The highlight of Tate Modern’s 2020 programme is a brilliant new Andy Warhol exhibition.
In a time before the lockdown and the global pandemic – do you remember those halcyon days? – Tate Modern was the UK’s number one visitor attraction. Whilst the London tourist industry is making a hesitant recovery, they’re keen to resume their reign, and a current Andy Warhol exhibition is only likely to help them reclaim the top spot once more. It runs until November 15 (having been extended due to the shutdown), and is filled with a veritable smorgasbord of Pop Art delights. [Featured image: @tate]
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The Andy Warhol show had the unfortunate distinction of arriving a mere five days before Tate Modern (and all the other Tate galleries) closed their doors, so there’s plenty of lost time to make up for. The show, happily, packs rather a lot in, guiding you from Warhol’s early days as a commercial illustrator to his stratospheric success in the New York art scene.
Warhol’s famed images of Marilyn Monroe and Campell’s Soup Cans are amongst the highlights of the exhibition, but there are also unseen paintings from the 1970s, and work in experimental media forms. Plus, there are pieces that have never been seen before in the UK, including portraits of black and Latinx drag queens and trans women, which are being shown for the first time in 30 years.
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A one-way system will guide you through the exhibition, picking a dazzling route through art which interrogates consumerism, celebrity, and American culture. (One can only imagine what contemporary Warhol artwork would look like…) Handily, the exhibition is open late on Friday and Saturdays (until 10pm) – and as the first Warhol retrospective at Tate Modern for nearly twenty years, it’s well worth catching whilst it’s here!
Andy Warhol is at Tate Modern until November 15, and tickets are £22 for non-members. Find out more about the show and book your tickets here.