Gagosian show focuses on Andy Warhol’s ties to Paris and fashion – WWD

PARIS – Fashion and fame were two of Andy Warhol’s main obsessions – and in Paris, the king of Pop Art found fertile ground for both.

Warhol may forever be identified with New York City and his Factory studio, but he was equally celebrated in the French capital, where he was a frequent visitor. The American artist at one point kept an apartment in the Left Bank neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Près and even asked Karl Lagerfeld to appear in his locally shot underground film L’Amour.

A new exhibition at the Gagosian gallery near Place Vendôme highlights Warhol’s view of Paris and his ties to fashion, with portraits of famous designers including Hubert de Givenchy, Sonia Rykiel and Azzedine Alaïa.

Andy Warhol: Paris and Fashion, which runs through Oct. 12, features 40 photographs ranging from his famous Polaroid portraits of celebrities, which he used as the basis for silkscreen paintings, to white-and-white photographs black without cuffs. of Paris landmarks, often taken from the back of a car.

Like a time capsule, they offer a glimpse into his life on both sides of the Atlantic, capturing events such as a dinner with Diane de Beauvau-Craon, the socialite known as the “punk princess”, or a visit to the atelier of Hubert de Givenchy with art patron São Schlumberger.

“Warhol had a very keen perception of Parisian fashion, having maintained close ties with fashion throughout his career,” said Serena Cattaneo Adorno, director of the Gagosian galleries in Paris.

“His vision was definitely influenced by his friendship with famous designers with whom he shared intimate moments,” she said, highlighting a Polaroid he took on vacation in Morocco with Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé.

“Having said that, he was also interested in emerging designers,” added Cattaneo Adorno, noting that the exhibition features images of Diane von Furstenberg, Jean Paul Gaultier and Stephen Sprouse in their early 30s. “He was already close to all these designers long before they became hugely famous.”

Images are sourced from a private collection. “What is extraordinary is to gather so many emblematic photographs of Paris and fashion personalities in a single exhibition,” she said.

While Polaroids capture iconic designers like Giorgio Armani and Carolina Herrera in glamorous poses, most of Warhol’s photographs have an inexplicable quality, explained by his documentary approach. “A photo means I know where I’ve been every minute. That’s why I take pictures. It’s a visual diary,” he once said.

Cattaneo Adorno noted that he applied the same method to famous monuments as he did to celebrities. “It really is an American in Paris,” she said. “The idea is always to take something iconic and repurpose it.” Indeed, Warhol would go on to feature the Eiffel Tower in one of the paintings he did with Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1985.

Gagosian’s team was able to date the images and identify other important details thanks to Warhol’s diaries, which were first published in 1989 but have gained new prominence thanks to a recent Netflix series. “It has revived interest in his life and who he associated with,” Cattaneo Adorno said.

The exhibit includes black-and-white images of a young Carole Bouquet in a sleeveless sweater and jeans; Loulou de la Falaise smoking and Jack Nicholson sharing a meal with Italian model and longtime Saint Laurent muse Marina Schiano. There are Polaroids of Paris nightlife queen Régine and American model and jewelry designer Tina Chow.

“Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, you can be in touch with anyone in the world. At that time, you had to be in Paris, at the Café de Flore, waiting for someone to come in or out to have that kind of exchange,” said the gallery director.

In an interview with Gagosian Quarterly magazine, von Furstenberg described how Warhol would socialize.

“He was a contemplative. He let you talk and didn’t talk much and when he did it was always something short and he said it to make you talk more. He wanted to know everything about you, he wanted to take your picture, he had a recorder in his pocket, he wanted to paint you. He was inclusive,” she recalls.

“But looking back, he had such an incredible sense of brand. He had a vision of what the world would be that none of us understood until he was here. In a way, it did social networking before social media. He would have gone crazy with Instagram. He was the original influencer,” von Furstenberg said.

Meanwhile, Warhol’s commercial work, including Polaroids of a topless man in Levi’s jeans and a collection of Halston shoes, exemplifies his lasting influence on fashion and advertising aesthetics today. At the center of a wall of Polaroids is “Self-Portrait in Scary Wig” taken in 1986, a few months before his death, suggesting that the star of the show remains Warhol himself.