Andy Warhol: The Early Sixties

Andy Warhol: The Early Sixties

Kunstmuseum Basel

Andy Warhol, “Liz #1 [Early Colored Liz],” 1963
Private Collection
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / 2010, ProLitteris, Zurich

September 3, 2010

Andy Warhol
The Early Sixties
Paintings and Drawings 1961–1964

5 September 2010 – 23 January 2011

Kunstmuseum Basel
St. Alban-Graben 16
CH-4010 Basel
Switzerland

www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch

In the early 1960s, after a successful career as a commercial artist, Andy Warhol decided to devote himself to the fine arts. Even so, consumerism and the media-oriented nature of mass production continued to be the main thrust of his work. The exhibition highlights the artist’s seminal years from 1961 to 1964. It was then that Warhol made the transition, step by step, from an individual visual idiom to mediatized, collective visual material and, along with it, to mechanized production. In consequence, he called into question the very foundations of artistic categories in the age of modernism.

The exhibition is the first ever to explicitly address this transitional period in Warhol’s œuvre, demonstrated, for example, by the fact that in 1962 Warhol painted more than one variation on the same picture. One version may show traces of the gestural and expressive painting process while another – though still painted by hand – already shows the diagrammatic reduction and coolness of his later work. In selected groups of work, viewers can study his approach to silkscreening on a monochromatic ground. Paintings or drawings of Campbell´s Soup Cans and Dollar Bills are especially indicative of the scope of his work from the gestural beginnings to repetitive series of prints. The exhibition culminates in the famous Star series of Elvis and Liz, a gallery of Death & Disaster and the first Flowers series of 1964. Some 70 paintings and drawings will be on view, including major works from the holdings of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Kupferstichkabinett.

Kunstmuseum Basel

Advertisement
RSVP
RSVP for Andy Warhol: The Early Sixties
Kunstmuseum Basel
September 3, 2010

Thank you for your RSVP.

Kunstmuseum Basel will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.