SUMMER GARDEN PARTY
23 / 24 AUGUST
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
1 – 8 pm
‘UNSEEN INDIANA’ with an exclusive on-loan addition of the iconic ‘WARHOL HOLDING MARILYN ACETATE’, 1964 to the GALLERY46 SUMMER PARTY. This is a rare chance to see these iconic works by the late WILLIAM JOHN KENNEDY (WJK)
Drinks will be in the garden soundtracked by a playlist The Velvet Underground
curated by John-Paul Pryor (The Sirens of Titan)
or email info@gallery46.co.uk
‘UNSEEN INDIANA’
Robert Indiana x Andy Warhol
by William John Kennedy
The late-William John Kennedy first met Indiana at a New York art opening in 1963. They became friends and Kennedy shortly afterwards began taking photographs of the now legendary artist in his studio.
Indiana would soon introduce Kennedy to Warhol at the ‘Americans’ exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in May of 1963.
Highlights from the exhibition at GALLERY46 include Kennedy’s portrait of Robert Indiana with his most famous creation, ‘LOVE’, claimed to be the world’s most reproduced artwork.
EXHIBITION
25 July – 24th August 2025
Wednesday – Friday
1 – 6 pm
Friday
2 – 6 pm
Saturday
Sunday
1 – 8 pm
Closed
Monday
William John Kennedy
TICKNER BELL YOUNG & LEBENSON
GALLERY46
46 ASHFIELD STREET
LONDON
E1 2AJ
Dates
Exhibition Dates
24 JULY – 24 AUGUST 2025
Tuesday – Thursday
1 – 6pm
Friday 22 August
2 – 6 pm
Saturday
Sunday
1 – 8 pm
CLOSED
Monday
Please check insta for any changes.
Artists
William John Kennedy
The late-William John Kennedy first met Indiana at a New York art opening in 1963. They became friends and Kennedy shortly afterwards began taking photographs of the now legendary artist in his studio. Indiana would soon introduce Kennedy to Warhol at the Americans exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1963.
Highlights from the exhibition include Kennedy’s portrait of Robert Indiana with his most famous creation, LOVE, claimed to be the world’s most reproduced artwork.“When I look back on my involvement with the Pop artists, it all came off my initial involvement with Robert Indiana. He was the lynchpin” – William John Kennedy
The late William John Kennedy was a successful commercial photographer throughout the 70s and 80s, but at the time he met the legendary Warhol, he was a former Korean War paratrooper with a passion for photography.
His entree into the style sphere came via his friendship with Robert Indiana, and throughout 1963-64 he and his his point-and-shoot camera would become ensconced in an era defining moment in art.
WJK and Robert Indiana at his studio, 1963
Information
Curated by
John-Paul Pryor
Martin J Tickner
Lisa Baker
“The studio is a sacred space for any artist, and William John Kennedy’s intimate in-studio portraits of Robert Indiana from 1963 offer a glimpse of a truly legendary artist at work and repose. Kennedy had a unique skill in quietly capturing the soul in the eye of his lens, and you really feel you get to know Indiana in these portraits, and also gain insight into the genesis of some of his most iconic works, including ‘LOVE’, which would come to be reproduced countless times all over the world. Alongside these wonderful images, I also wanted to use the opportunity of a summer show to exhibit Kennedy’s ‘Warhol With Flowers’ series, a little known collection of Kennedy’s portraits of Indiana’s contemporary Andy Warhol shot amongst sunflowers in an urban wasteland. These too transmit the energy of the isolated nature of human creativity in the 60s, and should be unmissable for acolytes of the icon. Both offer a window into a simpler time, when time itself could be ‘wasted’ in thought, and creative endeavour was uninterrupted by the constant buzz and connectivity of social media – a period in modern history when the profound creativity of two giants of contemporary art was evolving entirely unseen, quietly taking shape in the shadows of New York City.”
– John-Paul Pryor