The Exhibition Premise

Glamour, drama and color are the most commonly used words in describing Andy Warhol’s works.Holding the title“Pope of Pop”, Warhol exposes our continued fascination with celebrity and popular culture. “Andy Warhol: Portraits” gives viewers  a chance to experience Warhol’s pop iconography. The exhibition will be open from March 13, 2016 to June 19, 2016 at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. It is the Crocker’s first and only Warhol show, with most of the collection on loan from The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.  The show features 168 works of art, including silkscreen paintings, photographs and personal memorabilia from between the 1950s and the 1980s. As the name suggests, the exhibition centers around Warhol’s portraiture. Warhol’s Duchmapian and conceptual approach to art influences many artists today such as Jeff Koons, Jean Michel Basquiat and Ai Weiwei.

Warhol’s Famous Faces

Andy Warhol: Portraits will include self-portraits alongside those of Yves-Saint Laurent, Jane Fonda, Sylvester Stalone and Judy Garland. According to Diana L. Daniels, Crocker’s curator of contemporary art, “He grew up in an era that fostered this cult of personality,” and “Portraits used to be rare. They used to be something only the wealthy had. Then after the war, people’s faces were everywhere.”  To be portrayed by Warhol was a sign of status, a tribute to what Warhol termed “15 minutes of fame”.  However, the exhibition refrains from exclusively showing the posed images of wealth and fame. Alongside these portraits are also candid Polaroid portraits Warhol took from his studio, The Factory. In addition, there are moving portraits from media images, such as that of Jacqueline Kennedy before and after her husband’s assassination.

Exhibition Programs

The exhibition also includes an interactive feature titled Screen Test which lets visitors create their own Warhol portraits.  On April 2nd, 2016, the Cocker will also host Symposium: The Art of Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei ( https://www.crockerartmuseum.org/calendar-event/637 ) . The talk will bring together the two major artists and allow further engagement with the works on display at the museum.

More information on Crocker Museum’s Screen Test

View News Coverage by KCRA3 of the exhibition