It’s gonna be the hot Art ticket for the summer, (until the Picasso exhibit hits town in the fall), Seattle Art Museum’s sexy new dual shows star two iconic 20th Century artists, the Crown Prince of Pop Art, Andy Warhol and the High Priest of Seattle Grunge, Kurt Cobain in shows that go outside the normal Big Art Museum box. Both shows are fascinating and insightful looks at two masters of their respective fields and both shows manage to examine facets of the artist’s lives that are less studied and commented on than their prescribed roles as “kooky Pop artist/media whore” and “tortured junkie musician”.
Of the two shows, Kurt is the more difficult to describe and the more oblique. Featuring works inspired by the music, art, life, celebrity and death of Kurt Cobain that include pieces by noted photographers Charles Peterson and Alice Wheeler, paintings by Elizabeth Peyton and Jordan Kantor, sculptural work by Scott Fife and Banks Violette, and films/media pieces by Jennifer West and Rodney Graham, the show pieces together a collage of images and sounds and textures and emotions that evoke the art of Cobain and pay tribute to his destructive genius. It’s also an aural show, each gallery featuring blasts and sonic waves of music created or inspired by Cobain and Nirvana that, depending on your viewpoint, either wash over you in a blanket from a bygone era, or assault your senses and shock you with their blunt rawness. For some people, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is not an appropriate anthem for a major art museum. For others, myself included, it’s a wake up call that art is not just for the old and the well-heeled and anything that pays tribute to contemporary trends and genres of art and manages to pull younger patrons into a corporate museum, is a good thing.
It’s hard for me to pick out favorite individual pieces from Kurt; the entire show itself is a piece of art and each piece is a valuable component of the whole. This isn’t just an art show; it’s an event and every work and how it is placed and the layers of sound that vary from room to room are a part of that experience and a tribute to the curation of Michael Darling and Jon & Mary Shirley. But, there are some standouts and they deserve some shoutouts…I’m a big Elizabeth Peyton fan, so I was naturally drawn to her small painting which is presented iconically and singularly on a large wall as you enter the second gallery. Scott Fife’s cardboard maché disembodied head resonates as reminder of Cobain’s ultimate fate and echoes the fate of other leaders of revolutions, military or cultural. Banks Violette’s mineralized, deconstructed, basalt drum kit is both a reminder of the angry violence of Cobain’s stage performances and a haunting memorial to the music, the musician and the entire era of the Seattle Sound. I wasn’t a huge fan of Jennifer West’s video homage; the most interesting thing about it was the factoid that the film was distressed with lithium, cherry antacids, pennyroyal tea and other solvents featured in Kurt’s music. And, there are a couple of pieces in the show that feel a little “fan-artish” and immature; you could argue that they are a legitimate part of any show featuring art inspired by an iconic and beloved figure…and, you can also argue that they more rightfully belong on a “I Luv U 4Ever Kurt!” fansite. Other than those few quibbles, Kurt is an imaginatively curated event that is a must see for fans of contemporary art and music, regardless of your feelings for Kurt Cobain himself and one I highly recommend. (Conflict of Interest Note: I’m a huge Cobain/Nirvana fan and “Nirvana Unplugged” is one of my desert island disc picks. Kurt’s version of Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” is going to be played at my eventual, imaginary wedding…)
Equally amazing is Kurt’s partner at SAM this summer, love/fear/pleasure/lust/pain/glamour/death: Andy Warhol Media Works a show that focuses on the photography and film work of the pop artist including selections from his huge catalog of Polaroid images, examples from the “Screen Tests” films and samples of his rarely seen “Sewn Photographs”. Andy Warhol was of course best known for his paintings that lifted the banality of commercial advertising to the highest echelons of iconic art, as well as for his celebrity portraits and Studio 54 fueled lifestyle. But, he is also known for his photography and film work, and that is the focus of this retrospective which examines Warhol’s fascination with images, both moving and still and famous and anonymous.
For me, the most exciting work, and the one with the strongest presentation, is the “Screen Tests”. SAM has devoted two of the galleries in the show to project these approximately 4 and a half minute films on the walls of the gallery. In black and white, and silent, the films star Warhol collaborators like Edie Sedgwick, Baby Jane Holzer, Lou Reed and Dennis Hopper as well as casual visitors to Warhol’s Studio. Some of the subjects sit quietly and serenely, barely making a move or daring to blink. Others mug for the camera, crying and wailing and pulling hair and going to extremes to make the most of their stab at immortality. But, the best of the films are the more subtle endeavors…the doomed but impossibly beautiful Edie Sedgwick and her proud, disdainful gaze into the camera that is both eternal and yet of the moment. Rufus Collins poses in silhouette, his beautiful sculptural head a totemic symbol and only at the end of the test does he appear to be real flesh and blood as he grins as he breaks his pose. Actor Dennis Hopper, almost unbearably healthy and youthful and vibrant, attempts to maintain the pose of a self-important young actor intent on trying to capture the meaning of the moment, but he flinches in discomfort and unease as the seconds stretch on and on, finding it difficult to maintain his composure. These and the other films can, on paper, seem like short little…nothings, the random experiments of an unfocused artist, but, like much of Warhol’s work, they are actually powerful portraits, uniquely intense and vibrant and real, of the people sitting for them, and of the artist responsible for them. They are emotionally powerful and artistically masterful and a must see this summer.
Check out both Kurt and the Warhol show now on exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum now through September 6. And, don’t forget to check out SAM’s new monthly Remix event/party…the next one is Friday, June 4 and naturally will be thematically teamed with the current shows…you can expect screenings of Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, a fashion show event presented by New York Fashion Academy, an appearance by Seth Aaron Henderson of Project Runway and so much more. The event is 18+ and for more info and tix, head to the website…oh, and the first 100 entrants wearing WIGS, get in FREE!!! Andy would be thrilled…and run home to call Pat the next morning and tell her all about it…
Top photo: Scott Fife’s Kurt Cobain, photo courtesy of Seattle Art Museum. Other Photos by Michael Strangeways
-Michael Strangeways
About the Author: Michael Strangeways
