Warholhalla @ GOMA

A few days ago a huge exhibition of Andy Warhol’s works was opened at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art. Since I call myself a person interested in and moderately educated about art I didn’t want to miss it. I expected the place to be crawling with people and a giant line for admission but neither of my expectations held true. Either Aussies aren’t interested in pop art or they didn’t bother going there on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Anyway, the exhibition was great and worth the hefty entry fee. It took me over three hours to see the more than 300 pictures and videos. It was quite interesting, although my respect for Andy Warhol dropped a bit rather than rise. He was talented and creative, but in the end he was just a kid who grew up in a working class family and wanted to be part of the glamorous world of celebrities that started to emerge in the early sixties. He was extremely succesful in pursuing this goal (meeting such people as Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp and Niki de Saint Phalle) and never lost a sense of irony for what he did. My favourite Warhol picture is his portrait of Mao Zedong which became famous for pointing out the striking similarity between the western mass-mediated icon creation and the communist leader cult. I especially admire the way in which he mocked Mao’s authority although Warhol himself probably admired China’s leader’s success in having his image plastered all over the country.