Andy Warhol, the 20th century artist who was so instrumental in galvanizing the Pop Art movement, purportedly said, “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”
Fortunately for Malibu residents, some of Warhol’s “best art” is currently on view in the Civic Center at the Malibu Lumber Yard (MLY) Gallery.
In a co-curated exhibit with the Revolver Gallery in Beverly Hills, the MLY Gallery is displaying some of the most iconic images to come out of the Pop Art era in their show, “Andy Warhol: Icons & Symbols,” through Oct. 13.
“The gallery’s mission is art for change,” said MLY director Seda Baghdasarian. “And I really believe that Andy Warhol changed the world, looking at life and looking at art in a different way.”
Warhol, famous for exploring the dynamic between artistic expression, celebrity culture, commercialism and consumer capitalism, was also notorious for the high circles in which he ran, which included movie stars, famous authors, society mavens, and sports heroes. Many of them ended up subjects of his portraits.
He coined the phrase about everyone having their “15 minutes of fame,” and challenged contemporary audiences to first consider what art essentially is. When asked why he memorialized ordinary commercial products in his art, for example, he had this to say about Coca Cola:
“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca- Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too.”
Baghdasarian said while Pop Art may remain controversial, no one can doubt its influence.
“People might hate it or they might like it, but the fact is it changed the world, taking everyday objects and making it into high art,” she said.
The MLY Gallery show features some of Warhol’s greatest images as icons and symbols of the era, both politically and socially. Only really “big” figures became subjects of his portraits. The show has three of Warhol’s series of 10 screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, riffing on a photo believed to have been taken by Gene Korman on the set of her film “Niagara.” In the bright neon color and print variations, it has been said that with his “Marilyn” series, Warhol “created an icon out of an icon.”
There are four of the famous Campbell’s soup cans silkscreened on paper, created for a 1964 exhibit called “The American Supermarket.” It was one of the first mass art events that celebrated American consumer culture and confronted the public with the question, “What is art?”
A silkscreen of Senator Edward Kennedy was created from a photo used during his Democratic primary campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1980. The portrait is highlighted with Warhol’s embellishments to the famous Kennedy hairline, eyebrows and jaw line in patriotic red and blue, then “diamond dusted” to complete the message of a lionized symbol of the political elite. The piece had been in Kennedy’s private collection, given to him by Warhol himself.
Other symbolic figures in the show include John Wayne, Chairman Mao, Truman Capote, Teddy Roosevelt and the Marx Brothers.
The entire show comes to MLY Gallery as a co-exhibit with the Revolver Gallery, which is owned by entrepreneur and music impressario Ron Rivlin. When asked when he first started to collect Andy Warhol, he was succinct.
“I bought my first Warhol pieces December 18 of last year,” Rivlin said. “I bought them all from private collectors. And you know, each piece has a story.”
Nine months later, Rivlin’s Warhol collection is estimated to be the third largest private collection in the world.
The current exhibit is known as his “touring exhibit” and is slated to travel internationally.
Baghdasarian, who spotted the exhibit in a Beverly Hills hotel, said she thinks the Warhol pieces resonate here.
“I thought also it related to the culture,” she said. “Marilyn Monroe related to Malibu somehow. It’s the icons, the icons really related to Malibu.”
