“Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?” Andy Warhol

Richard Young is one of the UK’s most renowned celebrity photographers. More than thirty five years after his first depiction of Café Society, Arts Co is delighted to be working with Young on the creation of a new exhibition.

The Richard Young Gallery is pleased to present Warholesque?, an exhibition that invites six contemporary artists to intervene and respond to unseen photographs of Andy Warhol at his inaugural London exhibition in 1978 taken by Richard Young.

Andy Warhol’s art is inseparable from photography. His photographs captured the faces of the rich and famous – musicians, actors, artists, fashion models – from the New York disco scene to London’s café society. Warhol was rarely seen without a camera – it acted as a combination of sketchbook and diary. In his obsessive documentation of the world around him he used various means; audiocassette tape videotape, and of course camera (or multiple cameras), often saving the minutiae of everyday life in his infamous time capsules. ‘A picture means I know where I was every minute. That’s why I take pictures – it’s a visual diary’.

Through his paintings, films, Interview magazine, and as a promoter of numerous people in his circle, Warhol created a superstar machine for accelerating fame and stardom. Richard Young is similarly attached to his camera with a portfolio of iconic and defining images that document popular culture. Over the last 30 years Young has photographed the canon of contemporary society, without the use of makeup artists, special lighting or trick photography, people from Elizabeth Taylor to Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson to Madonna and of course Andy Warhol himself.

Richard Young’s photos of Warhol in 1978 are fascinating today, in as much as they highlight the implicit tension between truth and fiction, reality and invention that is at the core of the celebrity photo. As Warhol once said when asked about his canny portrait technique “who wants the truth?” In this exhibition, Young’s photographs, and indeed Andy Warhol are re-interpreted by contemporary artists – Sir Peter Blake, Gavin Turk, Jamie Shovlin, Jessica Voorsanger, Kay Harwood, Daniel Pasteiner and a surprise guest.

Location:
Richard Young Gallery
4 Holland Street
London W8 4LT

Dates: 7th May – 6th June 2009
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 10am – 6pm

Notes to the Editors:

London in the 70’s Screening
A ‘London in the 70’s’ screening of BFI archive footage will be shown in connection to the exhibition at the BFI where Richard Young will be in conversation with Nicky Haslam on Monday 11 May, 6.30pm.
Please contact the Arts Co for details on +44 207 7230 285.

Arts Co
Arts Co has been variously described as ‘A platform for talent’ and a ‘unique provider of solutions across the arts’. We develop and curate art and design exhibitions, arts projects, cultural marketing strategies and events. We work with artists, designers, arts institutions, companies and collectors.
www.arts-co.com