Warhol Legacy

Washington, D.C. – As one of the most influential and iconic artists of the 20th century, Andy Warhol challenged many basic cultural assumptions, including traditional distinctions between popular culture and fine art, prints and paintings, and art and social reportage. Warhol Legacy: Selections from The Andy Warhol Museum features more than 150 paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures, works on paper and films from the renowned permanent collection of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The exhibition, a collaboration between the Corcoran Gallery of Art and The Andy Warhol Museum, offers Washington audiences a rare opportunity to view some of The Andy Warhol Museum’s most treasured works of art. Through the generous support of The PNC Financial Services Group, a leader of corporate philanthropy for the arts, the Corcoran will be the exclusive venue for this major presentation, on view from September 24, 2005 through February 20, 2006.

“Most of us are very familiar with Warhol’s famous images of Campbell’s soup cans, Marilyn Monroe and the like – many of which are part of this exhibition. But Warhol Legacy offers Corcoran visitors a chance to discover aspects of Warhol’s career with which they may not be familiar,” said Stacey Schmidt, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Corcoran. “In coordination with The Andy Warhol Museum, we’ve selected pieces that reflect Warhol’s background as a talented commercial artist, examples of his achievements as a great draftsman and others that document his obsession with celebrities, wealth and death.”

Exhibition highlights include many famous works including a large number of drawings that span Warhol’s career from the early 1950s to the mid 1980s. His celebrated screenprints of Campbell’s soup cans will be on view along with celebrity portraits of Liz Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. An entire gallery will feature Mao Zedong portraits, Mao wallpaper and Warhol’s personal memorabilia of this famous political leader.

The exhibition explores a number of the subjects and themes that inspired and consumed Warhol throughout his life. Warhol Legacy is organized thematically to reflect the range of the artist’s production over the span of his career, mining the strengths of The Andy Warhol Museum’s diverse collection. Prominent themes include: Celebrity and Self-portraits; Abstractions; Death and Disaster; Guns, Knives, Dollar Signs and Crosses; Mao; and Early Hand-Painted Advertisements. A selection of Warhol’s screen test films will also be shown in the galleries.

“Andy Warhol has been a household name for more than 40 years. However, even though scores of exhibitions and publications have been produced in these four decades, the Corcoran’s exhibition will help deepen knowledge of this world-famous artist by incorporating The Warhol’s unique archival collection, proving that there is still more to be learned about the ‘Boy from Pittsburgh who made good,’” said Tom Sokolowski, Director of The Andy Warhol Museum.

“Historically, the Corcoran family worked closely with Riggs Bank, now PNC Financial Services, to support both the banking and arts community of our nation’s capital. PNC’s sponsorship of Warhol Legacy is a wonderful continuation of this tradition,” said Michael Harreld, President, PNC Bank – Greater Washington Area.

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Warhol Legacy: Selections from The Andy Warhol Museum
Andy Warhol