Warhol's art is inseparable from photography. One of the pioneers of the Pop art movement of the 1960s, Warhol initially appropriated photographic images from advertising and photojournalism as the starting point for his celebrated silkscreen paintings. Later, his own photographs captured the faces of the rich and famous, the glittering New York disco scene, and glimpses of his world travels. The camera became his constant companion, serving as a combination sketchbook and diary. At the time of his death in 1987, Warhol left behind an archive of more than 60,000 snapshots and Polaroids.

Andy Warhol: Photography is the first major exhibition to explore the full extent of Warhol's engagement with photography. Assembling an extraordinary range of the artist's camera-based work, the exhibition includes photographs that Warhol used as source material for his paintings, examples of his photobooth and Polaroid portraits, and his stitched photographs. To illuminate the intimate relationship between photography and Warhol's work in other media, key examples of the artist's paintings, prints and films are on hand.

In addition, the exhibition presents continuous screenings of the 1963 Warhol films Sleep and Kiss, as well as examples of his portrait-like Screen Tests of the mid-1960s featuring Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, and Susan Sontag. Finally, an extensive group of photographs by figures such as Richard Avedon, Stephen Shore, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Christopher Makos documents Warhol's life and the activities at his famous studio, the Factory.

This exhibition is sponsored by:

For the works of Andy Warhol:
© 1999 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© 1999 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA

 

Andy Warhol: Photography was organized by the Hamburg Kunsthalle, Germany, in association with the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York. The exhibition was curated by Christoph Heinrich, the Hamburg Kunsthalle's curator of contemporary art; the New York showing was organized by Brian Wallis and Christopher Phillips and coordinated by ICP assistant curator Cynthia Fredette and curatorial assistant Vanessa Rocco. The exhibition design at ICP was created by Julie Ault and Martin Beck.