Andy Warhol: Three Times Out is an artistic triumph

Andy Warhol changed how the world perceives art, and the new exhibition, Andy Warhol Three Times Out, is bringing his work to a new generation of fans. 

The exhibition, which recently opened at the Hugh Lane Gallery, is a mind-expanding trip through the mind of the pioneer of modern art. 

Many works are on loan from the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh and various museums from around the world, and all the hits are there for Warhol aficionados to enjoy. 

The world-famous Campbell’s Soup paintings are there in their full glory, while his striking pop art portraits of Marilyn Monroe are sure to set the soul of any cinephile on fire.

Warhol’s commitment to different styles of art, from visual to print-based, is on full display, with his famous film Empire playing on a continuous loop in the museum. 

Warhol’s work existed at the peculiar intersection of art, pop culture, and politics, and it is a testament to Warhol’s versatility that in one room you can see vivid portraits of Chairman Mao, Richard Nixon and a map of Russian nuclear missiles, and the next room over displays work exploring how Madonna was badly treated by the media in the 1980s.

The eclectic nature of Warhol is on full display, and Three Times Out is perhaps the only art exhibition in the world where Warhol’s Saturday Night Live sketches exist in the same space as his collaboration with Francis Bacon. 

The Hugh Lane is home to Bacon’s work, and implementing the existing Bacon catalogue with the new Warhol exhibit is an inspired move. 

One of the most startling exhibits on display is Screen Tests, where Warhol gave his subjects the simple instruction of sitting still for around three minutes and walking into a room to be greeted by over a dozen screens of people staring at you is as arresting and intoxicating as art gets.

Like all good exhibits, it necessitates repeat visits. 

There is so much to take in that multiple visits are essential.

It is entirely possible to pay the exhibit a visit and just focus on the audiovisual elements, or spend one visit drinking in the installation where Warhol deconstructs the media coverage surrounding the JFK assassination. 

There is no better way to spend an afternoon than by paying Three Times Out a visit, whether you’re a Warhol fanatic who can name everyone who hung about at the Factory or just know him as the guy who painted cans of soup.

In this instance, we will give the last word to Dr. Barbara Dawson who serves as director at the Hugh Lane Gallery, who said the exhibition shows how Warhol “utterly changed the way the world experiences art.”

“His work explored the relationship between artistic expression and the flourishing consumer culture of the 1960s, new technology, and celebrity status, as well as mortality, in a diverse body of works that underpins his artistic genius.”

“As society navigates the age of social media and surveillance capitalism – how our data is being captured and monetised- it is impossible to overlook Warhol’s prescient vision so relevant to us today.”

The exhibit will run until January 2024, and is not to be missed.