Art in Vegas goes pop this Fourth of July

June 29, 2009 by Bryant Nguyen 

Fashion Show Mall to host Warhol, Kaufman exhibit

The “Warhol and Kaufman“ art exhibit at Centaur Art Galleries launches in the Fashion Show Mall on July 4 ,and it will run until Aug. 21.

The artwork on display will consist of pieces by the late Andy Warhol and his former assistant Steve Kaufman.

“Steve fits into the category of being probably the best, youngest, brightest, newest talent in the art community that anyone who’s come along in the last 25 to 50 years,” said Richard Perry, president and CEO of Centaur Art Galleries.

Warhol is best known as the leading figure in the pop art movement of the 1960s. Kaufman, as an assistant to Warhol, continued this style of artwork after Warhol’s death and has since made his own mark on the genre.

“It was something that was beginning to be done and Andy Warhol was a major part of the pop art movement,” said Henry Young, curator of fine prints at Centaur Art Galleries.

Pop art draws its theme from popular culture and uses bright colors to match the simplified forms. The most recently popular incarnation of pop art might be the “Hope” poster utilized in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

“It’s art that depicts the popularity of all of the things that we’ve lived through for the last 30, 40, 50, 60 years,” Perry said.

The exhibit is expected to carry more than 200 pieces of Warhol and Kaufman’s art. The authentic and limited line of Warhol paintings may also be purchased with the estimated starting price beginning at $2,000 and running all the way up to $75,000.

Not to be outdone by his former teacher, Kaufman has an impressive re´sume´ of his own, including a tremendous amount of charity work for about 100 different organizations and a career spanning four decades.

According to Perry, hundreds of customers walk through Century Art Galleries barely looking at Picasso’s work in favor of Kaufman’s art pieces because the pieces relate more to today’s time.

“Steve… not only [captures] the history of the time in which we live, he does it with an abundance of fun and color and shape and form and ideology that meets and greets hundreds and thousands of people, that captivates people when they walk in our doors,” Perry said. “And I can’t speak any more highly of Steve other than to suggest that we think he’s going to be one of the greatest artists of the 21st century.

Pop art has transcended its time and can be seen in today’s popular media. The Kanye West music video to his single “Heartbreak” features pop art-inspired animations and one of Warhol’s best known pieces, a depiction of a Campbell’s Soup can.

“I believe pop art is more popular today than it ever was,” Young said. “We have received strong responses and auctions are getting record breaking.”

If you are looking for some pop to go with that bang in July, this exhibit can fuel that need.