I felt pretty lucky to walk just two blocks from our apartment to view some of Andy Warhol’s most famous original art.
On Sunday, me and the men in my life walked, skipped, and jumped over to the KW Children’s Museum to see the current exhibit: “Andy Warhol’s Factory 2009. ”
My favorite pieces of art in the gallery were the four colourful images Warhol created based on Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. When all four colour variations are placed together, they almost take up a whole wall and are a real treat to sit back and take in. Don’t get me wrong, Botticelli deserves all the credit for the original beauty of this image. But Warhol’s reworking of it makes it contemporary, bright, and fun. Other favourites were Warhol’s portraits of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.
I picked up a few prints (Venus, a retro telephone, and a fashion figure with a purple dog — who doesn’t want a purple dog?) from the make-shift store set up in the gallery. They had all kinds of things in the store with Warhol images: prints, magnets, books, watches, and even dinner plates. I spotted a good book on all of Warhol’s fashion illustrations, too.
The Children’s Museum has terrific interactive features. On the lower level, we made silkscreen images of sunglasses and Marilyn Monroe and used Mac computers to record screen tests (well, really just the three of us dancing around, acting silly). Here are our masterpieces:
It was interesting to see how pop art like Warhol’s was interpreted by a seven year-old boy. At first, he was less than enthused about the “boring grown-up stuff” (i.e., viewing Warhol’s art, and tribute art, gallery-style). But after finishing the gallery, looking at the Warhol paraphernalia at the store, and making our own silkscreen art, he was much more intrigued. He asked some very intelligent questions; for example, “Why is his art so famous?” In reply, we launched into a conversation about marketing and Andy Warhol’s choices to create and re-create images of already famous people and things. Smart kid!
“Andy Warhol’s Factory 2009″ will be at the Children’s Museum until April 19th, 2009. To compliment the exhibit, they have a “Sunday Speaker Series” geared to adults. On March 22nd, Elizabeth Currid, author of The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City, will be speaking, which I hope to attend and blog about. For more information, visit warholsfactory2009.ca.
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