WARHOL - TIMES TWO - IN WASHINGTON

Andy Warhol once said, 'In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes'. Programs like Jerry Springer & the scores of reality TV shows have proven the fright wigged one to have been a seer.


Two major DC museums are now giving  him '15' each. And it's worth a trip to Washington to see Pop Art's papa's work in 2 distinctively different shows.


And there's not a Campbell soup can to be found in either.


The lesser of the 2 - 'Warhol: Headlines' - is at the National Gallery until Jan 2.  It plays on AW's interest in reproducing tabloid front pages - some 6' tall - as 'art'. 


This multi-room show includes the actual newspaper headline/front pages,  silkscreens, paintings & video clips (including the screen test of AW superstar Brigitte Polk trying to be a news anchor & Warhol co-hosting his own cable TV show).


This fun/interesting peek into the mind of one of the most influential & famous art celebrities of the past century is set to move to museums in Frankfort, Rome & Pittsburgh (home of the Warhol Museum) later in the year.


But it pales compared to what's happening across the Mall at the Hirshhorn...

... where half of the museum's entire circular 2nd floor is dedicated to 'Andy Warhol - Shadows'.


AW was always dismissive about his art. 'If you want to know about Andy Warhol,' he said, 'just look at the surface of my paintings, films & me, & there I am. There's nothing behind it.'


He even claimed to have painted 'Shadows' with a mop. 


And since they were completed just after his 'Oxidation' series (sometimes know as the 'Piss Paintings' because they were created with dripping urine), few doubted this his claim.


They should have.


Warhol's  'Shadow's' - 450 feet/102 panels of mesmerizing color - is unlike any of the artist's other work. 

More like an homage abstract expressionism, Warhol leads the viewer - no, he actually pulls you along - commanding you to explore every inch of this stunning masterpiece. 


In reality, you'll wish there was more.


Since 'Shadows' usually is exhibited with only 70 or so panels, this may be one of the only times you can the complete version of this amazing work.


It is worth a DC round trip ticket.


And if the 'mop' story is true, he should have thrown away his brushes & screens years before.


Then he'd be at the forefront of both 'Pop' & 'Mop' art. 


And from then, who knows what tools he would use to put his creative vision on canvass.


Imagine what he could have done with a plunger?