The London Traveler

Timothy Taylor Gallery, in the West End, is hosting an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s photographs from 18 January to 29 February.

Warhol’s photos, the gallery says, show him as “the lover of boring things”. What’s amazing is the enthusiasm with which he photographs the detritus of urban life - bottles left lying in a street, the textures of modernist buildings, a homeless person lying in a doorway.

Lovers of Pop Art will recognise Warhol’s obsession with repetition, too, from his prints of soup cans, Marilyn Munroe, or dollar bills. He takes photos of bottles lined up on a shop’s shelves, or focuses on the endlessly repeated windows of a building.

On one level these are just snapshots - on another level, the photos illustrate Warhol’s distinctively modern aesthetic. I find these photographs compelling - there’s an honesty and immediacy to them that I sometimes find lacking in the more controlled atmosphere of his prints.

The show, put together by independent curator Steven Bluttal, features 200 black and white photos, most of which have never been shown publicly before. Definitely one for the modern art enthusiast to see.

The Timothy Taylor gallery is at 15 Carlos Place, London W1K 2EX. It’s open 10-6 during the week, and 10-1 on Saturdays.

Photo credit: Andy Warhol:Homeless Person, c. 1976 – 1987.Unique gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 in. / 20.32 x 25.4 cm. © 2008 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts