Andy Warhol Early Drawings
15 May — 5 July 2009 The New Art Gallery Walsall
Exhibition guide
Andy Warhol Early Drawings Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is renowned as the artist who depicted Campbell’s soup cans, Coca Cola bottles, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis, or for his silent film epics such as Empire, 1964. His artistic persona, his signature white wig and glasses established him as a distinctive figure on the New York art scene from the 1960s until his death. His sound bites such as ‘in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes’ are legendary. Yet Warhol’s diverse art practice embraced almost every medium, from drawing, painting, screen-printing and sculpture to film, video, television, sound and performance. It is however in his early and lesser known drawings of the 1950s that we witness many of the origins of Warhol’s later Pop Art aesthetic.
Cover Image - Andy Warhol, Head with Flowers, 1958 Pen and ink and ink wash on paper, 584 x 356mm ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009.
His techniques of using mechanical reproduction such as a blotted line, tracing, stencils, rubber or balsa wood stamps, which could produce multiple pictograms of butterflies, bugs, flowers, cherubs, stars or hearts were precursors of his later screenprinting and projection practices.
Andy Warhol, Tondo (Butterflies), 1955 Pen and ink, graphite and dye on paper, 660 x 530mm ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008. Š The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009.
His distinctive style of drawing in the 1950s won him prestigious contracts with I Miller & Sons shoes, Fleming Joffe, the department stores Bondwit Teller and Berghoff Goodman, as well as regular commissions from magazines and newspapers including Glamour, The New York Times Sunday Supplement and Harper’s Bazaar. By the end of his thirteen-year career in commercial art he had become one of New York’s highest paid and most successful illustrators with a portfolio that included designs for book covers, stationery, record sleeves and numerous private drawings. Yet when he made the determined choice to become a ‘fine’ artist rather than a commercial one, he refused to show his drawings to anyone who “remembered him from his commercial days.” Of one particular experience Warhol recalls, “I could actually see him changing his mind about my paintings, so from then on I decided to have a firm no show policy”. In response to this decision he almost ceased drawing from 1963-1972. Although Warhol did have some exhibitions of his drawings early on in his career, they had little success. His first exhibition opened in 1952 at the Hugo Gallery with his drawings of Truman Capote. Exhibitions followed at the Loft Gallery, Serendipity Gallery (1954) and at the Bodley Gallery (1956) where he presented his Studies for a Boy Book. In Warhol’s early drawings his ‘hand’ is still clearly visible and his ‘commentary of gestures’ and ‘feelings ‘ are not yet removed. Warhol’s distinctive illustrations emerged at a time when photography was replacing the hand drawn line. Yet his subject matter remains consistent throughout his career, informed by his love of fashion, brand names, glamour, Hollywood stars, celebrity culture, beautiful people and ultimately portraiture.
Warhol’s artistic training began at his mother’s kitchen table. Julia Warhola, Warhol’s mother, would hold regular drawing competitions and encourage her three sons (Paul, John and Andy) to compete for a Hershey bar. Warhol always won. Encouraged to draw at Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, he was selected to attend classes for artistic children at Carnegie Museum of Art. At seventeen he enrolled at Carnegie Institute of Technology; his education paid for by his mother with funds from a cashed savings bond. Her belief in his talents was informed by her own artistic leanings: she decorated ‘Pysanky’ Easter eggs and planted paper flowers in soup cans which she sold door to door assisted by Warhol.
Andy Warhol, Foot with Cat, 1955-57 Pen and ink on paper, 425 x 352mm ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009.
His brother John also recalls him cultivating his own small patch of flowers as a child. It is certainly no accident that flowers are a recurring motif in Warhol’s art appearing in Warhol’s drawings such as Head with Flowers, 1957, and Foot with Flowers, 1958. During his time at Carnegie Tech, Warhol was taught to draw by influential teachers such as Robert Lepper in the Bauhaus tradition, and was exposed to influences from Paul Klee to Ben Shahn as well as Picasso, Matisse and the drawings of Jean Cocteau – whose confident lines and pared down aesthetic informed his own practice. His training was geared towards making a living which he succinctly described in his ‘Philosophy’ as “Business art is the step that comes after art. I started as a commercial artist and I want to finish as a business artist... making money is art, working is art”. But it was after graduating from college in 1949 and moving permanently to New York with fellow student Philip Pearlstein that his career as a commercial artist began in earnest. Not only did he declare he could ‘draw anything’ but he became popular with clients for his ability to work quickly and to alter drawings and illustrations to suit their needs. He quips in 1973 that he would most like to have a ‘boss’ because they would ‘tell him what to do’. When his mother joined him in New York in 1952 to ‘look after’ her unmarried son, he established the first of his many artistic ‘factories’ (his Silver Factory being the most infamous). Warhol persuaded his friends to colour offset prints in his New York kitchen in East 75th Street, drawing cats, handbags and putti cherubs which his mother would sign in her decorative handwriting. By 1953 he was hiring assistants; the first being Vito Giallo, later succeeded by Nathan Gluck. There is a spirited joyousness about Warhol’s drawings often verging on the sentimental coupled with his signature economy of line. These early works give us insights into Warhol’s character, his
laconic sense of humour, his love of kitsch and a certain fey characterization. There is so much that is personal in this exhibition: Warhol’s love of portraiture; his foot fetish (he made a book of drawings on celebrity feet); the delineation of lips, eyes, toes – influenced by the Hollywood ‘close up’ – and scattered hearts, kisses, birds and butterflies recalled from Disney cartoons and comics. His drawings of young men reveal both an idealized sentimentality and desire. In Boy with Flowers, 1955-7, the daffodils are perhaps symbolic of unrequited love while in Resting Boy, 1955-57, the delineation of the hand resting on the arm and
Andy Warhol, Resting Boy, 1955-57 Pen and ink on paper, 425 x 352mm ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009.
the attention to the long dark curling lashes of the young man recalls his film Sleep, 1963*. There are obvious differences in style with the blotted line serendipitously ‘discovered’ by Warhol when blotting an over-inked drawing compared to the drawn line. Images of boys licking their lips or a thumb in the mouth precede his later film portraits. Many of the drawings in the exhibition also reveal a fantasy vision of products underpinned with Warhol’s droll sense of humor. His Ice Cream Dessert, 1959, is an escapist baroque fantasy; the overabundance of ice cream and suggestive cherries are reminiscent of the time Warhol worked as a ‘good humour’ ice cream vendor in Pittsburgh. Warhol also loved to play with words and hidden symbols, particularly if he could include references to the gay underground community. In Town and Country, 1954, the words actually read OW & OUNTR. The erasure of words continued to be a familiar motif in his early Pop Art images and the misunderstanding of words was common place in the Warhola Eastern European/American household. Julia Warhola was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the United States in 1921. (Warhol dropped the ‘a’ from his name permanently soon after getting his first commercial job).
* Sleep, 1963, was one of Warhol’s first experiments with film making. It consists of long take footage of John Giorno, his close friend at the time, sleeping for over 5 hours.
Andy Warhol, Ice Cream Dessert, 1959 Ink and Dye on paper, 737 x 356mm ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009.
Andy Warhol, Ice Cream Dessert, 1959 Ink and Dye on paper, 737 x 356mm ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2009.
The richness and variety of Warhol’s early drawings not only show his ability to execute beautifully observed images but also reveal his desires and interests. His skill of repeating ideas and making them look fresh, along with his habit of crossreferencing between eras and themes, are all evident in this exhibition. In the 1960s Warhol declared “Look at the surface of my paintings and films and me. There I am. There’s nothing behind it,” but his early drawings reveal clues that help unlock his carefully orchestrated public persona. Jean Wainwright April 2009
A selection of Andy Warhol archive material and memorabilia is also on display on the Mezzanine Level. This selection of artwork is taken from ARTIST ROOMS a collection of international contemporary art jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland which was established through the d’Offay Donation in 2008 with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund and the Scottish and British Governments. ARTIST ROOMS is being shared with museums and galleries throughout the UK with additional support from The Art Fund, and within Scotland, the Scottish Government.
In Conversation Jean Wainwright Saturday 30 May, 11am Andy Warhol scholar Jean Wainwright will be offering an insight into Warhol’s early works; from his experimental approach to mark making to his lifelong love affair with fashion. Please reserve your free place in advance by visiting the reception desk on the ground floor or calling 01922 654400.
If you like this, you may like ... Andy Warhol Paintings and Posters Wolverhampton Art Gallery until 21st September 2009
The New Art Gallery Walsall Gallery Square Walsall WS2 8LG 01922 654400 thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk