Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol examined together at London's Gagosian Gallery

The works of two New York art and fashion world celebrities with international reputations that have survived their deaths are examined in an exhibition at London's Gagosian Gallery.

Photographer Richard Avedon was famed for his glamorous work on fashion shoots and his assignments for glossy magazines, before his death on an assignment in Texas in 2004.

He is paired with Andy Warhol, a leading figure of the pop art movement that began in the United States in the 1960s. Warhol died in 1987. His work is held in many of the world's leading art galleries and museums, and there have been many shows in his lifetime and thereafter featuring his work.

While Avedon's work has been the subject of many exhibitions, including at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1974, and of retrospectives since his death, including one in 2007 which travelled to the United States, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands among other countries, this is the first major exhibition bringing the pair of artists together.

Jason Ysenburg, New York director of the Gagosian Gallery, told Xinhua: "We came up with the idea of doing a show on the concepts of how they approached subjects -- so we have dealt with power, celebrity, sexuality, the idea of the outsider, transcendence, and death and superstars."

The show is not one of comparing and contrasting. The work of both artists overlapped, both in time and subject matter, but works have been hung to avoid the obvious juxtapositions.

Ysenburg explained: "We do have a painting of Marilyn Monroe by Warhol from 1962, and we do have a famous photograph by Avedon of her -- but we have put them in different places. We have deliberately avoided comparing and contrasting."

Instead, the show aims to allow the work of one or other artist to cast light on the work of the other; for instance, in a series of photographs that Avedon did on assignment for the U.S. magazine Rolling Stone of powerful Americans and Warhol paintings of monarchs and celebrities.

The Avedon photographs, 69 of them in a series called "The Family" are of the elite of America in 1976, while Warhol paintings hung around them include portraits of the former Shah of Iran and members of his family, as well as of celebrities and socialites.

Ysenburg said: "After you've had a good look at The Family, and some of the other portraits where there is a psychological insight capturing somebody's personality, you look at the Warhol portraits in a sharpened and more interesting way and they become more interesting because of Avedon."

The show runs at the Gagosian Gallery in London's King's Cross district until April 23. Endit