A pop icon: How Andy Warhol continues to remain in the news

A 1979 BMW Art Car showcased at India Art Fair 2020 became the cynosure of all eyes as it combined Andy Warhol’s characteristic pop-art style with movement and speed. As part of the BMW collection, also called the ‘Rolling Sculptures’, which are original masterpieces of art, the iconic BMW M1 series was painted by the pop art legend. “I have tried to give a vivid depiction of speed. If a car is really fast, all contours and colours will become blurred,” said Andy Warhol.

This artwork on wheels was employed in racing in the 24-hour race at Le Mans, France in 1979. The M1 started on the grid with the number 76 and was driven by the German Manfred Winkelhock, as well as Hervé Poulain and Marcel Mignot from France. The design shows the countryside through which the car has travelled.

The Art Fair car showcase was one among many examples that makes Warhol a symbol of pop art. From appropriated images in commercial art and popular culture depicted in his soup cans to self portraits and multi-screens, even today the legendary icon seems predominantly ubiquitous.

There has been a wide showcase of his life and times in the past two months, with playwright Ryan Raftery’s new bio-musical show, The Trial of Andy Warhol in New York city that centres around the late pop artist put on trial in the afterlife for laying the foundation for today’s obsession with social media and celebrity worship. And another one by Anthony McCarten in London, The Collaboration, which talked about the relationship between Warhol and his friend, painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. This one is already being adapted for the big screen. A Brooklyn Museum exhibition ‘Andy Warhol: Revelation’ is also on till June 19 that investigates his Catholic upbringing. Plans are ahead of making a documentary series, The Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix, produced by Ryan Murphy, and Andy Warhol’s America on the BBC. Plus, his famous Marilyn Monroe painting will go on sale at Christie’s in May. A whopping sum of $200 million is estimated by Christie’s for a Warhol silkscreen depicting late actress Marilyn Monroe at an auction this year. It is the highest asking price ever given to an artwork at an auction and is double the record $105.4 million price Warhol’s ‘Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)’ reached in 2013.

The Netflix series examines Warhol’s romantic relationships with his first long-term partner, an interior designer named Jed Johnson, to Paramount executive Jon Gould, whom Warhol showered with affection but who eventually died of AIDS. Warhol’s series of artworks were not only meant for display but propaganda, political change and entertainment. Death and Disaster series in early 1960s used images of plane crashes, poisonings, race riots and suicides, relevant till today. The 1980s New York emerged as the epicentre of AIDS and Warhol lost many friends, so much so that he referred to AIDS as “the big C” in some artworks.

“Warhol’s pop art, though located in mid-century USA, is timeless and universal. Since appropriation art is the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of existing images and objects, it is an important strategy used by artists to critique consumerism and the proliferation of images through mass media outlets from magazines to television. His work continues to inspire many post-modern and post-colonial artists,” says Chicago-based multimedia artist Pritika Chowdhry, known for her socio-political, feminist works.

Known for his silkscreen paintings, especially the one with a copyright dispute between Warhol and photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who claims Warhol violated copyright when he used a photo she took of the deceased singer Prince as the basis for a series of prints, the pop artist has sketched many notable works portraying Queen Elizabeth, former Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, actress Elizabeth Taylor and artist Jean-Michele Basquiat.

Warhol played a vital role in the visual art movement known as pop art that originated in the 1960s in the UK and USA, his work became larger than life because of his portrayal of celebrities and consumerism. “He took existing mundane objects and depicted them in his style, making place for pop art in museums. Warhol had created works and transformed them to an extent that they looked completely different from the original. Like Warhol had converted Prince’s photograph from its melancholy state which is now recognisable as a Warhol even before being recognised as Prince’s photograph,” says artist-philanthropist Akshita Gandhi.