15 minutes eternal.

Name of exhibition: Andy Warhol: 15 minutes eternal
Date of visit: 31st Dec 2012

Venue: Special Exhibition Gallery and Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery (2/F)

Andy Warhol is always the legend in the art industry. This exhibition looks at Warhol's successful career in both commercial art and fine art between the 1950s and the 1980s and explore his concept of art making as well as his sensibilities towards contemporary living and culture.

I believe there is no one has not heard of his name from the art world. Also, he was famous of his advertising pieces that somehow the method of selling goods was out of the box. The most impressive and significant art piece inside the exhibition was the Campbell's Soup Cans. As cameras are not allowed to use in the venue, no photos can be shown in this blog. The many different versions or flavours of Campbell's Soup amazed me since they look exactly the same except the name of the soup. He used the unique technique, printmaking method- the semi-mechanised screen printing process, using a non-painterly style. What I could observe from real art piece rather than images from the Internet was that I saw the pencil lines that Andy drafted before painting them. It made me think that everyone, even an famous and extraordinary artist, had to do drafts beforehand. As those 32 Campbell's Soup Cans were used for advertising, he had to be very careful in handling his art piece.

As there are over 468 items in the exhibition, it shows that Andy was inspired by many daily life experiences. For examples, the civil rights demonstration, culture, animals, kitchen, or even shoes. It seems like everything appeared in his daily life could be his inspiration. He put his creativity into many daily life objects and they turned out became wonderful art pieces. Andy said, 'I've never met a person I couldn't call a beauty.' He learned to appreciate everything and everyone surrounded him. I believe that this was one of the reasons why his works were highly recognised and appreciated.

Another spectacular piece is definitely the Marilyn Diptych. It is a silkscreen painting by Andy in 1962. The several images, which are all based on a single publicity photograph from the film Niagara, were finished during the weeks after Marilyn Monroe's death in August 1962. Even though the screen paints are the same in each of the pictures, the mood seems to change with the colours, which is the most amazing part of his artwork. From my own point of view, when Marilyn is with green and blue, she looks a bit blue and sad for me. On the other hand, when with warm colours, such as red, yellow or orange, she looks happy and refresh. That is the magic of different tones of colours, and of course the uses of colours of Andy Warhol.

There was a quote written on the wall saying that 'Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.' Andy said this. However, I do not quite agree with this statement. I believe sometimes arts and commerce do not contradict each other. Although some art pieces are related to commercial, such as the Campbell's Soup Cans, still the advertisement has its own value to be appreciated.

To conclude, this exhibition inspired me to think more and to observe more of my daily life and the people around me. But he always say, one's company, two's a crowd, and third's a party.

- Andy Warhol