Recently I headed to the Djanogly Gallery, part of the Lakeside Arts complex on the University of Nottingham campus for the Andy Warhol: Pop Icon Exhibition. It was made possible by ARTIST Rooms, a touring collection of artwork owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland to showcase artwork that, let’s face it, would never normally make its way to the East Midlands.
The exhibition combines some of Warhol’s more well known pieces as well as ones rarely displayed, spanning from some of his earliest works to those completed shortly before his death. Born in 1928 as Andrew Warhola to parents who emigrated to America from what is now Slovakia he got a degree in Fine Arts and got his first illustration commission from Glamour magazine in 1949. He loved the mix of art and commercialism, particularly the symbols of America like Campbell’s Soup, hamburgers and Coca Cola.
The term Pop Art was coined by British critic Lawrence Alloway in 1958 – fun fact I didn’t know is that Alloway curated an exhibition on the subject at the University of Nottingham in 1959. One of the most famous examples from Warhol is probably these Marilyn Monroes’.
One of my favourites included this sketch of artist David Hockney, another proponent of the Pop Art movement. It’s likely this was created by drawing the outlines from a photograph projected onto the paper – Warhol used many techniques like this as well as mass producing his artworks with screen prints etc, merely changing the colours he used as with the Marilyns.
It was a very interesting exhibition with far more to see than the snippets I’ve shared here.
Tickets are £6 +£2 booking fee, which applies whether you buy online (timed entry) or just turn up on the day. Worth noting as I overhead many people asking this that Lakeside Arts do not do senior discounts and I don’t believe they ever have. Free tickets are available for students, people on benefits, 16-30 year olds, and under 16s. I presume you’ll need to provide some proof when you book/turn up.
There is parking available on site but it fills up very quickly. I got the tram from Nottingham City Centre which is very convenient as there’s a tram stop right outside the gallery. You can also get a bus that stops nearby as well.
The exhibition is on until Sunday 19th April. Do note that the gallery is closed on Mondays.
Louise Jayne's Blog 