ANDY WARHOL

Ever Provocative and a Social Radical at the Tate

image above: Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol; Cover story image: Ladies and Gentlemen (Helen/Harry Morales), Andy Warhol, 1975

BY: PROVOKR Editors

This major retrospective is the first Warhol exhibition at the Tate London for almost 20 years. It is a new look at the extraordinary life and work of the art superstar. Leave it to the Tate to thrill us with a new look at Warhol’s work which is not an easy feat.

Andy Warhol, the son of Polish immigrants, became an American icon. Along with the famous images of Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s soup cans the exhibit includes works never seen before in the UK. Of special note are twenty five of Warhol’s Ladies and Gentleman series – portraits of young black and latinx drag queens and trans women. Always provocative and an outsider himself, Warhol was an artist who reimagined what art and its impact could be in an age of social, political, and technological change.

I would love to walk through the Ladies and Gentleman exhibit. To see a Warhol collection of 25 works never seen before itogether is mind blowing. Often I was invited to his series openings. I was young and fairly crazy and it seemed boring to view the Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, I wanted to go on to the party at Studio 54. I was introduced to Andy at this opening. At an opening exhibit at a gallery for the series Endangered Species, which I thought were pretty cool, but in my early 20s, I was still looking for the after party. Warhol tried to hire me to work for Interview Magazine from my drug-induced yet successful days at the Village Voice. He scared me so much, the shooting and suicides, drugs and orgies were too much even for me. I turned him down but got him to sign my white shirt and an issue of Interview. I never realized what was at play in his work. He was doing portraits of supreme importance I realized later and they are now on view at the Tate Modern in London and virtually at home for all of us.

Included in the virtual exhibit are videos which we have featured here. They have succeeded at the Tate to bring a new look and drop the superstar crown and really dive into the importance of his work and I love it.

Andy Warhol - Self-Portrait; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Self-Portrait; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Hammer and Sickle; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Hammer and Sickle; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Green Coca-Cola Bottles 1962; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Green Coca-Cola Bottles 1962; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Skulls 1976; courtesy the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Skulls 1976; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Sixty Last Suppers; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Sixty Last Suppers; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Debbie Harry 1980; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Debbie Harry; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Pink Race riot 1963; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Pink Race riot 1963; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Ladies & Gentleman Wilhelmina Ross — **Andy Warhol – Ladies & Gentleman Wilhelmina Ross courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Andy Warhol - Flowers; Courtesy of the Tate Modern — **Andy Warhol – Flowers; Courtesy of the Tate Modern**

Tags: Andy Warhol, tate london, tate modern

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ANDY WARHOL

Ever Provocative and a Social Radical at the Tate

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