Marilyn Monroe, soup cans and silver wigs go on show at Tate Modern's Andy Warhol exhibit
Warhol's 'Marilyn Diptych' (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
LONDON (AP): Images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe’s lips are on display in a new Andy Warhol show at London’s Tate Modern — alongside several of the artist’s wigs.
The exhibition includes more than 100 works by the pop-art icon, including Coke bottles, Campbell’s soup cans and celebrities including Dolly Parton, Debbie Harry and Monroe, whose mouth is the focus of the series Marilyn’s Lips.
It also features lesser-known works such as Ladies and Gentlemen, a series of 1970s paintings of New York drag queens and transgender performers.
Also on display are three of Warhol’s famous silver wigs. He had a collection of more than 100 hairpieces by the time he died in 1987, aged 58, after gallbladder surgery.
Tate Modern said Tuesday that the exhibition aims to show a more human side of Warhol, a tireless self-promoter who became one of the 20th century’s best-known artists.
It said the show highlights Warhol’s private beliefs and background as a "shy, gay man from a religious, migrant, low-income household."
“He is one of the most recognisable names in the late 20th century but, in today's climate, it feels important to take a more human and more personal look at somebody who is a very familiar artist,” Tate Modern director Frances Morris said.
The exhibition opens Thursday and runs to September 6.
