“Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again,” which opens next week at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is the artist’s first American retrospective in three decades. Casting a fresh new light on the most famous artist of our time is no small feat.
Since his death in 1987, Warhol mania has permeated the public consciousness and his work has been the subject of hundreds of international exhibitions. What more is there to say? Donna De Salvo, the museum’s deputy director for international initiatives and senior curator, was determined to turn that around. De Salvo’s personal relationship with Warhol in the mid 1980s is key to the show’s success. (She organized two exhibitions of his work at the Dia Art Foundation in New York.) “I became fascinated with the personal side of Warhol,” De Salvo tells Galerie. “And how he was a relentless experimenter.”
Recommended: Jeff Koons Retrospective Is Coming to the World’s Oldest Public Museum
Here, we share some highlights.
The show begins in earnest on the fifth floor with a selection of his Pop classics: a stack of Brillo Box sculptures, his iconic 1962 painting of Campbell’s soup cans, the green Coca-Cola bottles, and a monumental camouflage painting. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1964, in front of Cow Wallpaper, 1966. Stefanie Li, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Other highlights include the deep dive into his lesser-seen work made in the 1950s after he moved from Pittsburgh to New York and was freelancing as a commercial illustrator. His delicate and whimsical draftsman is on full display, revealing the intimate musings of the man before he became a legend and where the obsession with pop culture and advertising came from. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Installation view of “Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Andy Warhol, Skull, 1976. Stefanie Li, Collection of Larry Gagosian. © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans, 1962. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Installation view of “Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Installation view of “Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Andy Warhol’s “Most Wanted Men” series from 1964. Stefanie Li , © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Warhol’s Sunset prints (left), from 1972, were commissioned by Philip Johnson for a Minneapolis hotel; Mao, 1972. Stefanie Li
The final gallery ends on an almost celestial high with Warhol’s abstract “Rorschach” paintings: a monumental white silk-screen painting of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper and his multilayered Sixty-Three White Mona Lisas, which softly flickers in and out of viewpoint as you walk along. Stefanie Li, © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
