Andy Warhol

Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series

Organized by
Grand Rapids Art Museum
in cooperation with The Andy Warhol Museum

Made possible by lead donors:
Wege Foundation
Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation
James and Mary Nelson
Miner S. and Mary Ann Keeler - The Keeler Foundation
 

March 14 – June 15, 2008

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. As a painter, printmaker, and filmmaker, his work and his public persona are forever linked to Pop art, which dominated American culture in the 1960s.

Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series presents a chronological overview of the artist’s celebrated silkscreen prints, focusing on the classic and monumental portfolios that include Marilyn Monroe (1967), Campbell’s Soup II (1969), Flash—November 22, 1963 (1968), Flowers (1970), Electric Chair (1971), Mao (1972), and Endangered Species (1983). In the realm of the modern print, Warhol’s innovative use of screenprinting established him as one of the most important printmakers of his time.

Rapid Exposure investigates in depth the repeated image that is central to Warhol’s aesthetic. Warhol took his photographic subjects from the mass media, combining them with the technical processes of the commercial world. In prints and paintings, he established his photographic subject with silkscreen inks on paper or canvas. He completed the prints with additional color inks, the paintings with acrylic media. In the series, the same photographic image is repeated in variations of brilliant color that alter and comment on the subject. For Warhol, the reproduced image reflected and shaped contemporary American life. In his explorations of celebrity, politics, and the transience of life, Warhol’s art can be read from both social and philosophical perspectives. In all cases, Warhol is deeply American. His art powerfully captured the increasing velocity of American life in the last half of the twentieth century.

media sponsor