Andy Warhol's rarely seen self-portraits arrive in Korea

Installation view of the exhibition “Andy Warhol: Looking for Andy” at Espace Louis Vuitton Seoul in Cheongdam in southern Seoul / Courtesy of Fondation Louis Vuitton & The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. Licensed by Adagp, Paris 2021

By Park Han-sol

• Published Oct 7, 2021 6:05 PM KST
• Updated Nov 15, 2021 8:10 PM KST

By Park Han-sol

Andy Warhol was a figure whose name always seemed to be followed by an endless list of iconic modifiers ― Pop Art legend, the Pygmalion of the contemporary world, as well as a screen printing artist who brought to life rows of vibrant Campbell's soup cans and movie star Marilyn Monroe's beaming face.

A new exhibition called “Andy Warhol: Looking for Andy” at Espace Louis Vuitton Seoul, in the southern part of the capital, spotlights the series of Warhol's own self-portraits reflecting the trajectory of his dynamic life.

The selected silkscreen prints and Polaroid photos, which come from the collection of the luxury brand's Paris art museum, Fondation Louis Vuitton, span over two decades from the late 1960s to the late 1980s and follow the pop icon as he staged persona after persona for himself.

The earliest work on display is “Self-Portrait” (1967), based on the photo of himself taken a year earlier. With half of his face mysteriously cast in deep red shadow and a graceful gesture of his hand, it captures his character as a contemplative artist lost in thought.

But his venture into the self-portrait genre takes a sharp turn just a year later, when he experiences a near-fatal shooting by a radical writer named Valerie Solanas at his studio, The Factory. In fact, it wasn't until a decade later that Warhol made his face the subject of his painting once again.

The 1978 “Self-Portrait” is made up of four black-and-white images of himself, with a touch of gold. His face, depicted in various angles on each canvas, visualizes “the unsettling feeling of insecurity and multiple, conflicting streams of consciousness,” Lee Jeong-han, one of the docents of the exhibition, noted.

“The Shadow” (1981), one of the reproduced versions of the screen print in faded red, is showcased in an exhibition setting for the first time not only in Seoul, but in the world, Lee added. Similar to the 1967 artwork, the fleeting shadow plays a big role here, making the piece seem like “Warhol's double self-portrait” ― his real face under intense lighting and the silhouette cast on a wall.

The Polaroid photo series taken between 1977 and 1986 is noteworthy as Warhol applied dynamic changes in styles and colors not to the printed canvas but to his own body through flamboyant makeup, wigs and sunglasses.

One persona he depicted as part of the series was that of a drag queen, in collaboration with the photographer Christopher Makos, to explore freely forms of masculinity and femininity and embody different ideas of beauty, turning the adventure into his own artistic identity.

But the highlight of the exhibition is none other than the overpowering “Self-Portrait” (1986). Unlike other pieces, the large-scale painting in question is almost ghostly as his face floats in a dark abyss, with his piercing eyes locked on those of viewers. Considering that the work was produced just a year before his sudden death in 1987, some interpret it to be the representation of the “anguish felt by the artist as he sat between life and death,” Lee said.

“It is a rare occasion for many of these pieces to be displayed in Seoul, including one work that hasn't even been revealed in any other part of the world,” he told The Korea Times. “It is the Fondation's hope to share such artworks from its collection for the Korean audience to enjoy.”

The exhibition, “Andy Warhol: Looking for Andy,” runs through Feb. 6, 2022, at the Espace Louis Vuitton Seoul.