Warholing

"Art is what you can get away with." So said Andy Warhol, according to one of the quotes wallpapered around GOMA on Sunday. And it's very true, too - he got away with quite a lot!


I spent Sunday at the Gallery of Modern Art here in Brisbane, looking through the Andy Warhol exhibition. Like a lot of other people, I'd heard of Andy Warhol without really knowing anything about his work. He was famous for saying that everyone in the future would be famous for 15 minutes. And that, I think, is his 15 minutes summed up right there.

I spent around three hours in the exhibition. Maybe I just didn't get it, but a lot of it, the early works in particular, didn't impress me all that much. His later works, on the other hand, I thought were much better. At least, they appealed to me a bit more. Maybe that just means I'm more in touch with the spirit of the 80's than the 60's...

And I guess that's the point, isn't it? He was a pop artist, consciously so. He was speaking very much in the language and images of the day, reacting to the events immediately around him. He captured a moment in time, sometimes memorably as with his portraits, and then time moved on. The image doesn't speak as loudly any more and will probably continue to fade as we get further away from his time and the ideas that inspired him.

Overall, it's an interesting exhibition. It's more interesting for it's historical value than it's artistic value, I think, but still I'm glad I went.

I bought a fridge magnet at the Andy Warhol Supermarket on the way out. Pop art at its best!