A Ukrainian Summer: where to go, what to do...
Andy Warhol artworks on view at Kyiv art center
by Peter Sawchyn
KYIV - For the first time ever, the Ukrainian public in Kyiv will have the opportunity to see the famous works of Andy Warhol - Pop Art personified - including "Campbell's Soup Can I," "Marilyn Monroe," "Four Marilyns," "Jackie," "Three Coca-Cola Bottles," "Dollar Signs" and others.
The exhibit is presented by the Center for Contemporary Art at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
Besides his most popular works of the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition will include Warhol's 1950s sketches on paper and paintings from the 1980s demonstrating the symbolism of artifacts and signs - from the series Crosses, Knives, Skulls, Dollar Signs, etc.
Warhol depicted the most popular and most commonplace objects and people of his era, and his portraits represent a unique study of the famous figures of the mid-20th century. The exhibition will also include Warhol's portraits of Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland, Chairman Mao, Jackie Kennedy and Sonia Rykiel, as well as the artist's own self-portrait.
Warhol's oeuvre is fascinating, not the least due to its variety. Besides paintings and installations, he was an expert designer, cinematographer, collectioner, musician (collaborating with the "Velvet Underground," Nico and Lou Reed) and a publisher (Interview magazine). All were related to "stardom" and the art business. Combined with his own artistic output, these activities made Warhol a megastar among stars.
The creative output of Andy Warhol - particularly his endowment of commonplace objects with meaning and significance - forced a change in the idea of an artist's mandate. Warhol used images from advertising posters, photographs, comics and film stills, which he transferred to canvas using silkscreening. He transformed pop-culture objects into refined art.
Warhol as an art figure is all the more interesting for the Ukrainian public because he came from a Ruthenian (Ukrainian) immigrant family; his parents - Andrii Varkhola and Yulia Zavadska - emigrated to Pittsburgh after the first world war. Andy Warhol's entire life can be seen as the "American Dream" come true for a Ukrainian immigrant child.
The Kyiv exhibition, which will be on view May 5 through June 4, was created by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and is presented as a window into American culture. Besides Kyiv, it will visit 12 other European cities.
For more information contact Olesya Ostrovska, assistant director of the CCA, telephone, (380-44) 238-2446; fax, (380-44) 238-2448; e-mail, [email protected].
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 7, 2000, No. 19, Vol. LXVIII
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