A trip into Andy Warhol’s controversial world, through pictures that made history.

An exhibition of some of Andy Warhol’s most acclaimed masterpieces went on until February 16th 2019 at the Halcyon Gallery on 144 New Bond Street.

Among all the pictures shown, the most noticeable are the artist’s tribute to Muhammad Ali, and the “Truck” which is a collage of four truck images each signed by the artist, a picture that was only made two years prior to his death.

Warhol is the major exponent of “Pop art”, the American artist began his career creating visual art for commercial purposes and advertising, until around the 1950s he started exhibiting his works at galleries across the United States from east to west coast.

His most famous exhibition is most likely the one at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1962, where he exposed the Campbell’s soup can, probably his artwork that defied him the most.

The London exhibition is also showing “Hammer and Sickle” from 1977, which is one of the artist’s most politically provocative works:

“Whatever the intention of these work is”, says the description, “they introduce anti-capitalism into Pop art, giving rise to questions as to how one might interpret the artist’s seemingly frank visual language”

A significant number of people showed up on Sunday February 2nd, at the Haclyon Gallery to admire the artist’s masterworks, all with different opinions.

Damaris, 23 from East London, described Warhol’s art as “repetitive and chaotic”:

“I don’t really understand this kind of art, to me it all looks so repetitive and chaotic, he is always using the same range of colours, like, where is the pink? Where are the mild colours this is giving me headache!”

But despite the critiques some seemed to really appreciate it.

Charlotte Brown, 35, said she came into town appositely to see the exhibition: “I am not here casually, I came on purpose to see this”.

She said: “I think his art is very different from the typical concept of art one has in mind, it’s unusual. I like to look at his works they’re very colourful and lively”.

If Warhol was alive critiques wouldn’t have probably concerned him, as his paintings include some of the most expensive pieces of art ever sold, in fact the artist was described by “The Economist” in 2009 as the “bellwether of the art market”.

According to the gallery’s staff, despite the gallery does not keep an attendance record they’re aware there has been a “good turnout” of audience.

When asked why would the gallery propose Andy Warhol’s artwork at this period in time, the Halcyon Gallery Team answered:

“To this day, Warhol remains one of the most important artists of the twentieth century and continues to influence contemporary art and culture. Halcyon Gallery has been a long-standing exhibitor of Warhol and holds a substantial collection of his works.”

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