THE REAL QUESTION ABOUT 21st CENTURY ART

Warhol is at the centre of this exhibit, of course, because he blazed the trail in making a business out of his art. “Business art is the step that comes after art. . . Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art,” Warhol said in the late phases of his career. In fact, the idea for Pop Life arose from a roundtable discussion printed in the October, 2004 issue of Artforum, in which Jack Bankowsky, co-curator of the exhibit, asked the question: Is there life after Warhol? Everyone knows that endlessly replicated consumer goods became Warhol’s art — his Brillo Pad boxes are part of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibits. Less attention has been paid to how the artist commoditized himself. The objects on view in Pop Life are of Warhol the businessperson, and to that end, there are even some video snippets of Warhol’s bizarre appearance on that paragon of 1970s TV kitsch, Love Boat.

-Toronto Star
June 4 2010