03.17.2010; Warhol show.

Went to see the Andy Warhol exhibit, The Last Decade, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Let me start out by saying that I'm not an Andy Warhol fan at all, I think he was a lucky, lucky person and somewhat of a hack but I can't deny his place in art history, but for $5 it's worth it to see the few paintings in there that he did with Jean Michel Basquiat, who I find very interesting.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs your attention is divided between probably one of the best paintings of the whole show, "Mona Lisa" 1979, and probably one of the worst installations of artwork I've ever seen, that is a full wall painted to look like one of his paintings of a portrait done in very shocking colors. "Mona Lisa" is a white monochromatic painting created with about twenty small screenprint of the Mona Lisa. The first few rooms are your typical screenprints of portraits with some photographs sprinkled in. As you progress you pass through some rooms containing some camouflage paintings and a few rather large Rorschach test paintings.

Up to this point my favorite Warhol paintings have been his collaborations with Jean Michel Basquiat; "Origin of Cotton", "Untitled; Heart Attack", "Untitled; 50 Dentures" and the strongest piece, "Sin More" 1985. "Sin More" is a stark piece with muted colors and in the middle is the words "Sin More", originally another word but Basquiat has wiped out part of the words. This show did open my eyes up to some of Warhol's images containing religious icons, especially a large screenprint containing two depictions of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" printed over a field of yellow. The placard next to the painting said that Warhol kept his religious beliefs a secret till after his death. I really enjoyed viewing the painting, "Detail of the Last Supper (Christ 112 times)" 1986, where he has printed little yellow line drawings of Christs profile onto black canvases 112 times. I wonder why 112 times other than it makes a long rectangle but I stared at these paintings the longest while at the show.

In the small room downstairs, they were running a small show for the artist Gabriel Acevado Velarde. One room is filled with a giant orange tarp, suspended from the ceiling, filled with some trash. Second room is gravel covered with the orange tarp, with speakers adhered to the top with sounds being created. The third room had two giant orange tents with videos being played in each, which I didn't even view them because I was bored of the show. Maybe I didn't understand the ultimate goal of the show, maybe it was sensory overload after looking through the Warhol show twice, whatever it may be I found this show pretty uninteresting.