Andy Warhol’s solo exhibition at Skarstedt Gallery London opened on 27 February.
The exhibition presents nine paintings executed between 1976 and 1986, arguably the artist’s most prolific, not to mention final, decade. Having walked away from painting in favour of film making, Warhol made an unexpected return to painting in the early ’70s. Of paramount interest on this occasion was an oxidation painting comprising copper onto which Warhol supposedly urinated, resulting in a painterly smattering of urine stains.
Scholars suggest that Warhol’s employment of urine as an artistic medium undermines social and sexual boundaries, harnessing the implications of what is considered to be dirty and empowering human waste as a metaphor for the empowerment of homosexuality. Even without academic analysis, the piss was a hit.
In attendance was a supremely mixed crowd, to whom we asked: what’s your hot take?
HOT TAKE 1: Blockbusters. They’re fantastic pieces by Warhol and I think that the Skarstedt Gallery have a reputation of selecting great works that are outstanding examples of an artist’s career, and I think this is testament to that.
HOT TAKE 2: I’m a huge fan of Andy Warhol, so to see his work in person – you know like, I’m not really from Europe, so I don’t get to see all this European art in person that I have been digesting since I was young, so I’m just really happy to see them in person! That’s really what it is for me. I don’t think this exhibition necessarily shed new light on the artist or anything like that.
HOT TAKE 3: I just think it’s a pleasure to see this, honestly. Such beautiful art, beautiful paintings.
HOT TAKE 4: Especially the reflective one behind us.It’s gorgeous, but I just saw the Warhol at the Tate, and I just am not sure how much this is adding to that…adding to the information that’s already been sort of given to us and curated to us in the Tate exhibition. I’m not sure how much extra this exhibition adds or does to progress that – but of course, everything is gorgeous. It’s beautiful. It’s some very important works which I feel lucky to see. I definitely think I’m viewing it on the context of what I saw at the Tate.
HOT TAKE 5: Well, normally, I like him, but I never was a super fan of Andy Warhol. Now seeing the works I think he’s great. I found that a lot of the works have subtle meaning, for instance in this picture it’s quite surrealistic in the symbolism about feet and shoes. I like also the one with the knives, which is a kind of nasty kind of joke. Or this one with the communist symbol is a whole statement about communism as a champion.
Somehow it’s actually quite deep and it’s quite meaningful and full of metaphor. I love the picture of the piss as well, where it became oxidised with the action of the piss and the copper. It’s a wonderful job, like a piss-off picture. I think it’s a really wonderful show and also the crowd tonight at this gallery, which normally is quite smart and affluent – rich collectors and such – tonight seems like the magic of Andy Warhol managed to cultivate some kind of party here.
It seems like everyone is getting together and co-mingling; artists, collectors, and I think that’s the magic of an artist, to make a bridge that breaks borders between different kinds of people from different economic statuses. I think after this show I respect Andy Warhol a lot more…
HOT TAKE 6: Well, it’s stunning. I’ve always been a Warhol fan and the space is perfect for it because of how tall the walls are. I really do like the knives back there. It’s interesting because they present in a non-threatening way, which you wouldn’t expect from knives, which is really nice.
HOT TAKE 7: I was looking at the pieces and realised that they each have a very specific character, but they are very different to one another. Even though it’s all printed and it’s all very much in Andy Warhol’s style, they have a different expression and it just conveys the depth of emotion that the artist has.
That’s why we were discussing which piece would go into which room in the house, or even one piece, because they all have that different expression that just fits into a different environment for a different situation. I quite enjoyed it.
HOT TAKE 8: These are some of the more unusual piece I have seen from Andy Warhol and I especially like the one that uses pee and copper. It’s amazing. He makes his own pigment by making the chemical reaction come together – I haven’t seen that before and I didn’t know about that piece before. The piss is quite unusual, especially because it’s so, like, bodily and him being so removed. Usually as the artist, his hand is not usually involved, but this is very bodily, this is very visceral.
HOT TAKE 9: I think it was beautifully curated, I just loved everything. I love the fact that I’ve seen paintings and prints that I’ve never seen before. Even like this camouflage, I never thought Andy Warhol would do such a thing and also it was my first time getting to know the piss painting. It was a piss stain as art. It was gorgeous and I loved it and I feel like it was one of the greatest curated exhibitions I have been to at Skarstedt.
HOT TAKE 10: It was something new for me. I’ve seen a lot of Warhol’s screen prints and kind of famous pieces, but I don’t think I’ve seen any of these, so it’s a bit of a learning curve, but I’m excited to learn more about him. It looks very impressive and very large-scale works.
HOT TAKE 11: Great. I’ve never come here before, it’s very exciting, the website looked very good, it was just so amazing you hardly find anything like that usually. I was excited about seeing some artwork from Andy Warhol because I haven’t seen him in awhile and I’ve seen some lovely pieces that are very unusual, my favourite one was a piece on canvas with copper over there. I hardly saw any work from Andy Warhol I didn’t like, probably because I like the chap.
HOT TAKE 12: Well unfortunately I’m not a big Warhol fan, just personal taste, but I do find it interesting that pieces like that you don’t usually see much because they’re after he stopped painting and started it again, so I appreciate the uniqueness of this.
It’s not similar to his previous works, so an interesting different take. I appreciate him film more, but also he was a pioneer. It’s my personal taste that I’m not a big fan, but he did something no one else did, so…you have to give him credit where credit is due.
Andy Warhol is on view through 22 April at Skarstedt Gallery
8 Bennet Street, St. James’s
London, WS1A 1RP
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