Introducing a Guest Reviewer: Joe Kempkes on "Warhol Live" at de Young

When you think of Andy Warhol’s artwork, the first things that probably come to mind are Campbell Soup cans, Brillo Boxes and the garish silkscreens of Elvis and Liz, Marilyn and Mao. Or perhaps you’ll think of his many films: Lonesome Cowboys, Heat, Flesh, Empire or Sleep. San Francisco’s de Young Museum Exhibition “Warhol Live” has all these plus Andy’s foray into pop music: the fifty-one album covers that he designed for The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Artie Shaw and others. While you’re viewing the artifacts, you’re hearing the surround-sound drug-driven musical ambiance of New York’s Studio 54 Circa 1978, provided by Berkeley-based Meyer Sound Labs. All in all, it’s a pretty comprehensive retrospective of America’s preeminent 20th Century Artist.
What sets this exhibit apart from previous Warhol shows is the inclusion of rarely seen films. Projected on the de Young’s walls are the better known but rarely seen “Sleep” and “Empire” each film about six hours in length. Since both are single-camera shots of the Empire State Building (“Empire”) and a guy sleeping (“Sleep”) you just glance and move on. But what you never see are Warhol’s shorter films since they were never distributed commercially. They are shown in a separate room with a comfortable crushed velvet couch where you can spend as much time as you like viewing them.
They’re untitled, black and white films produced using a fixed camera angle. The best one that I saw went something like this: it starts with a nude guy straddling a bicycle in a kitchen. Another guy starts smearing oil on him then pours ten pounds of flour over his head. The nude guy on the bike falls on the kitchen floor. Another guy enters and starts to throw food at both of them. Pretty soon everybody’s naked and the food fight goes WAY over the top. It’s pure Andy. He turned on the camera and probably went off and took a nap. He may even be the guy in the film “Sleep.” Who knows?
”Warhol Live” will be at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in Golden Gate Park through May 17, 2009. Telephone (415) 750 3600 or go to www.famsf.org.