No one more embodied the pop-driven, mass-media culture of the late 20th century than artist and social provocateur Andy Warhol.
His mantra that everyone in the future would be famous for 15 minutes has proven to be an uncannily apt prophecy for today’s digital world, where instantaneous celebritydom is possible via Facebook, YouTube and countless reality shows.
As an unsurpassed cultural icon, photographs of Warhol, including hundreds of self-portraits, are abundant, even overabundant.
That said, a little-exhibited, little-known group of images of the famed artist by Denver photographer Mark Sink — 11 of which are on view through Jan. 17 at the Rule Gallery — nonetheless deserve to seen.
Taken during the early 1980s, when Sink befriended Warhol and became a member of his ever-changing circle, they offer an unusual, inside and, in some cases, informal, look at the artist.
Warhol seems unaware that he is even being photographed in “Andy at His Desk in the Factory, 1982,” Sink’s unguarded portrait of the artist on the phone in his disheveled office, the banality of the scene interrupted only by a vintage French poster on the rear wall.
The stereotypically quirky, oddly vulnerable side of Warhol is vividly captured in “Andy in Los Angeles, 1981,” a quintessential portrait in which he is wearing a vested suit and clasping something unidentifiable in his right hand.
A softer, more approachable Warhol comes through in two color photographs, including “Andy Smiling in the Factory, 860 Broadway, 1983.”
For fans of the artist, especially those hungry for views of him that have not been endlessly reproduced, this compact exhibition should be a treat.
“The Untold Story”
Photography. Rule Gallery, 227 Broadway. An exhibition of 11 of Mark Sink’s rarely exhibited photographs of Andy Warhol. Extended through Jan. 17. Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Free. 303-777-9473 or .
