Andy Warhol: Pop Politics
September 27, 2008 – January 4, 2009
150 Ash Street
Manchester, NH 03104
Andy Warhol—one of the most influential American artists of the twentieth century—captured the likeness of some of the most visionary and powerful political leaders of the 20th century. Images of John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mao Zedong, among others will hang side-by-side when the Currier Museum of Art presents Andy Warhol: Pop Politics from September 27, 2008 through January 4, 2009.
Pop Politics displays together for the first time more than sixty of Warhol’s paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs of political figures. His portraits of American presidents and presidential candidates, queens, Communist dictators, and other political figures reveal intriguing, yet until now unexplored insights into Warhol’s own celebrity status and political leanings. Warhol’s images of these powerful personalities comment on the interrelationships between politics and celebrity culture in the late twentieth century—connections that remain ever present today. Timed to coincide with the 2008 presidential election, this exhibition offers a probing and entertaining look through the eyes of America’s most famous Pop artist at the leaders who shaped the twentieth century.
The exhibition highlights Warhol’s fascination with America’s “royal family”—the Kennedys—through his images of President John F. and Jackie Kennedy and Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy. Struck by the media coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination, Warhol created a series of works based on news images of Jackie, both as glamorous First Lady and as grieving wife. Seven of these paintings will be shown alongside rare preparatory studies. The exhibition features a recent Currier acquisition: Flash – November 22, 1963. Produced five years after the assassination and exhibited now at the forty-fifth anniversary of the tragic event, this print portfolio includes eleven screenprints based on related news images including the book depository, Lee Harvey Oswald, and President Kennedy’s campaign poster—making it the only work by Warhol to depict the President. It also reproduces the teletype text from the four days between the President’s assassination and funeral, with the sheets bound like a book. Accompanied by archival materials and unique trial proofs related to this project, another major highlight is a one-of-a-kind, never-before exhibited screenprint of Senator Robert Kennedy that Warhol did not include in the final edition of the Flash portfolio. Also featured are excerpts from a 1965 reenactment of the assassination filmed in Warhol’s New York City loft known as The Factory. These works are shown for the first time alongside Warhol’s 1980 portraits of Senator Edward Kennedy.
Andy Warhol: Pop Politics is organized by the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH. The exhibition is sponsored in part by Public Service Company of New Hampshire with additional support from the NBT Charitable Trust and the Badger Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Media sponsor is WZID, 95.7FM.
About the Currier
The Currier is home to an internationally respected collection of European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs, and sculpture. New galleries showcase the collection of over 11,000 objects, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O’Keeffe, Wyeth, Calder, Marisol, LeWitt, and di Suvero among others. Visitors of all ages will enjoy the engaging traveling exhibitions, a series of dynamic programs ranging from music to lectures to hands-on art-making, an expanded gift shop, and an airy new café filled with light and equipped with WiFi.
The associated Art Center offers studio classes, art camps, and intensive workshops for all ages. The museum also owns the Zimmerman House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, complete with the original furnishings and the owners’ fine art collection. The Zimmerman House is the only Wright-designed house in New England open for public tours, which are offered March–December. To book a tour or get more information, visit www.currier.org or call 603-669-6144, ext. 108.
The exhibition will travel to the Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase College, The State University of New York
February 15 – April 26, 2009
Special exhibition images are provided exclusively to the press and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of the exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images—the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the appropriate credit line and any copyright information as it appears below. The party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images; images may not be cropped, bled off the page, or printed on colored stock, nor may anything be superimposed on the image.
