Out of Hours Art

Pop, Power and Politics Firmly rooted in the advertising genre images generated huge demand for this Andy of the 1940s and 1950s, Warhol’s use of treatment among politicians of all shades, 5 October–3 November 2013 everyday objects and commercial poster art eager to capitalise on its promotional value, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh aimed to blur the lines between high and low which Warhol cashed in on enthusiastically. art, and the aesthetic and ordinary, while Although his use of machine printing and In an unusual move, the Scottish his representation of the rich and powerful his empire of outsourced studios and Parliament has hosted its first ever art through a medium hitherto regarded as ‘Factory’ workers provoked criticism of exhibition, comprising a collection of works cheap and disposable evokes the transitory unoriginality from the art establishment, by the 20th century pop artist nature of success and status and implies a there were enough signs of wit (the Queen), (on loan from the US Foundation that many-facedness on the part of its subjects. sympathy (the Kennedy set), diplomacy bears his name). The somewhat tenuous Paradoxically, the popularity of these (Lenin, Mao) and irony (Nixon) in his work to links are the Scottish Parliament’s offset these tensions. Described as elusive, current homage to Scottish–American Andy Warhol, Vote McGovern, 1972. private, and contradictory, one can’t help philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, founder , American, 1913–1994 (depicted) wonder whether Warhol was at pains to of the Carnegie-Mellon University where George McGovern, American, 1922–2012 (associated) Warhol trained in the 1940s, and the Collection of , Pittsburgh disguise his sense of fraud, given his patent central theme of ‘Pop, Power and Politics’. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, commercialism coupled with the reverence Whether you take that as read or pause Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, accorded to his ‘movement’ by elements of London 2013 to reflect on the PR incentive, given the the boho literati. Either way, perhaps the impending independence referendum, significant irony for readers of the BJGP this ticketed exhibition has been hugely is of a man whose fear of hospitals not popular, drawing in visitors of all ages. only delayed his treatment but ultimately There can be few people in the western proved justified, when he died of a sudden world who haven’t at least a passing postoperative cardiac arrhythmia following familiarity with Warhol’s work, whether routine gallbladder surgery. The family through his eye-catching 32 Campbell’s sued the hospital for inadequate care and Soup Cans or his lurid images of celebrities, settled comfortably out of court. often grouped in repetitive multi-tonal collages. Like them or loathe them (and Claudia Pagliari, their enduringly high market price favours Senior Lecturer in Primary Care, University of the former) there is no doubt that the Edinburgh, Edinburgh. Warhol look is inextricably bound with post- Email: [email protected] war ‘cool’ and has inspired generations of imitators. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp13X675502

652 British Journal of General Practice, December 2013