To Russia, With Andy
Title: Andy Warhol working in the Factory, ca. 1964
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Photograph: Billy Name
Image Courtesy: The Andy Warhol Museum
Andy Warhol: Artist of Modern Life
Multi-City Russian Tour
Opens September 2005
Thanks to the Warhol, and their friends at Alcoa, a large collection of Andy Warhol's creative genius
is on its way to Russia. “This exhibition includes more than 300 paintings, drawings,
photographs, films and archival materials from the Museum’s
permanent collection, as well as educational components and a
catalog created specifically for Russian audiences,” said Thomas Sokolowski, Director of The Warhol. “A previous exhibition of Warhol
in Russia provided merely a soupçon of Warhol’s vast body of work.
This new exhibition offers a more comprehensive and multi-faceted
look at Warhol’s artistic career.”
The catalyst for the sponsorship of the exhibit was Alcoa’s
acquisition of two Russian fabricating plants in Samara and Belaya Kalitva, Russia, earlier this year.
“Alcoa Foundation and Alcoa are proud to sponsor this exhibition, to
bring masterpieces and archival riches of The Andy Warhol Museum to
the people of Russia,” said Alcoa Chairman and CEO Alain Belda. “We
have a proud tradition of supporting Russian art - from 1977 when
Alcoa Foundation served as the chief sponsor of Russia and Soviet
Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to our support of this
fall’s exhibition, RUSSIA!, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
This exhibition by The Warhol celebrates Alcoa's presence in Russia, and it continues our tradition of support.”
There are three themes in the exhibit, The Scene, Portraiture and Still-Life.
The Scene
Andy Warhol: Artist of Modern Life opens with a chronological overview of
his career specific to the forty years of his artistic endeavors.
This section includes archival photographs and artworks from Warhol’s working-class Pittsburgh youth
and continues with his early success as a commercial artist in 1950s New York. Warhol’s famous “Silver Factory” of the
1960s as a focus for artistic production is examined along
with the beginnings of
Interview and Warhol’s
collaborations with younger artists, including Julian Schnabel.
Portraiture
Title: Mick Jagger, 1975
Artist: Andy Warhol (American 1928-1987)
Medium: Acrylic and Silkscreen Ink on Canvas
Image Courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum
©AWF
Warhol had a career-long interest in portraiture. Some of
the works featured in this portion are Double Elvis (1963),
Ladies and Gentlemen (1975) and Mick Jagger. There
will be an explanation of Warhol’s silk screening process utilizing
Marilyn Monroe print and paintings series. It is here the visitor
will enjoy an introduction to Warhol’s filmmaking through his 4-minute film portraits,
known as Screen Tests.
Still-life
How did Warhol extend the art historical tradition of still-life painting to reflect his unique vision? That question
is explored in this portion of the exhibit. Included are Warhol’s Campbell’s soup paintings and prints,
Coca-Cola paintings, Flowers, still-life drawings from the 1950s, and brand and logo work from the 1980s.
Warhol’s important early films, Sleep (1963), Eat (1964), and
Poor Little Rich Girl (1965) including excerpts from a popular 2004
exhibition at The Warhol that explores Warhol’s fascination with
the telephone are an important part of this exhibit.
Title: Princess Caroline of Monaco, 1983
Artist: Andy Warhol (American 1928-1987)
Medium: Acrylic and Silkscreen Ink on Canvas
Image Courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum
©AWF
The exhibit schedule is as follows. It begins at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow on September 13
through November 13, 2005. It then travels to The Ludwig Museum at the State Russian Museum in
St. Petersburg with the opening planned for mid-December. The exhibit concludes
at the Samara Art Museum in Samara in spring 2006
Andy Warhol: Artist of Modern Life is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Alcoa Foundation and Alcoa.
This exhibition is organized by The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
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