Visual Art
Reviews
liiJ/i/.'ii.‘i . X-li‘f, but; ‘. . CLAIRE STEPHENSON Sorcha Dallas. Glasgow.
until Sat 19 Mar 0...
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102 THE LIST i ' "15'
ANDY WARHOL: SELFQPORTRAITS Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. until Mon 2 May 0...
Who would have thought Andy Warhol would start like this? ‘Upper Torso Boy Picking Nose‘. The sketchy lines of the lad with his finger stuffed up his nose is a long. playful way from the cool facades created by the older man. By this stage you feel that the finger. if you could see it. would be more turned to us.
The early Warhols are fun and decorative — on one a butterfly perches on his head. But fast forward a decade and the Warhol being presented is by turns posed, scared. morbid, kitsch and dramatic. In one strip of images from a photobooth called ‘Self Portrait (Being Punched)‘, a disarmingly rough. tramp—like figure takes some swipes. Along the corridor more photographs from booths and Polaroids in the late 70$ reveal the unsmoothed flesh of Warhol. The latter's blueish-green tints only emphasises his ragged, hollow features. The man looks ill and it‘s shocking how old he looks.
In the most classic Warhol style. one room is filled with images from 1966 of a younger man. face half in shadow, hand to chin. looking mysterious and belying the craggy truth. Swathes of vibrant colours electrify
SHOWCASE:
CONTEMPORARY ART FOR THE UK City Art Centre 8. Talbot Rice Gallery. Edinburgh. until Sat 12 Mar 0...
Self-portrait, 1 981
the images with fuscia and peach and blue. candyfloss pink and deep blue. His eyes follow you round the room. It's hard to know what part of the iconicising is vanity. how far it is ironic and if it stems from fear of ageing or a simple celebration of colour and surface. It is. of course, possible to be all these things.
In 1968 Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanos. his fear of death compounded and paranoia intensified. The notion of Warhol as someone who didn't give a damn about feelings or inner worlds is blown out of the water by ‘Self Portraits with Skull‘ — the greys and reds are angsty and disturbed. In the 1980s. when he was in his 50s, two separate series of images reveal his unease with ageing and decay. One reveals a face that's grown younger — the eyes are brighter, the skin fresher. In one. his face looks almost angelic.
The second series is called ‘Shadow lmages‘. Sketchy outlines of a face in profile look one way and a shadow stretches out beyond, looking the other. It is the most poignant suggestion of a divided, fragile self.
The comprehensive show has selected and gathered a great range of styles. ages and moods of the Warhol visage. It shows the enigma to be not as impenetrable as he may wish to be — there is an egotism that burns away behind each image with little flickers of insight through the smokescreen. (Ruth Hedges)