“Gee… how glamorous” – Andy Warhol: Stardom and Theatricality
23 June - 22 September 2002
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Karl-Tauchnitz-Str. 11
D-04107 Leipzig
Wed through Sat 2:00-8:00 p.m.
Sun 12:00 noon-8:00 p.m.
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Nat Finkelstein, Edie, c. 1965
Featuring works by David McCabe, Nat Finkelstein, Gerard Malanga, Billy Name, Philip Halsman, Timm Rautert, Stephen Shore, Andy Warhol and others.
Curated by Jan Winkelmann
Fame, glitz and glamour fascinated Andy Warhol throughout his life. The notion of the star is in many different ways a central leitmotif in Warhols oeuvre.
In relation to the notion of stardom, the exhibition Gee how glamorous offers exemplary representations of the central production mechanisms and strategies employed by Warhol in his life and art, as well as in the complex universe of the Factory. During the past decades there have been innumerable thematic shows of Warhols work, yet most of them offered classical interpretations by focussing on particular themes and/or group of works within his oeuvre. Gee how glamorous proposes a different view of Warhols work from a contemporary perspective. It seeks to posit questions of identity and its construction, self-perception and the perception of others in relation to theatrical as well as documentary strategies. Beyond paintings, films and photographs by Andy Warhol, the exhibition also presents a variety of documentary photos, archive material and recordings from Warhols immediate surroundings. The overall presentation consciously doing almost entirely without origin! al works by Andy Warhol furthermore investigates the value and aura of the original.
In 2003, the second part of the exhibition will take place with the title I have no memory Documentary Strategies in Andy Warhols Work, examining the documentary aspects in Warhols oeuvre as a sort of antithesis to its various theatrical mechanisms.
The Needleworks of Francesco Vezzoli
Leipzig, 23.06 22.09.2002
Curated by Jan Winkelmann
Francesco Vezzolis embroideries dealing with stars and divas from the fields of film, advertising, fashion and television constitute an important body of work in addition to his film and video works. He addresses both, the glamour in which his models are shrouded, as well as the related solitude and the transitory nature of fame.
In his works, Vezzoli refers to culturally standardized themes, as well as social, medial and formal elements. These are employed as a reservoir of fragments of reality fuelling personal myths. The masterfully embroidered portraits combine two diametrically opposed worlds: a private/domestic craft and the stars aura of glamour. The act of embroidering becomes a metaphor of a type of obsession located somewhere between the extremes of a contemplative means of appropriating reality and a love of detail. In his embroideries nostalgic memory and a distanced, removed stance are forced into a critical reciprocal interrelationship.
Vezzolis exhibition in Leipzig was planned in conscious view of the concurrent show Geehow glamorous Andy Warhol: Stardom and Theatricality, and presents embroidered portraits of stars that refer explicitly or more generally to Warhols world. For Vezzoli, Warhol, with his almost obsessive fascination for stardom and glamour, is prototypic of a means of dealing with and instrumenting a star myth. Vezzoli realised a series of portraits especially for this exhibition in collaboration with New York star photographer Francesco Scavullo.
Accompanying the exhibition, the book The Needleworks of Francesco Vezzoli (Hatje Cantz Publishers ISBN 3-7757-1255-0) will be published.
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Karl-Tauchnitz-Str. 11
D-04107 Leipzig
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