I never really paid much attention to Andy Warhol. Rather than assign him the pop status he surely enjoyed, I looked on him as yet another drug induced guy with a paint brush. Or a silkscreen.
Maybe I’m changing my mind.
Did you know about Warhol’s Last Supper series? I didn’t. In the last years of his life he did a lot of them, drawing from his life-long Catholic faith. (Yep, that one threw me!)
I didn’t realize Warhol died from a gallbladder surgery. I’d always thought it was something far more sinister that did him in. After all, this guy is staring at you. How normal can he be?
Oh, maybe it’s the Strangulation self-portraits that led me astray:
Or the fact a urine splattered canvas is labeled “patina.” (Oh, please, for $2 million I would so sprinkle urine on a copper pigmented canvas.)
The exhibit was interesting, but not a life changer. Remember, repetition was the mainstay of Warhol’s work. It’s likely not much will seem new. The Milwaukee Art Museum has a good collection of Warhol in case you miss this Last Decade exhibit. The Last Decade runs through January 3rd.
A little trivia.
In the late sixties Warhol was shot several times by a female ex-worker. He nearly died and the wounds stayed with him until his death.
Ooh. That sounds more appropriate than him dying from gallbladder surgery.