HALF ART
CHRIS THURMAN: Warhol’s real-life art pops with variation against a backdrop of screens and digital duplication
Last week, I made an offhand comparison between the somewhat disappointing ticket sales for the run of musical revival King Kong: Legend of a Boxer at the Joburg Theatre and the impressive attendance figures for Warhol Unscreened: Artworks from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Collection at the Wits Art Museum (WAM). It is, of course, a little unfair to yoke these two Braamfontein arts beasts together. For one thing, the Warhol works can be viewed free of charge; this would be impossible for King Kong, even if Bank of America Merrill Lynch and their exhibition co-sponsors were to put an equivalent amount into the stage production. And, while visitors came in their thousands when Warhol Unscreened opened in July, those numbers couldn’t be sustained. Still, even a large gallery space such as WAM is enlivened by the combination of a troop of school children and a few dozen adults. When 500 people are seated in the Nelson Mandela Theatre, the auditorium is still half-empty.Take away th...
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