Andy Warhol Museum
We didn’t have much time in Pittsburgh - just one night - but we did manage to arrive there in time to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. Interestingly, it’s the largest collection of Andy Warhol’s artwork, films, and archives in the world, and it’s the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist.
We started at the top (seventh) floor and worked our way down. Each floor focused on a particular period in Warhol’s life. We could see the evolution of his work through the decades: his formative years as a student in Pittsburgh in the 1940’s; his successful career as a commercial illustrator in New York City in the 1950’s; and his rapid ascent to world fame as a celebrity pop artist in the 1960’s. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, he continued to be a prolific artist, filmmaker, music producer, and entrepreneur. And he collaborated with young artists, notably Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring (another of my favorite pop artists).
As I looked through my photos from the museum, I realized I hadn’t photographed any of Warhol’s iconic screen-printed Campbell‘s Soup cans and colorful celebrity portraits. Those images are familiar to most people, but they are just a small part of his artistic legacy. Some may be tempted to dismiss Warhol’s work as attention-seeking shock factor. For me, Warhol was a talented artist and visionary who was constantly curious about the intersections between art, advertising, media, and celebrity culture. He was an influencer long before social media was invented. I like his way of poking fun at “serious” art and his childish delight in anything new - new artists, new technologies, new fashion. I think he would have adored social media. It’s fun to imagine what he might have created today.
