London’s Tate Modern opened a major exhibition of US pop-artist Andy Warhol’s work last Thursday, displaying his collection of wigs for the first time in Britain.
Spread over 12 rooms, the exhibition covers Warhol’s major works and his life at the heart of New York’s avant garde cultural scene from the late 1950s until his death in 1987.
The museum said Warhol, born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, in 1928, “produced art at a time of immense social,political and technological change.”
“As he growing up in the United States, Warhol embraced New York’s queer community of designers, poets, dancers and artists,” it said.
But he was widely dismissed until the late 1960s as “too camp ... and overly connected to the commercial world of advertising illustration to be a serious contender.”
Warhol is perhaps best known for his pop-art depictions of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, US actress Marilyn Monroe, singer US Elvis Presley and other icons of the 1960s, along with his many self-portraits.
“Warhol had always used his own image in his art,” the Tate wrote in the accompanying guide to the exhibition. “In the 1980s, he created what came to be known as his ‘fright wig’ self-portraits for an exhibition in London.”
The artist’s wigs were also an “integrated part of his appearance” in early works, it said. — dpa
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