The ‘Andy Warhol’ exhibition is the final instalment in a year-long programme of exhibitions that began in 2006 to celebrate the opening of Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) and to establish its place in the local psyche as a visual cultural hub. Brisbane has been the only Australian destination for this international-blockbuster style exhibition, developed by a Queensland Art Gallery curatorial team in partnership with the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
‘Andy Warhol’ has proven to be the perfect means by which the gallery can develop its rapport with the local audience. From the successful ‘Andy Warhol Up Late’ programme, which featured music by local and international artists and a series of ‘15 Minutes of Fame’ short talks by local and international speakers on various aspects of Warhol’s oeuvre; to ‘The Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids’, and its large scale 2007 version of Warhol’s Silver Clouds (1966)—an installation of silver helium-filled plastic pillows, that can be viewed or played with, as they float in a glass room; to the presentation of one of the largest surveys of the artist’s film works in GoMA’s Australian Cinémathèque; to the Warhol Supermarket: this exhibition has been designed for the public’s entertainment. And that is without yet considering the exhibition proper. Such activities, as has been suggested by some reviewers, have more in common with an afternoon at an amusement park than a visit to a gallery of art: you can even break your visit with a Warhol-Style high-tea, where one choses either the ‘Andy’ or ‘Jacky’ menu. However, this exhibition reveals that art is never just entertainment or elucidation; that to successfully engage the twenty-first century viewer, it must be