The much anticipated Andy Warhol: Shadows exhibit opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art this week. I know Warhol for his pop art, namely the Campbell’s Soup and Marilyn Monroe series; however, I saw a new side to Warhol in this exhibit. Shadows wowed me not only because it was a different (darker, more abstract) side of Warhol, but also because of the gallery aesthetic.
The MOCA did a fantastic job laying out the exhibit in a huge hall to give you the sense of how vast this series is. This 102 part series was inspired by photographs of shadows taken from Warhol’s New York City studio. The alternate images are positive and negative imprints of the photographs recreated in different colors. One review described Shadows as “a purposefully made image of nothing” which I think is kind of poetic. It was also noted that “There is almost nothing on them. Yet they seem to be pictures of something.” Confused yet? See the pictures below.
A close-up of the black ‘peak’ on red background displayed next to the pink ‘cap’ on black background.
-Sheena
Side of Avocado 