Het was alweer veel te lang geleden dat ik in het Art Institute van Chicago was en toen ik dan ook zag dat er een Andy Warhol overzichtstentoonstelling was, kon ik een nieuw bezoek natuurlijk niet langer uitstellen. Bovendien is er, al in 2009, een nieuwe Modern Art vleugel aangebouwd door architect Renzo Piano, dus die kon ik ook meteen bekijken. Deze post gaat echter alleen over Warhol en in een volgende post komt die ‘nieuwe’ vleugel met inhoud aan bod.

Deze Warhol tentoonstelling ‘From A to B and Back Again’, is de eerste retrospectieve in 30 jaar en was eerder te zien in New York en San Francisco en sluit nu af in Chicago. Het beslaat zijn hele oeuvre van 1948 tot 1985. Warhol overleed in 1987 op 58 jarige leeftijd. Het zijn zo’n 400 werken, van relatief onbekend tot de beroemde ‘Shot Orange Marilyn’ uit 1964.

Voor directe info van het Art Institute Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/2937/andy-warhol-from-a-to-b-and-back-again

Andy Warhol (/ˈwɔːrhɒl/;[1] born Andrew Warhola; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American artist, director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Warhol initially pursued a successful career as a commercial illustrator. After exhibiting his work in several galleries in the late 1950s, he began to receive recognition as an influential and controversial artist. His New York studio, The Factory, became a well-known gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons.[2][3][4] He promoted a collection of personalities known as Warhol superstars, and is credited with inspiring the widely used expression “15 minutes of fame.” In the late 1960s, he managed and produced the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founded Interview magazine. He authored numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties. He lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement. After gallbladder surgery, Warhol died of cardiac arrhythmia in February 1987 at the age of 58.
Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city of Pittsburgh, which holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist. Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$105 million for a 1963 canvas titled Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster); his works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold.[5] A 2009 article in The Economist described Warhol as the “bellwether of the art market”.[6]  Bron: Wikipedia.