Andy Warhol on exhibit in Iran

[Snowboarder_Bo]

And it is wildly popular!

Warhol in Tehran: Iranians flock to American pop art exhibit

“I love this painting,” gushed 46-year-old Fatemeh Rezaee, taking in the colored ink of Marilyn Monroe’s face, which Warhol produced in 1962 soon after the actress killed herself. “By looking at it, I visualized Marilyn Monroe’s life story in my head. It makes the concept of death really tangible for me.”

Rezaee, a retired teacher in a loose silk hijab, was so enthralled by the exhibit that she flew all the way from her home in the southern city of Shiraz to see it — twice.

She went on: “His selection of colors is outstanding and to me conveys a combination of feelings such as melancholy and mortality.”

I admit I did not know these things:

Warhol’s works are among a permanent art collection worth billions of dollars kept in the Tehran museum vault. As oil boomed during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the country acquired thousands of pieces, including Monets, Picassos and Jackson Pollocks, before the 1979 Islamic Revolution ousted the pro-Western monarchy and vaulted Shiite clerics to power.

Iran’s new theocracy first banned modern art and packed away the famous paintings. But in recent decades as cultural restrictions eased, some 1,500 Western art pieces from the dynastic era have gone back on display — with much fanfare. In 2015, Tehran’s municipal council even plastered the city’s billboards with hundreds of works by great American painters, from Rothko to Hopper, transforming the sprawling city into a giant, open-air exhibit.

I can’t help but be happy about this. I love art and I’m always glad to see others enjoy it as well.

[Slithy_Tove]

Warhol himself spent time in the Shah’s Iran doing commissioned portraits and scarfing caviar.

His assistant Bob Colacello reminisced

“ I mean walking in the streets, Andy was strange looking with his white wig and his pallor, but that could happen anywhere. I think people treated Andy with a kind of respect and curiosity. They wanted to meet him.”

After the 1968 assassination attempt, Warhol left the world of serious art for a 1970’s disco dazzle of celebrities and dictators. He privately admitted his revulsion to Colacello, but at least it was company who took care to keep the stray gunman barred from the party.

[Siam_Sam]

Wake me when they show Robert Mapplethorpe there.

[Old_Wench]

If you’re interested in Andy Warhol, check this out. It’s an entire building (7 floors, I think) dedicated to his work, located in Pittsburgh, PA, his birthplace.

Home | The Andy Warhol Museum

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I’ve been to the museum in Pittsburgh, and it’s terrific. A temporary exhibit when I was there focused on his work with rock musicians. There was a letter from Mick Jagger to Warhol on Rolling Stones stationery that said (paraphrasing), “We’re so glad you’ve agreed to do an album cover for us! We know it’ll be smashing. Now, you’re shortly going to hear from our solicitors, telling you all the things you can’t do. Pay them no mind.”

This may also be of interest: Andy Warhol: Supreme Court justices take much more than 15 minutes to consider his silkscreens of Prince | CNN Politics