Kunsthaus Bregenz presents Andy Warhol. Fifteen Minutes of Fame on view February 2–April 14, 2013.
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is one of the most influential 20th-century artists whose impact is still with us today. With his technique of serial silkscreen printing in the 1960s he turned the work of art into the perfect mass product, opening the art world to celebrity culture and relativizing the border between high art and mass art as no other artist has done.
“I’m really jealous of everybody who’s got their own show on television. I want a show of my own.” In the late 1970s, this self-confessed TV addict’s plans took on shape. Following the founding of his magazine Interview in 1969, his first foray into the media world, Warhol devoted himself between 1979 and 1987 to the ultimate mass medium, producing 42 of his own television programs. His first series, the ten-part TV journal Fashion (1979–80) restricted itself to the fashion world, but in his subsequent programs Andy Warhol’s TV (1980–83) and Fifteen Minutes (1985–87) broadcast by MTV, he brought on an impressive range of stars from fashion, music, film, art, and the gay scene: from members of The Factory, drag queens, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Paloma Picasso, Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, and David Hockney to the fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto and film directors such as John Waters. The programs created a new principle. Translating a celebrity and lifestyle magazine into TV format, they gave insight into Warhol’s inimitable interviewing strategy and his cult of the surface.
Andy Warhol—Fifteen Minutes of Fame will present a representative selection from this less known complex of Warhol’s works. The exhibition title is based on Warhol’s famous remark of 1968: “In the future, everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” Etienne Descloux and Oda Pälmke of the Berlin architectural practice PE-P will be designing a special exhibition architecture.
For further information: www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at