- the lines might be two— dimensional. but the feeling is not. Fun. tenderness. compassion. reflection and delight are all there — just read between the lines and don‘t believe everything an artist who wears a wig and lives with his mum most of his life tells you.
Andy Warhol: Private Drawings from the 19503 opens at lnverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Apr-Sun 25 May.
Artbeat
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GLASGOW SCULPTURE Studios celebrates its new premises, at the Briggait in Glasgow. as part of the citywide RAW events taking place in Glasgow. For five days. the largest open-access workshop for artists in Scotland will have open studios and guided tours for visitors. a chance to meet some of the artists and a 10% discount on membership.
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.' . Hirst’s pickled shark opens the new Saatchi Gallery
CHARLES SAATCHI'S NEW contemporary art gallery at London’s County Hall opens its doors on Thursday 17 April. Just a stone’s throw from Tate Modern. the 40.0005q ft contemporary art space will house Saatchi's unrivalled collection of young British art including works by Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume and Jake and Dinos Chapman. The gallery also opens with a retrospective of the work of Damien Hirst, a sore point for Tate chief Nicholas Serota who had to drop his plans for a Hirst retrospective when Saatchi decided not to cooperate. Future plans for the gallery include exhibitions with the aforementioned YBAs as well as shows by new artists and one-off shows curated by independent curators. But not everyone is excited by the prospect. Philip Dodd, director of the ICA, described the gallery as ‘a monument to the 903 . . . a museum to a time when be dominated the scene.’