Andy Warhol, Flash – November 22, 1963, 1968, portfolio of eleven screenprints with eleven corresponding pages of Teletype text by Phillip Greer, plus three additional screenprints and cloth cover, sheet: 53.34 x 53.34 cm (21 x 21 in.), overall size: 54.61 x 53.98 cm (21 1/2 x 21 1/4 in.), other: 57.15 x 113.67 cm (22 1/2 x 44 3/4 in.), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ailing Ali In Fight of Life, 1984, acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 193 x 266.7 cm (76 x 105 in.), Bischofberger Collection, Switzerland, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, © 2011 The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat / ADAGP, Paris / ARS, New York.

Andy Warhol, Daily News, 1962, acrylic and pencil on canvas, overall: 183.5 x 254 cm (72 1/4 x 100 in.), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, formerly Collection Karl Ströher, Darmstadt, 1981, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Axel Schneider, Frankfurt am Main.

Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol at 860 Broadway, c. 1978, gelatin silver print, overall: 20.32 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in.), The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Zaccaro Indicted, c. 1985-1986, six gelatin silver prints sewn together with thread, overall: 69.4 x 80.5 cm (27 5/16 x 31 11/16 in.), framed: 93 x 103.5 x 2 cm (36 5/8 x 40 3/4 x 13/16 in.), Bischofberger Collection, Switzerland, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Gardner Cowles, 1977, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, 101.6 x 101.6 cm (40 x 40 in.), The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Art Resource, NY.

Andy Warhol, New York Post, Front Page (Marine Death Toll), c. 1983, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.), Private Collection, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, The Princton Leader, c. 1956, ballpoint ink on paper, 42.5 x 35.2 cm (16 3/4 x 13 7/8 in.), Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, Connecticut, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, Untitled, 1985, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.), Private collection, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation.

Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, New York Post (Madonna), 1985, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, overall: 50.8 x 40.64 cm (20 x 16 in.), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation.

Andy Warhol, Tunafish Disaster, 1963, silkscreen ink and silver paint on linen, overall: 254 x 200 cm (100 x 78 3/4 in.), Andrew and Denise Saul, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Daily News, c. 1967, screenprint on paper, sheet: 127.64 x 76.84 cm (50 1/4 x 30 1/4 in.), mat: 134.62 x 101.6 cm (53 x 40 in.), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

National Gallery
4th and Constitution Avenue NW
202-737-4215
Washington
East Building
Warhol: Headlines
September 25, 2011-January 2, 2012

The first exhibition to fully examine the works that Andy Warhol created on the theme of news headlines: Headlines defines and presents some 80 works — paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, film, video, and television — based largely on the tabloid news, revealing the artist's career-long obsession with the sensational side of contemporary media. Source materials for the art will be presented for comparison, demonstrating the ways in which Warhol cropped, altered, obscured, and reoriented the original texts and images, underscoring his role as both editor and author.

"Andy Warhol continues to inform our culture in limitless ways through a variety of media," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "We are proud to offer this scholarly, visually compelling exhibition and catalogue of one of the world's most famous and influential artists, providing new information and insights to all visitors, from Warhol specialists to the general public."

Exhibition Organization and Support The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, the Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna, Rome, and the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt. The Terra Foundation for American Art is the foundation sponsor of the international tour of the exhibition.

Artist and Exhibition Background Andy Warhol (1928-1987), among the top American artists of the last century, became famous in the early 1960s for his work that drew from sources in popular culture. Warhol's reach is indisputable, and his visual vocabulary has become a part of the vernacular from which it originally came, making him as ubiquitous as the 24-hour news cycle itself.

Warhol scoured newspapers for their stories and images, some of which he saved without using them in his art. Those headlines he made into works of art, however, parallel and intersect the artist's own story at times, weaving his life and art into one epic account of post–World War II America and the media age. He also quoted directly from newspapers, drawing visual immediacy from the powerful media narratives.

The exhibition opens with the artist's earliest hand-painted headline canvases based on supermarket tabloids, including the National Gallery of Art's A Boy for Meg [2] (1962). From his drawings in the late 1950s while working as a commercial illustrator through his transition into the fine arts in the early 1960s, Warhol explored the dramatic side of journalism. By giving equal measure to stories on the joys of celebrity royals, as in A Boy For Meg [1] and A Boy For Meg [2]; Hollywood scandals, such as Eddie Fisher's breakdown in Daily News (1962); and the tragedies of everyday people, as in 129 Die in Jet (1962), Warhol revealed the commodified news value assigned to the passions and disasters of contemporary life. By extension, he implicated the reader as consumer of the news. In 1968 Warhol himself became the subject of front page news when he was shot by writer Valerie Solanas. On the occasion of his death in 1987, he was again the subject of the headlines, owing to his own celebrity.

Warhol's headline works chart the great shift in the technological means employed by the media to present the news, from the printed page to television. Beginning in the early 1960s, Warhol crisscrossed between traditional media (paintings and drawings) and film, followed in the 1970s with video, and in the 1980s with his own cable television shows (Andy Warhol's T.V. and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes on MTV). The exhibition will present three Screen Tests, which show the sitters reading the newspaper, and will show for the first time the artist's 1974 video diary of Factory superstar Brigid Berlin reading the news. Also to be seen for the first time is an outtake from an episode of Andy Warhol's T.V in which artist Keith Haring discusses his own use of tabloid headlines in his first street art interventions.

Later works include Warhol's black-and-white photographs of newspaper vending boxes, his grids of "sewn" photographs featuring newspaper headlines, significant silkscreened paintings, and his collaborations from the 1980s with younger artists Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Curator and Related Publications The exhibition is organized by Molly Donovan, associate curator, modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.

The exhibition catalogue includes scholarly essays by Donovan; John J. Curley, assistant professor of art history, Wake Forest University; Anthony E. Grudin, assistant professor of art history, University of Vermont; John G. Hanhardt, senior curator for media art, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Callie Angell, the late curator of the Andy Warhol Film Project, Whitney Museum of American Art; and Matt Wrbican, archivist, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.

After Washington, the exhibition is on view at Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (February 11-May 13, 2012); Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna, Rome (June 11-September 9, 2012); and The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (October 14, 2012-January 6, 2013).

Andy Warhol, Pirates Sieze Ship, 1961, graphite on Strathmore paper, sheet: 73.66 x 58.42 cm (29 x 23 in.), framed: 104.14 x 78.74 cm (41 x 31 in.), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, 129 Die in Jet, 1962, acrylic and pencil on canvas, overall: 254 x 182.9 cm (100 x 72 in.), Museum Ludwig, Cologne, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln.

Andy Warhol, A Boy for Meg [2], 1962, oil and egg emulsion on canvas, overall: 182.9 x 132.1 cm (72 x 52 in.), framed: 184.5 x 133.7 cm (72 5/8 x 52 5/8 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine, 1971.87.11, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Abstract Sculpture, 1983, screenprint on crumpled Mylar, overall: 45.7 x 30.5 x 24.8 cm (18 x 12 x 9 3/4 in.), framed: 50.8 x 30.48 x 27.94 cm (20 x 12 x 11 in.), Collection Christopher Makos, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Writer Donald Barthelme posing for Harper's Bazaar, "New Faces, New Forces, New Names in the Arts," June 1963, from Time Capsule 21, 1963, 1 of 13 photo-booth strips; gelatin silver prints, strip: 20 x 4.13 cm (7 7/8 x 1 5/8 in.), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Writer Sandra Hochman posing for Harper's Bazaar, "New Faces, New Forces, New Names in the Arts," June 1963, from Time Capsule 21, 1963, 1 of 3 photobooth strips; gelatin silver prints, strip: 20 x 4.13 cm (7 7/8 x 1 5/8 in.), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol, Fate Presto, 1981, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, three panels, each panel: 270 x 200 cm (106 5/16 x 78 3/4 in.), Palazzo Reale di Caserta - Collezione Terrae Motus, © 2011 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, © Luciano Pedicini / Archivio Dell'Arte.

Andy Warhol, Bob Gould and Unidentified Man, 1982.

Andy Warhol, Mrs. Yves (Debra) Arman, 1986.

Andy Warhol, David Whitney, 1980.

Smart Museum of Art
University of Chicago
5550 S. Greenwood Avenue
773-702-0200
Chicago
The Joel and Carole Bernstein
Gallery for Works on Paper
Warhol at Work: Portrait Snapshots, 1973-1986
May 10-August 21, 2011

Over the course of his career, Pop Art pioneer Andy Warhol took thousands of photographs that were never intended to be seen by the public.

In the 1970s, at the height of Warhol’s extraordinary fame as an artist and filmmaker, he bought two automatic cameras that he carried with him everywhere. Using a small 35mm camera he took countless black and white snapshots of his immediate environment — parties, art studios, and New York City streets. Meanwhile, Warhol restructured his artistic practice around the Polaroid Big Shot camera: he produced carefully staged Polaroid portraits of friends and celebrities, many of which he used as the basis for his iconic prints and silkscreen paintings. The Polaroids follow a standard format, with the subject posed against a blank wall, close to the camera, their features abstracted by the strong flash and, often, heavy white makeup. The search to capture just the right image often resulted in up to a hundred slightly varied pictures of each sitter — an approach that reveals Warhol’s eye for detail and obsession with photography as an all-consuming process.

In 2008, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts donated 152 of the Polaroid and black and white photographs to the Smart Museum through the Andy Warhol Legacy Program. Featuring over sixty of them — many of which are being displayed publicly for the first time — Warhol at Work offers an almost voyeuristic glimpse into Warhol’s world, where experimental play, business, and art mix freely. The exhibition will illuminate both the identity of many of the sitters and establish their relationships to the artist and his work. It will also spotlight one example of Warhol’s characteristic use of photography by displaying Witch, a screenprint from his 1981 portfolio Myths, alongside its source — a Polaroid portrait of Margaret Hamilton, former star of the Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz (1939). Such a pairing allows a concrete understanding of the sort of mechanical and creative transformations that characterize Warhol’s most important work.

Curators Jessica Moss, Smart Museum Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, and Emily Capper, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curatorial Intern and PhD student at the University of Chicago.

Andy Warhol. Screen Test: Lou Reed (1966). 16mm film (black and white, silent). 4 min. at 16fps. ©2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum.

Andy Warhol. Screen Test: Allen Ginsberg (1966). 16mm film (black and white, silent). 4 min. at 16fps. ©2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum.

Andy Warhol. Screen Test: Susan Sontag (1964). 16mm film (black and white, silent). 4 min. at 16fps. ©2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum.

Andy Warhol. Kiss (1963-64). 16mm film (black and white, silent). 54 min. at 16fps. ©2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum.

MoMA
11 West 53 Street
212-708-9400
New York
The International Council
of The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures
December 19, 2010-March 21, 2011

Among Warhol’s cinematic oeuvre, the black and white silent films are the most daring and experimental in their selection of subject and theme, psychological acuity, rhythmic pacing, and sheer beauty of form. Although these films were originally shot at sound-film speed (24 frames per second), Warhol specified that prints be projected at a slower speed of 16 frames per second, a rate used in the projection of silent films from the 1890s through the 1920s. For this exhibition, a selection of Warhol’s films made in 1963-1966 has been transferred from 16mm film to DVD at the speed of 16 frames per second, and projected onto screens and monitors in a gallery setting. Thus it is again possible to see the works as Warhol intended, and to appreciate the ways in which he challenged and provoked both subject and viewer in his manipulation of moving images.

This exhibition originated at MoMA as Andy Warhol: Screen Tests (shown at MoMA QNS May 1-September 1, 2003). With the addition of Andy Warhol’s silent films, the show debuted as Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (May 8-August 8, 2004), and was also presented at Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (April 26-June 26, 2005); Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (June 16-August 14, 2005); Malba – Colección Costantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (September 23-November 21, 2005); the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (December 18, 2008-February 9, 2009); and the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague (January 29-April 5, 2009). It is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and MoMA’s Chief Curator at Large.

Andy Warhol. Screen Test: Lucinda Childs (1964). 16mm film (black and white, silent). 4 min. at 16fps. ©2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum.

Andy Warhol. Screen Test: Salvador Dalí (1966). 16mm film (black and white, silent). 4 min. at 16fps. © 2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum.

The Velvet Underground and Nico, Verve, 1967, Cover Design by Andy Warhol, Offset Lithograph, Collage, and Relief Print, 31.1 x 31.1 cm,, Collection Paul Maréchal, Reproduced by Permission Universal Music Group, MMFA, Christine Guest.

Legion of Honor
Lincoln Park
34th Avenue
& Clement Street
415-750-3600
San Francisco
Warhol Live
February 14-May 17, 2009

Over the course of his meteoric career, Andy Warhol used the medium of music to transform himself from fan, to record album designer, to producer, to celebrity night-clubber, to “rock star.” Warhol Live presents the first comprehensive exploration of Andy Warhol’s work as seen through the lens of music.

From 1949, the year he arrived in New York, to 1987, the last year of his life, Warhol illustrated 51 album covers, from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake to Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, and Blondie. The album covers read like a history of postwar American musical tastes, from classical to pop, jazz, soul, rock, disco, and avant-garde genres.  He used music in his films and filmed concerts. He produced music videos and met with musicians, notably for Interview, the magazine he founded in 1969.

This exhibition brings together a wide variety of works depicting pop music royalty, including Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, Liza Minnelli, Grace Jones, Deborah Harry of Blondie, and Michael Jackson.  Major Warhol silkscreen paintings, films and sound recordings, album covers, illustrations, and photographs inspired by music and the performing arts will provide a visual and aural score to Warhol’s extraordinary work and life.  In addition, Warhol Live recreates some of the high points of the relationship between art and music, such as:

• the world of Warhol’s legendary Silver Factory, the glam art loft decorated with silver paint and tin foil, where Warhol and his Superstars partied and produced artwork;
• the multimedia performance spectacle Exploding Plastic Inevitable, staged mostly at clubs and venues in New York City but also including a U.S. tour with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles, featuring film screenings, dancers and performance art set to music by the Velvet Underground;
• the Silver Clouds used by the art director Jasper Johns and the choreographer Merce Cunningham for the dance piece RainForest (1968), with music by David Tudor;
• and the musical ambience of Studio 54 provided by Berkeley-based Meyer Sound Laboratories, a first at the de Young.

A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue titled •Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy Warhol’s Work•, by Paul Maréchal, with essays by prominent scholars and interviews with people that were involved in various stages of Warhol’s life, and the first catalogue raisonné of the record covers designed by Andy Warhol titled •Andy Warhol: The Record Covers 1949-1987•, also by Maréchal, accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by Stéphane Aquin, curator of contemporary art at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Emma Lavigne, curator at the Musée national d’art moderne/CCI, Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Matt Wrbican, archivist at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Greg Pierce, assistant curator at The Andy Warhol Museum, put together the exhibition’s film and video programming. Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art, is the presenting curator at the de Young.   

This exhibition is produced by The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in partnership with The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.  The Supporting Partner is Macy’s.  The San Francisco presentation is sponsored by Jeanne and Sandy Robertson, with additional support from the Ednah Root Foundation. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Martha Graham: Letter to the World (The Kick), 1986, Screenprint on Lenox museum board, 91.5 x 91.5 cm, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Dr. George Sakata, VAG, 91.8.3, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

John Cage and Andy Warhol, 1982, Gelatin Silver Print, the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2001.2.866.

Opera News, December 1, 1958, Cover Design by Warhol, 1958, 25.3 x 17.4 cm,, Collection Paul Maréchal, Courtesy Opera News, MMFA, Christine Guest.

Open Stage at the Dom, 23 St. Mark's Place, New York, featuring Andy Warhol with The Velvet Underground and Nico, Exploding Plastic Inevitable, 1966, Poster, Letterpress on coated poster board, 55.9 x 35.6 cm., The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1998.3.4562.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Grace Jones, 1986, Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, 101.6 x 101.6 cm, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 1998.1.587, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died New York, New York, Victor Hugo, 1982, gelatin silver print, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2008.0173.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died New York, New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1983, Polaroid™ print (Polacolor ER), Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2008.0104-0105.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died New York, New York, Calvin Klein and Brooke Shields, date unknown, gelatin silver print, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2008.0175.

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died New York, New York, Joan Collins, 1985, Polaroid™ print (Polacolor ER), Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2008.0054.

Spencer Museum of Art
The University of Kansas
1301 Mississippi Street
785-864-4710
Lawrence
North Balcony Gallery
Big Shots:
Andy Warhol,
Celebrity Culture,
and the 1980s
August 15-December 13, 2009

Joan Collins and Wayne Gretzky. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Liz Taylor. Chris Lawford and William S. Burroughs. What do these seemingly dissimilar individuals have to do with each other? The answer is simple: They were among the many celebrities whose images were captured by Andy Warhol with either his Big Shot Polaroid or a pocket-sized 35mm camera. And now, those photographs are coming together at the Spencer along with a host of others in a big, bold celebration of Warhol, celebrity, and the 1980s.

Big Shots: Andy Warhol, Celebrity Culture, and the 1980s highlights a recent gift to the Spencer from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., of rarely seen Polaroid and gelatin silver print photographs by Warhol, dating from 1970 to 1986. Presented within the context of the dynamic period of art and cultural production during which they were made, the photographs include “celebrity” portraits shot as black-and-white prints or as unique color Polaroids using the eccentric Big Shot camera that Warhol made famous.

In light of Warhol’s near iconic status and his views on the topic of fame, the exhibition features artists and other celebrities in New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s, looking at the interconnections between The Factory (Warhol’s studio), performance art, the underground music club scene, punk and new wave, and the cult of celebrity.

True to the spirit of this intermingling of art forms and social interactions, the exhibition encompasses a variety of media. There will be photographs, prints, posters, music, and music videos. The exhibition also will include a vintage photobooth to allow visitors to shoot self-portraits and enjoy their own “15 minutes of fame.”

Artists in addition to Warhol include Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, Laurie Anderson, Andres Serrano, Keith Haring, Martha Rosler, Tseng Kwong Chi, Larry Fink, and Bud Lee, among others. Celebrities and culture-producers portrayed include Mick Jagger, Patti Smith, William Burroughs, Joseph Kosuth, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Calvin Klein, Brooke Shields, Iris Love, Victor Hugo, Cherry Vanilla, Carmen d’Alessio, and David Yarritu, among others.

“Photography was central to Warhol’s art and life, an integral part of his art-making and identity construction,” Earle writes in her introduction to the exhibition. “Its significance allowed Warhol (born Andrew Warhola) to become one of the most famous and influential American artists of the 20th century. Photography provided a method through which Warhol could navigate the complex, star-studded social milieu that was his existence. It helped him to be the machine that he said he wanted to be.”

Warhol’s interest in photography began in 1963 with his use of commercial photobooths, to which he would haul any friend or celebrity who was willing to go with him. The photobooth provided a wonderful device for creativity in portraits and self-portraits. With his discovery of Polaroid cameras around 1970, Warhol could create instant pictures in his own studio, a development that greatly facilitated his career as portraitist to the stars. He made famous the large portrait-camera Polaroid, the Big Shot, buying up as many of these as he could during the years that they were made in the early 1970s.

Commencing with lunch with the sitter and others (at which the same meal was always served), Warhol’s elaborate and ritualized Polaroid portrait sessions became the raw material for the commissioned portraits — photo silkscreens on canvas — that furnished his livelihood for many years.

In a further evolution from the photobooth and Big Shot camera, in 1976 Warhol started using a pocket-sized 35mm camera that a friend had given him, and from then on he was hooked, never leaving home without it. This new practice resulted in Warhol’s many offbeat society portraits, examples of which are displayed in this exhibition, taken on the sly at unplanned moments.

“Making photographs also enabled Warhol to produce the very image of celebrityhood that to this day dominates our image pantheon: democratic, deadpan, and glittery all at once,” Earle notes. “Many of the world’s celebrities sought out Warhol for his fame and notoriety, and Warhol in turn went to them for their fame and beauty (and money). His snapshot approach was critical, as was his own ability to straddle the bohemian and celebrity realms.

“Warhol put it this way: ‘A good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person doing something unfamous.’”

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died New York, New York, Chris Lawford and unidentified woman, date unknown, gelatin silver print, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2008.0180.

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait in Drag (Platinum Pageboy Wig), 1981, Polaroid, 10,8 x 8,5 cm, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / ARS, New York.

Andy Warhol, Mao, 1973, Siebdruck auf Acrylfarbe auf Leinwand, 448,3 x 346,1 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Sammlung Marx, Foto: J. Littkemann, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / ARS, New York.

Andy Warhol, Multicolored Marilyn, 1979/86, Siebdruck auf Acrylfarbe auf Leinwand, 60 x 49 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Sammlung Marx, Foto: J. Littkemann, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / ARS, New York.

Ron Gallela, 13. Januar 1985, New York Public Library, New York, Galadinner anlässlich einer Preisverleihung des Council of Fashion Designers of America. Andy Warhol erwartet den Modedesigner James Galanos, der an diesem Abend für sein Lebenswerk ausgezeichnet wurde, Fotografie @ Ron Gallela.

Blick in die Ausstellung, Celebrities. Andy Warhol und die Stars, © Marcus Bahra, Kubix GmbH.

Blick in die Ausstellung, Celebrities. Andy Warhol und die Stars, © Marcus Bahra, Kubix GmbH.

Hamburger Bahnhof
Invalidenstraße 50/51
+49-0-30-3978-3412
Berlin
Der Kult des Künstlers:
Celebrities. Andy Warhol
und die Stars
Werke aus der
Sammlung Marx und Leihgaben
October 3, 2008-
January 11, 2009

Andy Warhol war der erste Künstler, der das mediale System der Stars bis ins Detail analysiert und konsequent in die Kunst übertragen hat. Die Ausstellung belegt dies exemplarisch, ausgehend von Werken der Sammlung Marx und ergänzt durch Leihgaben aus verschiedenen anderen Sammlungen. Im Zentrum stehen Klassiker wie "Elvis“ oder "Cagney“, diverse "Marilyns“ oder "Jackies“, deren Bildwirkung jeweils ganz gezielt medienwirksam angelegt war. Ausgestellt sind deshalb auch einige exemplarische Verweise auf Vorlagen oder Fotos, auf die Warhol zurückgriff. Denn der Künstler wählte die jeweiligen Ausschnitte und Motive bewußt aus einem großen Fundus von selbst gesammelten Star- und Publicity-Bilder zurück, die er seit seiner Jugend aus Begeisterung für die Glamourwelt des Films aufbewahrte. Darüber hinaus ist der in der "factory“ entstandene Film Poor little rich girl (1965) mit dem von Warhol kreierten Superstar Edie Sedgewick, der die Traumfabrik Hollywood mit dem jüngst erschienen Kinofilm Factory Girl (2008) gewissermaßen ein Denkmal gesetzt hat.

Es werden zahlreiche Original-Ausgaben der Zeitschrift Interview gezeigt, mit der Warhol eine Auftrittsplattform für die prominenten Menschen der Gesellschaft schuf und ein Beispiel der legendären Fernsehsendung "Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes“, die allein im Titel das schon damals bekannte Credo des Künstlers wieder aufgriff: "In Zukunft wird jeder für 15 Minuten berühmt sein".

Warhols Umgang mit den so besonderen Künstlerfiguren wie Joseph Beuys oder Max Bill oder auch die Bildfassungen von einflussreichen Sammlern ergänzen diese Perspektive auf die Starsystem von Andy Warhol und gipfeln am Ende der Ausstellung in einem zugespitzten Blick auf die Mythisierung von Politik: auf Andy Warhols leuchtenden und monumentalen Ewigkeitsbilder von den großen Kommunisten Mao und Lenin.

Die ungemeine Bekanntheit der Kunst von Andy Warhol geht auf die enorme Verbreitung der Ästhetik seiner Bilder zurück, die sich inzwischen auf Gegenständen aller Art wieder finden: auf T-Shirts, Tassen, Tisch- Sets, selbst auf Spielzeug, Möbeln ebenso wie auf Snowboards. Diesen Brückenschlag der Kunst in die Welt des Konsums wird in der Ausstellung im Shop dokumentiert, u.a. mit hochwertigen Modeprodukten der Firma Pepe Jeans, die im großen Stil Bildrechte von Warhol für ihre Kollektion erworben haben. Die Ausstellung verweist damit auf die enge Verflechtung von Werk und Wirkung, von Starbewunderung und Starvermarktung. Warhols Bilder entstanden schließlich ganz aus dem massenmedialen Angebot und wurden ihrerseits so angelegt, dass sie selbst wieder rasch Eingang in dieses System finden: Jeder kann selbst einen "Warhol“ selbst besitzen, mit dessen Erwerb man wiederum selbst zum Kult des Künstlers beiträgt.

Wer in den1970er Jahren Ambitionen hatte, in die gesellschaftliche Oberschicht aufzusteigen, konnte sich von Andy Warhol helfen lassen. Für 25000 Dollar fertigte der berühmte Pop Art-Künstler ein Porträt mit dem unvergleichbar hohen Wiedererkennungswert von jedem,der diesen Preis bezahlen konnte. Dabei diente das Bildnis vor allem einem Zweck: der Nobilitierung des Dargestellten. Durch die Hand des Künstlers avancierte das Bild zu einem verbindlichen Statussymbol, für das der internationale Jetset Schlange stand. Wer also von Warhol ein Porträt kaufte, erwarb nicht nur ein Konterfei seiner selbst,sondern reihte sich ein in eine Schönheitengalerie der Celebrities. Der "Hofmaler der 70er", wie ihn der amerikanische Kunsthistoriker Robert Rosenblum titulierte, begann bereits in den 60er Jahren mit der Produktion seiner unverwechselbaren und weltweit bekannten in Siebdruck ausgeführten Porträts, die noch heute im allgemeinen Bildgedächtnis nicht nur sehr präsent sind,sondern zweifellos auch großen Anteil an Ruhm und Bekanntheit der Größen — nicht nur aus dem Musik — und Filmgeschäft — haben.

Eine Galerie der Prominenz
Bis zu seinem Tod im Jahr 1987 entstand eine Vielzahl von Porträts, deren Gesamtheit jedoch nur einen ganz bestimmten Teil der Gesellschaft abbildet: Künstler, Musiker, Schauspieler, Sportler, Adlige, Politiker, Intellektuelle, Schriftsteller, Kunstsammler wie auch Stars der Geschichte, so der Preußische König Friedrich II oder die von Leonardo unsterblich gemachte Lisa del Giocondo, besser bekannt unter dem Namen Mona Lisa. Maßgeblich bei der Auswahl seiner Modelle – abgesehen von denen, die sich in das Atelier des Künstlers einkauften — war für Warhol nicht etwa das große Verdienst des Dargestellten, sondern dessen Bekanntheit. Die Mona Lisa ist für Warhol nicht berühmt,weil sie großartig ist, sondern sie ist großartig, weil sie berühmt ist. So finden sich in Warhols Werk vor allem Bildnisse der Super-Celebrities. Aus der Musikszene sind es Künstler, die eine weltweite Welle der Euphorie ausgelöst haben,wie Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger oder John Lennon. Schauspielerinnen wie Marilyn Monroe oder Elizabeth Taylor verkörperten Sinnlichkeit und waren Schönheitsideale für eine ganze Generation. Aber auch die Prominenz,die nicht durch schillernde Bühnenauftritte im Rampenlicht stand,wurde von Warhol porträtiert. Staatsmänner wie Mao oder Lenin waren mächtig und gelten als politische Erneuerer ihrer Zeit. Auch intellektuelle Größen wie Herman Hesse fanden Eingang in den Kanon der WarholBerühmtheiten. Goethes weltbekanntes Porträt in der Campagna von Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein benutzte Warhol, um daraus eines seiner unverwechselbaren Siebdruckgemälde zu schaffen. Persönlichkeiten aus der ihm nahe stehenden Kunstszene sind freilich besonders gut in seinem Œuvre repräsentiert. Joseph Beuys, der mit seinem "erweiterten Kunstbegriff" für ein Umdenken im Kunstverständnis steht, wurde von Warhol in verschiedenen Werken abgebildet.

Bei dem größten Teil seiner Porträtarbeiten hat Warhol zunächst auf bestehendes Bildmaterial — wie etwa Pressefotos oder Standbilder aus Filmen — zurückgegriffen. In einem weiteren Schritt reduzierte er die vorgegebene Bildstruktur auf ihre Grundform, die durch die von Warhol verwandte Technik des Siebdrucks mit der Ausformung starker Kontraste noch verstärkt wurde. Es ging ihm nicht um eine sorgfältige Wiedergabe des Modells,sondern um die Weiterverarbeitung des Bildnisses einer populären Person, das allgemein bekannt ist und unmittelbar wiedererkannt wird. Dabei ist es egal, ob es sich um Mona Lisa oder Mao handelt. Warhols Siebdrucke werden somit nicht als Darstellungen der verschiedenen Berühmtheiten selbst, sondern als Reproduktionen derselben erfahren, die bereits ein bestimmtes Starbild transportierten.

Die Legende lebt
Dass Warhol nach wie vor sehr gegenwärtig im allgemeinen Gedächtnis ist und viele Menschen seinen Namen mit dem Begriff "Kult" in Verbindung bringen, ist in der Hauptsache durch seine nicht abbrechende Präsenz zu erklären. Nicht nur seine Starporträts, sondern auch andere Bildmotive wie die "Campbell’s Soup", die "Car Crash"-Bilder oder der "electric chair" sind auch jüngeren Generationen vertraut. Kaum ein anderer Künstler wird auf vergleichbare Weise weltweit durch eine nicht enden wollende Kette von Ausstellungen geehrt,und es vergeht wohl kaum ein Monat, in dem nicht ein Ausschnitt aus Warhols Werk der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht wird. Zahlreiche Internetseiten widmen sich dem Künstler exklusiv und gestehen ihm viel Raum zu. Das Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh öffnet mit seiner umfangreichen Sammlung nicht nur der interessierten Öffentlichkeit die Türen, sondern bietet mit seinem umfangreichen Archiv auch die Möglichkeit für wissenschaftliche Studien.

Darüber hinaus wird der Kultstatus Warhols in großem Stilvermarktet: In Online-Stores, Museumsshops, aber auch Kaufhäusern und Ladengeschäften werden Objekte aller Art mit Motiven des populären Künstlers angeboten. Die von Warhol entwickelte Bildsprache ist noch heute allgegenwärtig. Nicht nur Künstler rezipieren das Werk Warhols; insbesondere Werbegraphiker und Produktgestalter beziehen sich gerne und häufig auf den Pop Art-Künstler. Subtil wird durch die Anlehnung an Warhols Bildästhetik der Kultstatus transportiert und kommerziell nutzbar gemacht.

Warhol, der Liebling des Jetsets – ein manipuliertes Selbstbild
Warhol gilt in der Öffentlichkeit als unnahbarer und nicht greifbarer Sonderling. Er selbst beförderte ganz bewusst eben dieses Bild sowie die Stilisierung seiner Persönlichkeit zu einem realitätsentrückten Star. In Interviews gab er sich zumeist unverbindlich und widersprüchlich, oft kehrte er das Verhältnis von Fragendem und Befragtem um. Auch seine äußere Erscheinung, der oft weltentrückte Blick und die weißen Haare,vermittelten den Eindruck eines Egozentrikers. Aber gerade das machte ihn für denJetset so interessant,und wahrscheinlich ist dies auch seinem Geschäft sehr zuträglich gewesen. Dem Star Warhol haftet eine göttliche Aura an. Dieser Künstlerstatus ist indes kein Novum in der Kunstgeschichte. So wie Andy Warhol zum gefragtestenPorträtisten von Geldadel und Prominenz avancierte, galt im17. Jahrhundert der flämische Maler Anthonis van Dyck alsmeistverehrter Bildnismaler des europäischen Adels. Beide Künstler verbindet ein ausgesprochen glamouröser Lebensstil. Warhol jedoch inszenierte sein Bild in der Öffentlichkeit. Er verfolgte eine Strategie der Dissimulation, der absichtlichen Verheimlichung von bestimmten Besonderheiten seiner Person, die seiner konstruierten Reputation entgegenstanden, sich möglicherweise sogar schädigend auf sein Geschäft ausgewirkt hätten. Anders als Stars, die lediglich zum Schutz ihrer Privatsphäre nur wenig aus ihrem Leben preisgeben, hat Warhol ein zweites, anderes Leben gelebt. So wurde nach seinem Tod bekannt, dass Warhol sich über Jahre an verschiedenen Feiertagen regelmäßig zum Dienst an den Armen eingefunden hatte. Die Öffentlichkeit nahm die Nachricht über diese aktive Form der Barmherzigkeit und Hilfsbereitschaft des vermeintlich teilnahmslosen Superstars mit Verwunderung zur Kenntnis. Ähnlich wie die Manipulation seiner eigenen Person, wurde auch der Umgang mit der Kunst und das Bild der sogenannten "factory" verklärt. Kein Werk passierte die Schwelle des Betriebs ohne die ausdrückliche Genehmigung des Meisters. Die Bezeichnung "factory" suggeriert indes ein falsches Bild, denn vielmehr als einer Fabrik ähnelte sie dem Atelier eines Leonardo oder Rubens. Gegen Plagiatsversuche seiner Werke, die er öffentlich belächelte und als unbedeutend abtat, ging Warhol de facto beharrlich und mit juristischen Mitteln vor, um sich vor finanziellem Schaden zu schützen und die Grenzen des Korpus’ seiner Werke nicht zu verwischen.

Ende der 40er Jahre hatte Warhol am Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh studiert und einen Abschluss in Design und Malerei gemacht. In der darauf folgenden Dekade arbeitete er vor allem als Werbegraphiker. Zu dieser Zeit entstanden Zeichnungen und Graphiken,die viel weniger bekannt sind als seine Gemälde. Doch auch in den intimen und feinen Arbeiten des Frühwerks lässt sich bereits eine Entwicklung hin zu dem in den späteren Bildern umgesetzten Starprinzip ablesen. Die Ausstellung spannt einen Bogen vom frühen graphischen Werk über malerische Arbeiten aus den 60er Jahren bis hin zu Bildern, die kurz vor Warhols Tod im Jahr1987entstanden sind. In seinem künstlerischen Schaffen war
Warhol nicht nur auf eine Ausdrucksform festgelegt. So erhält der Besucher auch Einblick in das filmische Werk des Künstlers, seine Tätigkeit beim Fernsehen und seine Arbeit als Herausgeber der Zeitschrift "Interview". Integrativer Bestandteil der Ausstellung ist ein Shop, in dem der Besucher die vielfältige und bunte Welt der Kommerzialisierung warholscher Bilderfindungen bestaunen und Beispiele daraus erwerben kann.

— Ulf Sölter

Kuratoren: Dr. Joachim Jäger, Dr. Anette Hüsch.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1967, Siebdruck, 91,4 x 91,4 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstich-kabinett. Foto: Jörg P. Anders, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / ARS, New York

Andy Warhol, Blow Job, 1964, 16mm film, zwart-wit, zonder geluid, 41 minuten, 16 frames per seconde, Collectie © 2007 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.

Andy Warhol, Kitchen, 1965, 16mm zwart-wit film, met geluid, duur 66 minuten/16mm film, black & white, sound, 66 minutes, © 2007 Collectie/collection The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.

Andy Warhol, Screen Test: Allen Ginsberg, 1966, 16mm zwart-wit film, zonder geluid, duur 4 minuten, 16 frames per seconde/16mm film, black & white, silent, 4 minutes at 16 frames per second, © 2007 Collectie/collection The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.

Andy Warhol, Poor Little Rich Girl, Detail, 1965, 16mm zwart-wit film, met geluid, duur 66 minuten/16mm film, black & white, sound, 66 minutes, © 2007 Collectie/collection The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.

Moderna Museet
Skeppsholmen
Stockholm
+46 8 5195 5200
Andy Warhol,
Other Voices, Other Rooms
February 9-May 4, 2008

Other Voices, Other Rooms sheds new light on the oeuvre of the celebrated Pop Art master. With film, photography, video and famous icons ranging from Marilyn Monroe, Mao and Campbell Soup Cans, Andy Warhol — Other Voices, Other Rooms is a window onto the artistic thinking of this trendsetting artist, revealing the "conceptual soul" of his work.

In his art, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) merged the public with the personal and glamour and stardom with everyday life. He also predicted that everyone would have their fifteen minutes of fame, virtually predicting the coming of Idols and YouTube. With 27 films, rarely screened video tapes and audio recordings of Warhol himself, and extraordinary archive material, this exhibition zooms in on the focus of Warhol’s work: voyeurism, the mundane, the individual and the eradication of distinctions between high and low culture.

Warhol did not recognise any hierarchy between materials and methods. The polaroids, paintings, wallpaper patterns, time capsule, sound recordings and TV episodes featured in this exhibition, were all of the same worth, and the boundary between art and business was blurred. The stylistically seminal TV serials Fashion and Andy Warhol’s TV were broadcast by local TV stations in New York. They were unconventional features on stars such as Bianca Jagger, Keith Haring and Steven Spielberg. Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, an early MTV production, was hosted by Debbie Harry.

The heart of the exhibition is the Warhol Cosmos, which highlights the master’s thinking and way of working. In addition to famous icons, the Factory Diaries, in which Warhol captured his life in the sixties, seventies and eighties with an imperturbable eye for detail, and objects from the Time Capsules play a significant role. Once again, drawings, photos and rare archive material are presented alongside audio fragments of luminaries such as Edie Sedgwick, Mick Jagger and Man Ray.

The final section of the exhibition synchronously presents all the material that Warhol produced for television — which was the latest medium in his lifetime. Now, he projects his voyeurism onto everyone, stars and ordinary people alike, in the medium that seemed best suited to the job. Just as he did in his magazine Interview Warhol also had a keen eye for detail and trivia, with which he exercised a specific influence on the development of both media. In this section, the museum created The Studio Room, where visitors can take a Factory-like screen test.

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait in Drag, 1980, Polaroid, transfer print, 10.8 x 8.6 cm, Collectie/collection The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, © 2007 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Andy Warhol, Haircut No. 1, 1963, 16mm film, zwart-wit, zonder geluid, 27 minuten, 16 frames per seconde, Collectie © 2007 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.

Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Suzie Frankfurt (American, 1931–2005), Wild Raspberries, New York, 1959, Bound artists' book with 40 page and 18 plates, Kitho offset and hand-coloring with tissue overlays, Gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946, © 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), My Shoe is Your Shoe (from "A la recherche due shoe perdue" with poems by Ralph Pomeroy), 1955, Hand colored off-set lithograph, Gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946, © 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.