The staging of these two artists' work and careers in conversation with - and reflection of - each others' is convincing, taking in shared preoccupations and approaches (like the duality between their desire to obscure the stylistic and authorial elements of the individual artist and the centrality of their own personality to the reception of their work) as well as subjects (cultural objects; Mao!), common well-springs (eg Duchamp) and overt dialogue and influence.
I guess both are conceptual artists par excellence, which means that their art is foremost about ideas. One of the things I've always found irritating about Warhol is that it's the same idea monotonously over and over (although admittedly the moments when he captures the genuinely iconic have a real charge, like his Elvis and the "Screen Tests" which here included Dylan, Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Nico and more); Ai Weiwei, by contrast, appeals to me because of his sense of humour and political forcefulness, even though it turns out that, while he has many ideas, it tends to be only one per work.
Asides:
1. This exhibition seems to be in the process of being super popular - this was the third time I'd visited the gallery with the intent of seeing it and the queue for tickets was as long as on the previous occasions when I'd decided against it.
2. Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull were there at the same time as us (this was last weekend), their sighting apt given Warhol's fascination with celebrity.
(w/ Alex)
I guess both are conceptual artists par excellence, which means that their art is foremost about ideas. One of the things I've always found irritating about Warhol is that it's the same idea monotonously over and over (although admittedly the moments when he captures the genuinely iconic have a real charge, like his Elvis and the "Screen Tests" which here included Dylan, Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Nico and more); Ai Weiwei, by contrast, appeals to me because of his sense of humour and political forcefulness, even though it turns out that, while he has many ideas, it tends to be only one per work.
Asides:
1. This exhibition seems to be in the process of being super popular - this was the third time I'd visited the gallery with the intent of seeing it and the queue for tickets was as long as on the previous occasions when I'd decided against it.
2. Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull were there at the same time as us (this was last weekend), their sighting apt given Warhol's fascination with celebrity.
(w/ Alex)
