- Title: FRANCE: New Andy Warhol exhibition opens in Paris
- Date: 18th March 2009
- Summary: VARIOUS OF "SELF-PORTRAIT" EXHIBITION ROOM VARIOUS OF "RED JACKIE" AND "SILVER LIZ" VARIOUS OF "TWENTY MARILYNS" AND "MARILYN MONROE IN BLACK AND WHITE (TWENTY FIVE MARILYNS)" VARIOUS OF "MONA LISA" VARIOUS OF "ETHEL SKULL 36 TIMES" VARIOUS OF "SELF-PORTRAIT" VARIOUS OF "MAO" EXHIBITION ROOM WITH "COCA-COLA" EXHIBITION ROOM WITH VARIOUS PAINTINGS VARIOUS OF "LAST SUPPER (CHRIST 112 TIMES)" (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALAIN CUEFF, CURATOR, SAYING: "It would be wonderful to recreate the dream of Warhol to have 1,000 portraits of people just like that, raw. But it's quite impossible, I'm afraid. So for me the challenge was to offer a context with these commissioned portraits, to read them from the beginning to the end." ALAIN CUEFF TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALAIN CUEFF,CURATOR, SAYING: "The consistency of Warhol's thinking and Warhol's work allows those kind of surprises, and you will discover many different details which are all of a sudden working up a new idea, a new track for maybe a new reading." VARIOUS OF "SKULL" VARIOUS OF "DEBBIE HARRY" VARIOUS OF "SYLVESTER STALLONE" VARIOUS OF "DENNIS HOPPER" VARIOUS OF TWO PORTRAITS OF A NAKED WOMAN VARIOUS OF "DAVID HOCKNEY" VARIOUS OF "BRIGITTE BARDOT" EXHIBITION WALL
- Embargoed: 2nd April 2009 05:01
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Art,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Arts / Culture / Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA1P81BO3UFB9B92OK3B4PQ5JRX
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: "The Wide World of Andy Warhol" exhibition opens at Paris's Grand Palais on Wednesday (March 18). With more than 250 portraits by the "pope of pop art," the exhibition is being billed as on one of the biggest art happenings of 2009.
The ambitious retrospective features mostly commissioned portraits of renowned personalities including Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger, Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin.
Warhol worked in the realms of painting, photography, film-making, and print, but is best known for his revival of portrait art. He used Polaroid snapshots or photo booth prints, which he then painted and silkscreened.
Playing with colours and image repetition, he commented on the nature of consumer society and mass culture. In his world, art was a product like any other.
In an industrial manner Warhol painted the entire American society of the second half of the twentieth century in what he dubbed the "Portrait of Society."
"It would be wonderful to recreate the dream of Warhol to have 1,000 portraits of people just like that, raw. But it's quite impossible, I'm afraid. So for me the challenge was to offer a context with these commissioned portraits, to read them from the beginning to the end," said Alain Cueff, curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition offers a different side of Warhol's art: not the shallow commercial repetition, but the deep interest and belief in the human character.
"The consistency of Warhol's thinking and Warhol's work allows those kind of surprises, and you will discover many different details which are all of a sudden working up a new idea, a new track for maybe a new reading," said Alain Cueff.
This exhibition, which will only be seen in Paris, is the first Warhol show to focus exclusively on portraits. It is open until July 13. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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