"Warhol and His Legacy: Pop to Now" at The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art

"Bechtler Family Portraits" by Warhol (1973)

If you're like me, you might question the need for yet another Warhol exhibit. In fact, I almost opted to skip the Bechtler altogether because I just wasn't that interested. But that would have been a mistake. The exhibit had some fun Warhol works I hadn't seen like shopping bags printed with images of Guiliana Benetton and Halston (clever) and a Coke bottle sculpture that of course made me crave yet another Diet Coke. And who can blame the Museum for mounting a Warhol exhibit when they have these portraits of the founding family to display? 

"Rain Dance" by Warhol, Basquiat, Haring
Lichtenstein and Ono (1985)

The exhibit contained some obligatory works by Keith Haring and Basquait. Got it. But then I came upon a wonderful poster created for a Benefit for the African Emergency Relief Fund - 1985. Africa was suffering a severe drought and famine crisis at the time. The poster -- aptly entitled "Rain Dance" -- was created jointly by Warhol, Basquiat, Haring, Roy Lichtenstein and Yoko Ono and includes thematic elements that reflect each of the artist's distinctive styles. 

You probably recognize Haring's dancing figures and can figure out that the umbrellas were Warhol's contribution. Lichtenstein's work is represented by what looks like a rain cloud. It's difficult to see in this image, but the scrap of paper on the bottom right corner was done by Basquiat. Written in several places are the words "Too Much Reign" (copyrighted!) along with the image of a sceptre. Then there's a rain cloud with droplets showering down. But what about Yoko Ono? I could have stood there all day trying to figure out what she'd contributed. Luckily, a docent helped me out. Yoko Ono was known for her performance art, so the footprints across the poster are her contribution. I like it. (And in my defense, the docent said it took them ages to figure it out as well.) For a version of the work that can be enlarged to see Basquait's work, click here. 

Detail of "Keeping Hold Of" by ThankYouX (2022)

Then came exhibits of work by two artists with whom I was not familiar. The first was Ryan Wilson aka ThankYouX. One gallery contained two large abstract works by the artist. The paintings didn't speak to me, but then I noticed that there was movement in a small cut out in the canvas. What was going on? 

ThankYouX has embedded NFTs (essentially videos for those of us in the non-art world) in some of his works, and the result was mesmerizing. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a video of his work that shows what it looks like in person. So try to imagine this cube twisting and turning and changing colors before your eyes. (Note that this is just a portion of the canvas, so the moving image is quite small in relation to the entire work.)  In addition to ThankYouX's paintings, another gallery ran one of his NFTs on a loop on a large screen with very loud music. It was a bit overwhelming (and made me feel kind of old).

Another shot of the NFT in "Keeping Hold Of"

But what does this have to do with Warhol? It turns out that Wilson is a big fan of Warhol for the way he broke down artistic barriers. And so back in the day when he was a street artist, Wilson painted tributes to Warhol around LA and signed them "THANK YOU X." The "X" was intended to be an anonymous signature. But people noticed and started calling him "ThankYouX."  And so he went with it. 

ThankYouX made his breakthrough into the world of fine art SnapChat asked him to create work for its offices. They had found him through social media. Today he has an A-list of clients and he's creating NFTs with a music component with the Oscar- and Academy-Award winning composer Hans Zimmer. Dreams do come true. For a great interview with Wilson, click here. And to hear Wilson and Zimmer talk about their collaboration, click here. FYI, I don't know if the music in the large NFT on display was Zimmer's composition. 

"Inspire II" by HEES (2021)

HEES' works had me singing the old song "I've Got the Music in Me" by The Kiki Dee Band. (Once again, I'm dating myself.) The paintings were from HEES' "Music" series. "I believe music has the power to guide you home," the artist has said. "Not your home on the outside, but your home on the inside...where you hold your energy, your clarity, your growth, your insight, your freedom, your power, and your creativity." In addition to his colorful palette, I liked the fact that HEES pays homage to all forms of music. Here you can see references to everything from R&B to Opera, from Country to Hip Hop. Whatever moves you has the power. 

The paintings include the artist's trademark circle with three lines below it, each of which has hash marks. These marks are "symbolic for energy, the circular nature of the Universe and life, and a numerological representative for sound (the 7 notes on a musical scale), color (the 7 prismatic colors in sunlight) and space (the 7 attributes of physicality)." As to why HEES' work was included in the exhibit, it's because of his connection with Basquait rather than Warhol. Like HEES, Basquiat embraced music and pop culture in his work. It's a bit of a daisy chain. For more abut HEES, click here.

"Pop to Now: Warhol and His Legacy runs at The Bechtler through January 2. If you're in the Charlotte, NC area, it's worth checking out. Click here for more information.