EXHIBIT OVERVIEW

Andy Warhol was one of the most influential and iconic artists of the 20th century. His major works are instantly recognizable: The MTV astronaut logo, Campbell’s Soup Cans, and especially his Pop Art portraits of celebrities from Elvis to Jacqueline Kennedy.

Warhol challenged traditional ideas about art by mechanically repeating a single image, mimicking the manufacturing industry and parodying mass consumption. As his work gained recognition, he also began to manufacture his own image.

Andy Warhol: Manufactured is a 5,000-square-foot exhibition that employs Warhol’s photographs, silkscreens and films to comment on manufactured objects and lives.

This is the state’s first Andy Warhol exhibition.

Warhol’s artistic premise is that the ordinary can be considered art, and the ordinary is usually a manufactured object. From soup cans to portraits of movie stars, all are constructs of a commercial world. Warhol even manufactured his own persona.

The father of Pop Art was not a social critic of America: He was not counseling against consumerism. He was a keen observer, and he chose to paint objects that define culture on the most basic level.

This exhibition of nearly 90 Warhol originals includes his portraits of Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy and Judy Garland; several selections from the Campbell’s Soup series; and his 25-feet-wide, hot pink The Last Supper.

Manufactured also features less-exhibited works, such as early drawings, and a wealth of self-portraits, including a series of Polaroids of Warhol in drag. Screens will play selections from Warhol’s Screen Tests film series that feature Dennis Hopper, Edie Sedgwick, Bob Dylan and Nico.

The exhibition has many interactive features, including a station where visitors can photograph themselves in 1960s fashion, hands-on art activities for children, and a reading area stocked with children’s books illustrated by Warhol.

To create this new exhibition, the Anchorage Museum and Anchorage curator Julie Decker collaborated with The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and private collectors internationally.