PagetBaker

Opening in March 2010, the show will display some of Warhol’s most celebrated works alongside previously hidden gems, showcasing Warhol’s distinctive style in a vivid and comprehensive collection. Alongside these exclusive portraits will be a rare series of ‘Screen Tests’. These enchanting silent films created by Warhol provide a voyeuristic record of the characters that once roamed his factory studio.

A key initiator of the American pop art movement and an avant-garde filmmaker, Warhol rubbed shoulders with an array of vastly diverse communities, ranging from Hollywood celebrities and well-heeled aristocrats to reputed academics, cultural figures and trendy beatniks. The artist’s involvement and interest in radically differing social circles is reflected in the succession of works that he produced in the twenty years preceding his death in 1987. After a break from painting in the late 1960s, the 1970s saw the reawakening of this multi-faceted artist as he employed new techniques to paint commissioned portraits of copious personalities, whether famous or obscure. He quickly became, according to Art historian Robert Rosenblum, “court painter to 1970s international aristocracy”. Warhol’s portraiture differs from other more traditional portraiture as the artist believed that the presentation of a work impresses more upon a viewer than the nature of the work itself.

Being more concerned with the construction of a glamorous surface than the portrayal of his subject’s character, Warhol sought a specific “look”. Despite the efforts of critics to prove him wrong and highlight the flaws of this theory, it was precisely this atypical outlook on art that led to Warhol’s remarkable success.

The exhibition at Olyvia Fine Art will include iconic portraits of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, artists Joseph Beuys and Robert Mapplethorpe, socialites Doda Voridis and Karen Lerner, athlete Tom Seaver, Chinese political leader Mao Zedong, the reigning Queen Elizabeth II, and a unique self-portrait accompanied by a photograph of Warhol taken in 1965 by New York photographer, John McCabe.

The Andy Warhol exhibition runs from 17 March – 9 May, 2010, with an opening night on 16 March.

Olyvia Fine Art, 17 Ryder Street, London W1