Bastian has unveiled its first international outpost in Mayfair’s Davies Street, coinciding with the Berlin-based gallery’s 30th anniversary. Taking up residence in a 20th-century mansion block, the London space helmed by Aeneas Bastian (son of founders Céline and Heiner Bastian) has been renovated by David Chipperfield Architects. The firm previously designed Bastian’s Berlin gallery on Am Kupfergraben, which opened in 2007 and has recently been donated to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
The inaugurating exhibition presents a series of 60 Polaroid portraits by Andy Warhol of his illustrious coterie, some of which have not been shown previously. These casual instant pictures were an integral – if overlooked – dimension of Warhol’s practice, forming the basis of his paintings, drawings and silkscreens. The artist was partial to Polaroid’s Big Shot camera: launched in 1971 specifically for shooting portraits, it has since garnered a cult-like status in spite of its cumbersome size and rigid unpracticality.
RELATED STORY
Still, this eccentric device seemed appeal to an equally eccentric artist, who turned his lens on the likes of Joseph Beuys, Paloma Picasso, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Jean-Michel Basquiat among others through the 1970s up until his death in 1987. ‘My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person,’ he once said. Looming large over his star-studded inner circle at Bastian is a fittingly supersized portrait of Warhol himself.
Warhol’s photography is having a moment: never-before-seen photographs and filmography by the pop art pioneer are going on show at Casa Perfect in Beverly Hills from 15 February, while Brookyn gallery BlackBook’s current showcase features portraits of art, music, and fashion royalty. Last year, Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center published a trove of over 100,000 unseen photographs acquired from The Andy Warhol Foundation.
A never-before-seen portrait of Joseph Beuys by Andy Warhol is among 60 Polaroids inaugurating Bastian gallery’s London space.
The 90 sq m gallery has been renovated by David Chipperfield Architects. Courtesy of BASTIAN, London
Limestone flooring covers both floors and a new staircase which has a marble inlay. Courtesy of BASTIAN, London
Paloma Picasso, c 1983, by Andy Warhol, Polaroid Type SX-70.
Yves Saint-Laurent, 1972, by Andy Warhol, Polacolor Type 108.
INFORMATION
‘Andy Warhol: Polaroid Pictures’ is on view from 2 February – 13 April. For more information, visit the Bastian website
ADDRESS
Bastian
8 Davies Street
London W1K 3DW
-
Put these emerging artists on your radarThis crop of six new talents is poised to shake up the art world. Get to know them now
-
Dining at Pyrá feels like a Mediterranean kiss on both cheeksDesigned by House of Dré, this Lonsdale Road addition dishes up an enticing fusion of Greek and Spanish cooking
-
Creased, crumpled: S/S 2025 menswear is about clothes that have ‘lived a life’The S/S 2025 menswear collections see designers embrace the creased and the crumpled, conjuring a mood of laidback languor that ran through the season – captured here by photographer Steve Harnacke and stylist Nicola Neri for Wallpaper*
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyersAn exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
-
Artist Qualeasha Wood explores the digital glitch to weave stories of the Black female experienceIn ‘Malware’, her new London exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the American artist’s tapestries, tuftings and videos delve into the world of internet malfunction
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate BritainIn his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desireIn a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
