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Petworth show explores both sides of Andy Warhol
SussexWorld
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2 days ago
Guest curator Professor Jean Wainwright believes Newlands House Gallery in Petworth is the perfect venue for her new exploration of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Andy Warhol (1928-1987).
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00:00
Good afternoon. My name is Phil Keurig, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this
00:07
afternoon to speak to Jean Waynton Wright. And this is such an interesting exhibition which you
00:12
are curator for, guest curator, Andy Warhol, 1928-1987. It's a summer exhibition running until
00:21
September the 14th at Newlands House Gallery in Padworth. Now, Jean, why Andy Warhol? Why should
00:29
we be remembering him for nearly 40 years after he died? What's his significance to us now, do you
00:35
think? Very interesting question, because he is significant. And why I called it My True Story is
00:44
you can walk round and you can have your own story about Andy Warhol. Whether it's looking at that
00:53
Mona Lisa four times, Mona Lisa's in the press at the moment, because of course, he's going to be
00:59
given her own room at the Louvre. There's this whole story behind that work. But there's also,
01:06
I think, all the time now, we're discovering aspects of Warhol that perhaps we didn't know about. We
01:13
know he wore a wig and glasses. We know he was a party animal. We know that he was connected with
01:21
pop art. He was the ultimate pop artist. But in this exhibition, we've got interviews with his
01:28
family, his two brothers now sadly dead. But, you know, their interviews reveal a part of him just
01:36
being an ordinary guy, really. And it's quite easy when we look at celebrities or very well-known people
01:45
that we form a kind of opinion of them. But actually, there is all these things under the
01:52
surface. So I was trying to, in this exhibition, give people all these different aspects of Warhol and
02:00
say, well, yes, he did illustrations, he did drawings. But he also did these wonderful screen
02:07
prints, many of which you probably won't have seen. And also, at the end of the exhibition,
02:13
there is this fabulous film that he made of his mother that was part of a whole trilogy of films
02:21
that he was working on. But I also wanted to give him a contemporary relevance because Warhol was
02:30
always working with artists. He loved artists coming to the factory. And of course, we know about
02:40
John Miskell Basquiat. But I thought, why not show contemporary artists that have been influenced by
02:46
him as well, that they have been, you know, they probably would have been at the factory if they'd
02:53
been around because they're really influenced and they've taken elements of Warhol's work.
02:58
And, and in the exhibition, they're kind of integrated into the exhibition. And I think again,
03:07
talking to those artists, it's because Warhol for them had something that really intrigued them that
03:13
they could take and make their own.
03:17
And it must have been such an fascinating exhibition to curate because he's such a fascinating character,
03:23
isn't it? And you were talking just now about the fact that there are two, there's probably more than
03:27
two Andy Warhol's, isn't it? There's a public persona and the very frightened private guy with his phobias
03:35
and complexity.
03:36
I agree totally. I think the thing is, I was once told by Glenn O'Brien, who was the work for interview magazine,
03:45
Warhol's interview magazine, don't try and plot Warhol. Don't try and track Warhol. In other words, what he was saying,
03:52
whatever you know about him, you know, you are actually going to get tripped up because you think
04:00
you captured him. And then he dissipates, you know, he's, he's off doing something else. You go, Oh, but I thought
04:07
he was this. And now he's that. And also Glenn said something really fascinating. I thought we were talking
04:15
about how Warhol responded. Why was Warhol so popular? Why did people want him to be an artist?
04:21
And Glenn said, well, of course, one of his gifts was he said, he always said everything was great.
04:27
But he said, the thing was, we knew what he meant by that. Was it great? Which meant fantastic. Or was it
04:35
great? Which meant not really good at all. But the wonderful thing was, he was always saying it was
04:41
great. So he couldn't argue with it. And I suppose to bring it back to your question. Although he claimed
04:51
or let someone else claim for him that his work was about surface, you can actually think so much
04:58
about every work in the exhibition. You know, why is there a drawing of a child with a cat on their lap,
05:07
but cats barely visible? And yet he loved cats and had lots of cats. There's always some kind of quirky
05:13
little thing in his work. Or why have we got feet on a piano and then all the piano on the Steinway
05:20
piano and the keys look broken? Or a foot with a little ribbon around it? Or...
05:27
So he's always wrong footing then, isn't he?
05:30
He's always wrong footing. He is indeed. He's kind of like saying, look and look again,
05:35
because you think it's about surface, but actually, there's so much more to it in the composition,
05:44
in the subject matter that he chose. The sitting bull, which has never been seen before,
05:50
is quite extraordinary because it shows his working methods as well. And you see how he works
05:59
through an idea. So he takes a photograph, which is a very famous photograph, the historic sitting bull,
06:07
and then he does something to it. So he's all, even when he copies something, if you like,
06:13
he makes it his and recognizable as a war hole. And I think that's what, you know, contemporary
06:21
people and contemporary artists, they want to do that as well. They want their, you know,
06:28
their Instagram feed to be unique or whatever, you know.
06:32
Well, it sounds like a fascinating exhibition. It's going to prompt endless discussion. It's
06:38
at Newlands House Galler in Petworth, running until September 14th. Jean, really lovely to meet
06:43
you and to speak to you. Thank you. Thank you.
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