New York, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The presentation, which will run from November 16th to November 28th, will feature large and small-scale canvas paintings, matching numbered suites, unique paintings on paper and iconic print multiples. These works, made during one of the artist's most prolific periods, signify a culmination of the themes and processes explored throughout Warhol's career. The exhibition will feature iconic works such as the Flowers #64-73 (10pc suite), San Francisco Silverspot, and John Wayne, Cowboys and Indians.
"My fascination with letting images repeat and repeat- manifests my belief that we spend much of our lives seeing without observing." Andy Warhol
A leader in the Pop Art Movement, Andy Warhol is today remembered most prominently for his pioneering silkscreen prints. Warhol's series Flowers-based on photographs taken by Patricia Caulfield and originally featured in the June 1964 issue of Modern Photography Magazine-is a portfolio of ten screen-prints. The works, when initially presented, represented a surprising departure from the artist's initial themes of pop culture and commercialism. In the Flower series, several blocks of color comprise the four flowers while a variant of gray outlines the bed of grass. In this way, Warhol manipulated colors, so they became that much more vibrant against a dynamic background.
In 1983, Andy Warhol created a series of ten color screen-prints that portrayed endangered animals from around the world: One of those images, San Francisco Silverspot, captures the image a species of a butterfly and the silver markings underneath its wings. Its decline in population was the result of its habitat being close to major cities like Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco. The open areas became fewer and fewer due to suburbanization, and domination by non-native plants and grazing animals that destroy its habitat. Warhol fondly referred to this series as his "Animals in Makeup," given the bold pop colors he used to portray the animals as larger than life. The subject matter and context embraces Warhol's natural view of the future and our environment.
"The reason I'm painting this way is that I want to be a machine, and I feel that whatever I do and do machine-like is what I want to do. "Andy Warhol
The allure of celebrity myths and legends led Warhol to create the Cowboys and Indians series, a commentary on mass media. The depicted Hollywood characters were adapted from actual historical figures and the roles they played. Martin Lawrence Galleries will be exhibiting four portraits of a well-known, almost mythological All-American hero of the Old West – John Wayne. Leaning across the composition in a dramatic diagonal line, Wayne looks out into the distance. Deep shadows cover his face, making for an instantly arresting image. The silhouette of the actor stands out sharply against the clean white background, creating a negative space that adds further beauty. The source image is a publicity photo from the iconic film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence."
About Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (Andrew Warhola) was born to Slovak immigrants on August 6, 1928, and reared in a working-class suburb of Pittsburgh. From an early age, he showed an interest in photography and drawing, attending free classes at the Carnegie Institute. The only member of his family to attend college, he entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1945, where he majored in pictorial design. Upon graduation, Warhol moved to New York with fellow student Philip Pearlstein. He found steady work as a commercial artist working as an illustrator for several magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and The New Yorker. He also did advertising and window displays for retail stores such as Bonwit Teller and I. Miller. Prophetically, his first assignment was for Glamour magazine for an article titled "Success is a Job in New York."
Throughout the 1950's, Warhol enjoyed success as a commercial artist, winning several commendations from the Art Director's Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. During this period, he shortened his name to "Warhol," and in 1952 had his first solo exhibition at the Hugo Gallery, exhibiting "Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote." Subsequently, Warhol's work was exhibited in several venues throughout the fifties including his first group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1955. In 1953 the artist produced his first illustrated book, A is an Alphabet and Love is a Pink Cake, which he gave to his clients and associates. With a burgeoning career as an illustrator, he formed Andy Warhol Enterprises in 1957.
1960 marked a turning point in Warhol's prolific career. He painted his first works based on comics and advertisements, enlarging and transferring the source images onto his canvases with an opaque projector. In 1961, Warhol showed his paintings, Advertisement, Little King, Superman, Before and After, and Saturday's Popeye in a window display of Bonwit Teller department store. Appropriating images from popular culture, Warhol created many paintings that remain icons of 20th-century art including the Campbell's Soup Can, Marilyn, and Elvis series. In 1963 Warhol established a studio at 231 East 47th Street which became known as the "Factory."
In the 1970s, Warhol renewed his focus on painting and worked extensively on a commissioned basis, both for corporations and individuals. Works included Skulls, Hammer and Sickles, Torsos, Mao's, and Shadows. Warhol also published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again). Firmly established as a significant 20th-century an
artist and international celebrity, Warhol was given a major retrospective of his work at the Pasadena Art Museum which traveled to museums around the world.
The artist began the 1980s with the publication of POPism: The Warhol '60s. He also began work on Andy Warhol's TV, a series of half-hour video programs patterned after Interview magazine. In 1985, "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" appeared on MTV, half-hour programs featuring celebrities, artists, musicians, and designers, with Warhol as the host.
The paintings he created during this time included Dollar Signs, Guns, and Last Suppers. He also produced several paintings in collaboration with other artists including Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Francesco Clemente.
Andy Warhol died of complications from routine gallbladder surgery, and during his burial in Pittsburgh, his friends and associates organized a memorial mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on April 1 that was attended by more than 2,000 people. In 1989, the Museum of Modern Art in New York had a major retrospective of his works. In 2001 Heiner Bastian curated a Warhol retrospective that began in Berlin and traveled to the Tate in London and finally to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art will be exhibiting the city’s first comprehensive Andy Warhol retrospective in nearly 30 years—from November 12,2018-March 31, 2019
Andy Warhol – A Retrospective
November 16-28, 2018
Opening Reception Friday, November 16th, 6-8:30 PM, RSVP ONLY
Martin Lawrence Galleries + 457 W Broadway + New York, NY + 212.995.8865
RSVP:kgraytok@martinlawrence.com
About Martin Lawrence Galleries
Since 1978, Martin Lawrence Galleries (MLG)-headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut with nine gallery locations nationwide including New York, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco, Costa Mesa, La Jolla, Maui has been assisting and advising collectors as they consider acquiring fine art. (MLG), has prided and defined ourselves as both publishers of fine art prints and sculpture from the most talented contemporary artists-both North American and European-and home to modern and contemporary masters like Picasso, Chagall, Warhol, Calder, Magritte, Basquiat, and Murakami. We are extremely proud to have lent and exhibited over 200 masterworks, created by more than 30 different artists, to 30+ world-class museums around the globe…including the Louvre, the Pompidou, the Metropolitan, the Whitney, the National Gallery, the Tate and the Hermitage- where we are the sole sponsor of the first ever exhibition of the work of Erté, the father of art deco and we proudly publish works by artists including Kondakova, Hallam, Bertho, Fressinier, Lalonde andDeyber. For more information visit martinlawrence.com
For further information and images contact:
Katia Graytok
T. 203.989.2073
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