Warhol's portrait of Communist leader Mao Zedong, created in the '60s, is an iconic work of the late artist.
In the decades before the
Internet, Andy was someone who understood the power of culture, symbolism and personality. And he knew how to communicate this to so many people. Through
art. Through you and I, who probably still use his refrain of everyone being entitled to 15 minutes of fame. Everyone is — how was yours
Andy was so brilliant because, like all great
artists, he was somebody largely misunderstood during his time. Sure he was a
cause celebre, a darling of the Studio 54 crowd and one of the New York-Paris-London circuit’s great misanthropes, but the man had something.
He saw through the crass commercialism that became American society in the second half of the 20 th century and rightfully predicted the rise of the celebrity to become humankind’s modern hero.
And the beauty of all that he did was, being as prolific as he could be, there are still enough of his art pieces floating around the world so that mortals like you and I can acquire one.
So do that. Buy yourself a Warhol AND write a check to save the world to your favorite charity.
Because you are both cool and aware.
I was wondering recently what Warhol might be doing if he lived in Singapore. On the face of it, and for a whole host of reasons, one might think that he and Singapore would be a very bad match. I disagree. After all, this is the man who once said, “I’m the type who’d like to sit home and watch every party that I’m invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.”
“A Is For Andy,” an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s works, is open to the public from 17 to 18 November 2007, 10am to 10pm. For venue and details, click here
