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Calling all TV lovers! This is an exhibition for you. Described by the curator as “un zapping géant”, roughly translated as a massive channel-flicking session, Warhol TV takes us on a journey through Warhol’s obsession with TV, and also through different ways of showing television extracts in a gallery space. The scenography is a delight, providing multiple opportunities for comfortable viewing culminating in a cosy, cushion-filled alcove simulting Warhol’s bed.

Warhol’s forays into television don’t particularly illuminate the rest of his oeuvre but there are certainly similarities: his use of colour, his interest in beauty, celebrity and the “scene”. In fact, Warhol TV is a great documentation of an era. A young Debbie Harry, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, to name but a few, all appear on Andy Warhol’s TV, a series produced by Warhol, Vincent Fremont and Don Munroe between 1980 and 1983. Some talk about their work, like Cindy Sherman talking about her first project Untitled film stills, others talk about trivialities – Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat musing on the latter’s odd socks.

Jean-Michel Basquiat with Andy Warhol on Andy Warhol’s T.V., 1983

Comparisions have been drawn with Warhol’s TV and the more 21st century concept of reality TV. The camera is left rolling during interviews and editing is kept to a minimum. When Warhol appears before the camera himself it’s amusing to see how ill at ease he is when confronted the medium of which he was a self-proclaimed addict.

Warhol TV is on at La Maison Rouge until 03/05/09. If you want more Warhol, his reknowned celebrity portraits are on show at the Grand Palais in Le Grand Monde d’Andy Warhol until 13/07/09.

Filed under: contemporary, installation, video by