Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes in Seoul
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
``If you want to know everything about me, just look at the surface of my paintings, it's all there, there's nothing more,'' Andy Warhol once famously said.
People can discover more about the enigmatic Pop Art icon at the recently opened exhibition ``Andy Warhol, the Greatest'' at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA).
You Hee-young, SeMA director, said this was an invaluable opportunity to examine Warhol's art works that continue to influence contemporary art and pop culture 22 years after his death.
What exactly is the appeal of Warhol's works that has endured the decades?
``What people love about Warhol's works is that it is recognizable, and people can say that it's so-and-so. … Warhol's work speaks to the everyday person. That's part of the appeal, that he liked Muhammad Ali, and so did we. There was that familiarity that joined him with the people, no matter where they were in the world,'' Thomas Sokolowski, director of The Andy Warhol Museum, told The Korea Times.
The ``Andy Warhol, the Greatest'' exhibition is divided into 10 thematic sections that span Warhol's career as an industrial designer, artist and filmmaker. Over 400 pieces, on loan from The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Penn., include many representative works such as the Campbell Soup Cans and Brillo boxes, portraits of world-famous people like Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles, as well as drawings and personal keepsakes. It is interesting to see how Warhol combined pop culture and fine art in his works and turned it into a commercially successful career.
The first section of the exhibition features well-known pieces such as ``Flowers,'' ``Dollar Sign'' and ``Marilyn'' (Monroe). Sokolowski noted that when Warhol was starting as an artist, someone advised him to ``paint what you like the most.''
``So he painted money. He wanted to silkscreen dollar bills, but the printer thought it might be seen as counterfeiting. So Warhol drew a $1 bill and made it into a painting. … He grew up during the Great Depression, so he realized that money can buy stuff. He knew that money is the currency of the real world,'' he said. Incidentally, Warhol's silkscreen painting ``200 One Dollar Bills'' recently sold for $43.7 million at an auction.
Born Andrew Warhola to working class immigrant parents in 1928, Warhol was obsessed with fame and money. ``In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes'' is probably his most cited quote and quite prescient, in light of society's current obsession with celebrity status.
His portraits of celebrities and important figures in politics, art, business and Hollywood will obviously attract the most attention at the exhibition. There are colorful silkscreen portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Sylvester Stallone, Ingrid Bergman, Albert Einstein and Mao Zedong.
Warhol started making the Mao's portraits after going to Hong Kong and later Beijing in the 1960s and 70s. He found it interesting that there were huge photos of Mao throughout China, at a time when there was intense speculation whether or not the Chinese Communist Party leader was still alive.
``I think Warhol made this image because there was a phrase in Latin: `life is short, but art endures forever.' In a sense, whether Chairman Mao is dead or not, as long as his image remains, then the power of the person would exist,'' Sokolowski said.
A section is also devoted to many of Warhol's self-portraits, which show him in typical celebrity photo poses, like slightly covering his lips with his fingers or wearing sunglasses.
Sokolowski, who knew the artist for 20 years, says there were many aspects of Warhol that were always hidden from even his closest friends. Despite his high profile as a celebrity, Warhol always cultivated a mysterious persona, wearing outlandish wigs when going out in public.
``I once asked him, `Andy, why are you making the wigs so strange?' And he said, `If people look at the wig, they won't see my face.' … The person who walked in the streets was Andy Warhol the famous artist, but the man who was born Andrew Warhola, what he loved, what tragedies he suffered, we would never know. What he was saying was `If you want to see me, look at my work because that's my mirror,''' Sokolowski said.
``Andy Warhol, the Greatest'' runs through April 4 at the SeMA, downtown Seoul. It is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. On weekends, it is open until 6 p.m. through February, and to 7 p.m. from March to April. Tickets range from 8,000 to 12,000 won. To get there, get off at City Hall Station Line 1 or 2, exit 10. Visit www.warhol.co.kr or seoulmoa.seoul.go.kr.