Andy Warhol: My True Story: NOW OPEN at Newlands House Gallery

Andy Warhol: My True Story, curated by Jean Wainwright at Newlands House offers a fresh perspective on Andy Warhol in an intimate presentation of drawings, prints, photographs, recordings, films, and archival paraphernalia.

From drawings such as Man with Hearts and a fictitious One Million Dollar Bill, screenprints including Mona Lisa (Four times), photographs by contemporaries like Bob Adelman’s Andy Warhol Empties his Boots after being Pushed into the Pool by Edie Sedgewick, and an intimate film of his mother, we glimpse a very human Warhol experimenting with ideas and subject matter. Warhol was an inveterate collector and observer, and his early drawings reveal both his fascination with the ordinary and the way he processed and communicated his subject matter in his own particular style, developing themes which recur and evolve in his later works.

The exhibition intertwines artworks, photographs, objects and artefacts with reflective recordings of his entourage, those closest to him, and his family. What is revealed is an elusive and private man, hiding behind a public party-going persona, with his wig and dark glasses and provocative soundbites, creator of his Factories and iconic artworks and producer of the Velvet Underground. His prescience and lasting influence are also witnessed through artworks by contemporary artists such as Gavin Turk and Rob and Nick Carter, his “brand” exemplified through Warhol-themed objects and memorabilia. In this intimate and personal show, we experience Warhol in different ways as each room reveals a facet of him as well as those he inspired.