Looking at art is normally a course of study for me—examining the paintings, photographs or sculptures; carefully noting their texture and colors and composition; reflecting on the individual works in a collection; and analyzing how they fit together as a whole. This is how I begin to understand both art and artist, and it usually takes time. Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, “Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years,” is a completely different experience. This is “Andy Warhol 101” on speed, and that is not a complaint.
The intent is clear at once: we will learn about Warhol’s impact by comparing roughly 45 of his works side-by-side with those of his contemporaries and successors. I use the word impact purposefully. Warhol’s reach is great, which becomes increasingly obvious when we wander the galleries and see how artists up to the present day interpret his paintings, sculpture, and films. The museum’s audio materials suggest that through his notoriety and groundbreaking work—Warhol is credited with originating the pop art movement—he shaped the careers of many. One such artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, so idolized Warhol that he went to meet his role model at the legendary nightclub, Max’s Kansas City, where Warhol and his diverse entourage commandeered the Back Room most evenings. The drag queens he encountered on that visit and on the boozy nights that followed, fascinated Mapplethorpe. His “Self Portrait” (1980) is a product of that attraction. He is not alone in his admiration of Warhol and the avant-garde thinking he represented.
The massive exhibition of some 150 pieces is organized thematically in five sections. “Portraiture: Celebrity and Power,” focuses on Warhol’s obsession with celebrities, which was evident in his personal and professional lives. “Red Jackie” (1964) is one example. Warhol’s close friend, Julian Schnabel, created “Barbara Walters” (1990) out of broken plates that he glued to a wood panel and painted over in oil—his friend’s borrowing of Warhol’s style is as recognizable as Barbara Walters’ image. It is no secret that Warhol, too, borrowed from others.
