Warhol month in Croydon was a packed month-long schedule of Warhol artwork exhibited at Rise Gallery accompanied by work inspired by his many themes for a ground-breaking street tour. Andy Warhol films, documentaries and informative lectures completed the bill. This massive event marks the 30th anniversary since his passing and a fitting tribute by bringing art to all.

One of the first lectures to kick start the month explored Warhol before Pop. I’d already come to realise about his commercial side prior to the lecture, but to see some of the illustrations and hear about how he balanced commercial life and art was fascinating. He also kept these two worlds apart.

His first job in the commercial world was with Glamour magazine in 1949. Gary Needham, University of Liverpool, explained how his style was mechanical yet expressive and individual. But importantly it was created in a way that could be easily re-produced. He often used a technique called broken-line, where ink is transferred onto another wet paper and as a result the continuous line of the drawing looks broken, with a slightly uneven quality. But this style also made it very easy to reproduce – ideal for the commercial world.

Andy Warhol was well renowned and sought after for his quality and speed of work, but most importantly advertisers valued how he ‘got them’. He understood briefs and could turn around results in no time, often overnight.

My biggest takeaway from the lecture was that in fact the first pop art exhibition was in a department store in 1961. Often referred to as ‘hand-painted pop’ Warhol produced pieces of artwork, some displayed on easels as a backdrop for mannequins displaying the latest fashion. This really was art for all. It was a break away from the abstract expressionism although the painterly drip marks keep each piece as individual. From Popeye to Superman you could be mistaken for thinking this was an early Lichtenstein. In fact, after Warhol had produced these and on hearing that an artist called Lichtenstein was also working on comic style images, he promptly stopped this route, only to revisit it again in the eighties for his Myths portfolio.

After all, Warhol looked for art in the everyday from the Campbell Soup cans to the Brillo boxes (and of course so much more that I’ve left out). But to me, seeing the commercial illustrations, their iconic beauty, fun, cheekiness, vibrancy and graphic quality not only makes his artwork timeless but, at the time, he was already bringing artwork to all through these commercial illustrations which featured in daily newspapers, billboards and window displays of prominent New York department stores.

Congratulations to Rise Gallery for orchestrating a mammoth and amazing event and with the help of sponsors such as Croydon Council and Croydon BID. Looking forward to what’s next to grace the concrete metropolis doorstep.