In 1982, iconic visual artist and “King of Pop art” Andy Warhol came to Hong Kong and Beijing, invited by young businessman Alfred Siu, who commissioned him to create portraits for his new private club IClub in the building that is now the Hong Kong home of Bank of America.

At that time, Alfred Siu was working with renowned American curator Jeffrey Deitch – now head of LAMOCA Museum in Los Angeles – to present a selection of contemporary artists from overseas and to initiate a dialogue between East and West. So Siu acquired special works by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.

French mime Marcel Marceau and British singer Tom Jones performed on the opening night of the club, as well as Playboy Playmates! This was the exact subversive party events that Warhol was enjoying at that time.

Andy Warhol at Wong Tai Sin temple, Hong Kong, Christopher Makos, 1982, Courtesy Sauvereign

Warhol came to Hong Kong and mainland China with a small entourage, including his personal photographer and close friend Christopher Makos, his manager Fred Hughes and documentary maker Lee Caplin.

At that time, Christopher Makos was working on Warhol’s Interview magazine. His first acclaimed works portrayed the underground punk society in New York, as well as emerging talents such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom he introduced to Warhol. From their early days started a close friendship, allowing Makos to record many of Warhol’s intimate moments, such as The Lady Warhol series of 120 polaroids of the artist in different wigs and disguises. Makos is said to have been the one teaching Warhol how to use a camera, with the artist subsequently dubbing him “the most modern photographer in America”.

“It was really a disco trip to Hong Kong,” Makos says. “Alfred Siu had commissioned Andy for the Prince Charles and Lady Di portraits to decorate his new club in Hong Kong, and then surprised us with the Beijing trip. We all were actually surprised. And excited to see mainland China.”

Andy Warhol, Hong Kong Harbour (Boats), 1982, Courtesy Phillips

While in Hong Kong, Warhol stayed at the Mandarin Hotel. Besides enjoying the glamorous dinners and parties, he visited the heart of the city, the Peak, enjoyed the iconic Star Ferry to admire the skyline of Hong Kong Island, and went to the temple at Wong Tai Sin.

Jeffrey Deitch recalled one thing in particular, when he took Warhol to shirt maker Ascot Chang: “They showed Andy a booklet with all the different monogram designs you could have embroidered on a shirt. Andy looked at all of these monogram designs and ordered a white shirt for every single one of them, a complete set of forty shirts. That was just such an Andy Warhol gesture. That was exactly his aesthetic to do multiples, to find something in the world that just happens to be really Pop and that simultaneously gives you some insight into how people live and think.”

Andy Warhol at the Great Wall, 1982, Courtesy Phillips

Not much remain of the impressions of Warhol, except a few lines in his diary: “Arrived in Hong Kong, evening. It was hot and muggy, Florida-type weather… I had a suite overlooking the harbour, it was very beautiful…”

If Andy Warhol himself took some pictures during the trip (auctioned by Phillips in Hong Kong in 2017), Christopher Makos documented the journey using his camera, preserving fragments of memories from their tour, with spontaneous and candid shots showing Andy as a tourist. Makos would explain later the magic of photography at that time: people were natural, not all photos were meant to be shown or displayed, and very often, the original film would disappear, sometimes even the prints would fade.

Andy Warhol, Hong Kong, Christopher Makos, 1982, Courtesy Sauvereign

To celebrate 40 years since Andy Warhol’s first and only trip to Hong Kong, Sauvereign and Landmark have organised, in collaboration with Christopher Makos, the exhibition WARHOL MAKOS: ANDY LOVES HK  from 2 to 18 September 2022, featuring eleven sets of never-before-seen imagery, each set including an original black-and-white photograph as well as a duo-tone filtered print that Makos created exclusively for this exhibition, as a tribute to the “King of Pop art”.