Andy Warhol: My True Story: Exhibition at Newlands House Gallery, Petworth, UK

Andy Warhol: My True Story, curated by Jean Wainwright at Newlands House offers a fresh perspective on Andy Warhol in an intimate presentation of drawings, prints, photographs, recordings, films, and archival paraphernalia.

From drawings such as Man with Hearts and a fictitious One Million Dollar Bill, screenprints including Mona Lisa (Four times), photographs by contemporaries like Bob Adelman’s Andy Warhol Empties his Boots after being Pushed into the Pool by Edie Sedgwick, and an intimate film of his mother, we glimpse a very human Warhol experimenting with ideas and subject matter. Warhol was an inveterate collector and observer, and his early drawings reveal both his fascination with the ordinary and the way he processed and communicated his subject matter in his own particular style, developing themes which recur and evolve in his later works.

The exhibition intertwines artworks, photographs, objects and artefacts with reflective recordings of his entourage, those closest to him, and his family. What is revealed is an elusive and private man, hiding behind a public party-going persona, with his wig and dark glasses and provocative soundbites, creator of his Factories and iconic artworks and producer of the Velvet Underground. His prescience and lasting influence are also witnessed through artworks by contemporary artists such as Gavin Turk and Rob and Nick Carter, his “brand” exemplified through Warhol-themed objects and memorabilia. In this intimate and personal show, we experience Warhol in different ways as each room reveals a facet of him as well as those he inspired.

The domestic spaces of Newlands House Gallery, a Grade II-listed 18th Century townhouse, seem fitting for an exhibition that offers unexpected narratives on one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

Jean Wainwright, an internationally recognised Warhol expert, is a London-based art historian, critic and curator. Her work most prominently features interviews with international artists, photographers, filmmakers, and curators. As a writer and academic, her interviews can be found in the numerous books, catalogues, monologues, and peer-reviewed journals, and she has appeared widely in the media, including national radio and television. A Professor of Contemporary Art and Photography at the University for the Creative Arts, Wainwright has a particular interest in authenticity in the artist interview and finding the artist’s “voice”.