"Andy Warhol: The Last Decade"

Andy Warhol often evokes visions of colorful images, including soup cans, celebrities and other pop culture icons. People usually do not think about the last works done by the king of pop [art]. After 1968, a noticeable change in subject matter and methodology took place in his work. An assassination attempt would understandably leave one questioning beliefs, including one’s validity as an artist. These changes include a return to painting and darker imagery. An exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum focuses on his prolific later creations.

“Andy Warhol: The Last Decade” begins with a piece from 1978 and includes work up until his untimely death at age 58 in 1987. The work ranges from pop art mixed with abstracted splatters to Oxidation Paintings. He worked with admired artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente, which lead him to use canvas, a material he had not used in years. Some of the pieces have darker connotations. According to a New York Times article, “the titles themselves speak volumes: The American Indian, Athletes, Torsos, Portraits of the Jews of the 20th Century, Dollar Signs, Knives, Guns, [and] Myths.” The constant fear of death was apparent in his piece “Self-Portrait (Strangulation).” A collection of 10 small canvases features him looking upward while being strangled by an unknown hand. This mirrors his previous self-portraits, with the photographic image over large color blocks, however contains a darker twist than his typical surprised expression.

His oxidation paintings are surprisingly beautiful, with golds and greens that radiate from the black linen. The Abstract Expressionist-like paintings are made with “ethereal loops of one pale color drifting across clouds of others, [and] suggest languid wrist action, even though it is hard to figure out exactly what is printed and what is painted.” His largest work, a collection of canvases totaling 32 feet, takes cues from da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It mixes motorcycles and religion into one erotic piece.

Joseph D. Ketner II, the show curator, wrote an essay explaining the show:

“It retraces the evolution of the paintings on view and the increasingly close collaborative methods of Warhol and his studio assistants. It also provides a vivid sense of Warhol’s relatively vulnerable frame of mind, his yearning for approbation and his encounters with old master painting, which helped revive his own interest in painting.” (http://nyti.ms/9xv9bi)

If you visit the New York/Brooklyn area before September 12, be sure to check out the exhibition, which contains the best of approximately 3,500 works from Warhol’s last ten years. For more information on museum location and hours, please go to http://bit.ly/davApp.

If you are interested in seeing Warhol’s work locally, GMOA owns a selection of screen prints from Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Portfolio I series as well as a number of the artist’s photographs. At least one of his works will be on view permanently when the museum reopens in January 2011.