The world premiere of a collection of prints by America's celebrated master of pop art based on Denmark's "father of the fairytale'' will open in Shanghai next week.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the biggest name in the pop art movement, showed a surprisingly serious and pious attitude towards Hans Christian Andersen, "the father of the fairytale,'' in a series of silk-screen prints the artist created in 1986.
"Andy Warhol and Andersen,'' an exhibition organized by Creek Art which opens on Monday, has 57 of Warhol's silk-screen prints of Andersen and his works. This year also marks the bicentenary of Andersen's birth.
"This is the world premiere of Warhol's silk-screen Andersen prints,'' says Ji Pei, spokesman for the Creek Art. "Among them, 10 prints are limited editions with only 25 copies.'' Born in 1928 into a Czechoslovakian immigrant family in Pittsburgh in the United States, Warhol is a leading exponent of pop art.
He tended to choose his imagery from the world of commonplace objects such as dollar bills, soup cans, soft-drink bottles and soap boxes. He was credited with either attempting to ridicule or to celebrate American middle-class values by erasing the distinction between popular and high culture.
Monotony and repetition became the hallmark of Warhol's multi-image, mass-produced silk-screen paintings, such as his familiar and famous portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy. But, as can be seen in the Creek
Art exhibition, Warhol was quite respectful when it came to Andersen. Gone was his usual sarcasm, humor and playfulness. Perhaps the man was too bored to show off his artistic tricks and returned to "innocence.'' In fact, he had only a year to live after creating the Andersen prints. "During Warhol's remaining days, he showed an inexplicable inclination to go back to traditional canvas,'' says Ji.
"The colors are soft and done with sincerity.'' Maybe Andersen's life story and the fairytales he wrote touched Warhol's soul. Born in 1805, Andersen grew up in poverty. He left Odense at the age of 14 for Copenhagen. He failed as an actor but his poetry won him generous patrons. His first novel, Improvisatoren wrote in 1835, was well received by the critics.
His tales are often tragic or gruesome in plot. His descriptive ability and acute sensitivity contributed to his mastery of the genre in well-loved stories such as The Fir Tree, The Little Match Girl and The Red Shoes.
In addition to being a writer of fairytales, Andersen was also a superb artist. He liked to sketch, draw cartoons and, in particular, paper-cutting. Andersen is said to have created 1,000 pieces of paper-cuttings in his lifetime. Thanks to a Danish photographer, some of the paper-cuttings and photographs of Andersen ended up in Warhol's studio, known as "The Factory,'' in New York.
Warhol decided to create a black-and-white and a colored series of prints. However, the prints were only on exhibition for a short time before being kept by a private collector.
"This year, on the 200th anniversary of Andersen's birth, the exhibition has the support from the Danish government and it is undoubtedly one of the most important events to be staged by Creek Art,'' says Ji. "It will later travel to Beijing.''
(Shanghai Daily April 22, 2005)
