One of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century as one of the founders of the Pop Art movement, publicist, designer, video maker, sculptor, artistic director, producer, promoter, publisher… Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is a one-man-band embodying in the collective imagination a certain cliché of the eccentric artist. His unique silhouette and blonde wig have become legendary.
Fascinated from an early age by celebrity and modernity, he first gained recognition from art critics through his representations of everyday objects that became pillars of mass consumption, which exploded in the 1960s: canned goods, bottles of soda, boxes of detergent products, shopping bags… his tender and critical gaze first focused on these subjects that had until then been looked upon.
His infallible commercial instinct coupled with his immense creativity allowed him very early on to establish himself at the center
of a vast social circle which brought together around him at the Factory (his building in New York, the epicenter of this universe) as well as European princesses, the stars of Hollywood and the intelligentsia of the East Coast, the colorful characters of the New York nightlife.
Andy Warhol was crazy about images, and it was therefore very natural that he practiced photography throughout his life.
With his camera always at hand, he immortalized this permanent dance that surrounded him, exercising his gaze on a multitude of subjects: friends, landscapes, still lives, eroticism, preparation work for his large screen-printed portraits, etc. ;
It is this little-known, yet central, part of his work that this exhibition aims to introduce to the public of Saint Barthélemy.
Benefiting from an exceptional and generous loan from Mr. Jim Hedges, the world's leading collector of Andy Warhol's
photographed work, this exhibition presents 58 original photographs dating mostly from the 1970s and 1980s which will allow us
to understand this immense artist’s genius a little better.