A glimpse of Warhol's genius before the pop artist became famous

This impeccably presented, researched and curated show - seen last year in a slightly different form at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London — is difficult to fault.

It sets out the story of Andy Warhol's early career as a commercial textile designer, illustrator and graphic artist before he emerged as, possibly, the world's most famous postwar artist, in the mid-Sixties.

As well as offering insights into the design process on a technological, thematic and conceptual level it also suggests, convincingly, that Warhol's commercial designs, destined for the fashion and furnishing world, necessarily presaged his emergence into pop art, a movement which he is deservedly credited with influencing above all others, if not initiating.

The structure of the exhibition closely follows that of a new publication of the same name, put together by textile experts and collectors Geoffrey Rayner and Richard Chamberlain.

It begins with an observation from 1946 by Ruth Reeves, the American artist and textile designer, that "fabric design... belongs in the category of the fine arts".

Warhol's main achievement, it could be argued, was the democratisation of the arts, and his ability to render the everyday in a new way. Soup cans and Coke bottles became art objects and so too did objects such as socks, ice creams, hats, shoes and butterflies become the repeated motifs of his textile designs.

Warhol did not design clothing, nor was he a couturier; his textile designs were sold to manufacturers, often anonymously (he had not yet become famous in the Fifties, when most of this work was made).

Rayner and Chamberlain have therefore been engaged on a years-long detective trail, tracking down examples of the original textiles, which are presented alongside the astonishingly petite dresses, skirts, underwear, blouses and swimwear that became the final destination of these popular, colourful fashion items that so fittingly reflect the energy and optimism of the postwar US.

Warhol did not actually coin the term "famous for 15 minutes" — it was dreamt up by the curators of a Warhol show in Stockholm in 1968. However, the idea of general levelling of hierarchies is still relevant when considering the sweep of his output. Nowhere is this more apparent than here, where the resplendent colours and motifs, augmented by skilful couture, make these wearable artworks as appealing now as when they were originally fashioned.

     Until May 18, 2024