Over at Lakeside Arts, a new exhibition, Andy Warhol: Pop Icon documents the work and influence of the famed and enigmatic artist. Featuring rock stars, Hollywood icons, death, hamburgers, guns, and money, this not-to-be-missed exhibition covers Warhol’s glittering career over four decades – Editor Sophie Gargett went along to unpick some of the themes behind his work.
Over the course of the last fifty years, the work of Andy Warhol has become part of the fabric of our modern visual culture. Most are probably familiar with his Campbell’s Soup Cans, or the iconic, much-reproduced pastel portraits of Marilyn, Audrey, and other stars – so much so that it’s easy to feel a little desensitized to the impact they once had. But amongst the recognisable masterpieces (and less well-known images) on display at Lakeside’s Djanogly Gallery, what this exhibition does best is remind us of Warhol’s innovation, his astute cultural observations, and just how much his work redefined what art could be.
An ARTIST ROOMS partnership with the Tate and National Galleries of Scotland, this exhibition is truly a treat to have on display in Nottingham. Set within three rooms, the exhibition spans from his early, lesser-known advertising and fashion sketches, through the ubiquitous celebrity portraits and blown up statement images, to his more avant-garde creations and collections – the underground movies, snapshot polaroids and unorthodox self-portraits.
With the idealised image the U.S. has crafted over decades currently degrading like one of Warhol’s screen prints, this exhibition couldn’t be more timely.
If Warhol’s aesthetic style isn’t your cup of tea, the sheer amount of ideas, experimentation, and collaboration on display is sure to leave you inspired. One thing is for certain, Warhol was busy. He worked obsessively, churning out work as if he were a cog in his infamous New York studio, The Factory. He was also immensely well-connected – mixing with actors, musicians, socialites and other artists.
Famous faces, products, symbols and brands provide instant access points to understanding Warhol’s work, and one thing the exhibition makes clear is the sage understanding he had for the power of image – his use of repetition and scale being a key method in amplifying the message. “It’s the idea that the repetition of an image builds importance,” says Ashley Gallant, interim Head of Visual Arts at Lakeside.
Taking in his work, you can’t help think how Warhol would have been fascinated by our age of A.I., influencers, and face-tuning (digital and surgical). With its explosion of screens, the 21st century has seen a rise in the proliferation of idealised imagery – but long before this collective fascination began to be dissected by cultural commentators, Warhol was playing with these ideas in his art, both predicting and influencing what was to come. “He’s pertinently pointing out to us that it’s the images around us that not only show us the world, but inform the world – it’s a back and forth relationship,” Ashley explains.
As any good artist should be, Warhol is also immensely quotable. He spoke about topics such as consumerism, fame, robots and plastic surgery with curiosity and praise, going as far as saying he wanted “to be a machine” (and eventually making an Andy Warhol robot in 1982). In his most recognisable series – the famed pastel screen print portraits – he filters the faces of any realism. This method creates a facade that further canonises the ‘star image’, while also allowing the print to degrade with each reproduction, symbolising the gradual fading of fame.
Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to immigrant parents originally from Mikóva, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia), Warhol spent much of his childhood battling illnesses that would affect him for the rest of his life, and it was during this time in isolation he began to develop his artistic interests. Despite hobnobbing with stars and being the centre of the New York art world, as a child of immigrants and a Queer man, Warhol was very much an ‘outsider’. But hidden behind his wigs, spectacles and blank expression, he was a voracious observer of the culture around him, and reflections of America run throughout his work.
With the idealised image the U.S. has crafted over decades currently degrading like one of Warhol’s screen prints, this exhibition couldn’t be more timely. Warhol is quoted as once saying: “Everybody has their own America, and then they have pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see…” Magnifying its most dearly held symbols – Coca Cola, Hollywood, hamburgers, cowboys, dollar signs, starlets and guns – his work put a spotlight on what was celebrated within ‘fantasy America’, while provocatively asking the audience, ‘If this is so great, is it not also art?’
A main feature of the exhibition are two giant screen prints of guns, purposely placed in the gallery opposite a huge dollar sign and his own red-drenched self-portrait - no doubt a commentary on his own assassination attempt in 1968. Disaster and death were common themes in his work, with confrontational images such as electric chairs repurposed from the American press, again seemingly asking the viewer, ‘Is this something to be circulated and celebrated?’
At the same time as documenting the wider cultural zeitgeist, Warhol‘s work gives a rich picture of 1960s and 70s New York and its bohemian underbelly. Outside of his published art, he was an obsessive collector and chronicler of life. He took hundreds of polaroids of friends, artists, musicians, drag queens, rock stars and outcasts who passed his way, and stuck them in one of his many ‘little red books’, some of which can be seen on display.
Elsewhere there are snapshots of a naked Grace Jones being painted by Keith Haring, erotic film posters featuring gay actor and Warhol darling Joe Dallesandro and drag queen Candy Darling, and a portrait of photographer and Patti Smith partner Robert Mapplethorpe. One of my favourite parts of the exhibition was the screen test series, in which sitters were told to look at the camera for three minutes without speaking. This could be tedious (as some of his longer films were), but sitting in a darkened room staring deep into the eyes of Salvador Dalí, Lou Reed and Edie Sedgewick was an intimate and striking experience – certainly not a bad way to spend one’s time.
There are dozens of other tangents that could be mentioned about this exhibition – I left feeling a renewed appreciation for how influential Warhol really was in twentieth century culture. Congratulations to Lakeside Arts for showcasing the type of art which, more often than not, is kept from places like Notts and only showcased at London galleries.
Andy Warhol: Pop Icon is available to visit until Sunday 19 Apr 2026. Booking required, with tickets priced at £6/free for concessions. Check out the Lakeside Arts website for booking, gallery tours and talks.
lakesidearts.org.uk
Image rights:
Self-Portrait, Andy Warhol, 1986. Tate, presented by Janet Wolfson de Botton, 1996. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2025/ Licensed by DACS, London. Photo: Sophie Gargett
Image: Gun screenprints, Robert Mapplethorpe, Movie posters, Andy Warhol. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2025/ Licensed by DACS, London. Photo: Sophie Gargett
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