Where to admire original graphics by Andy Warhol?
Andy Warhol is, without a doubt, one of the most well-known and appreciated contemporary artists. Through his multifaceted and prolific artistic production, he has been able to capture some of the main transformations taking place in our society.
This also explains why Warhol's silkscreen print titled “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” was recently sold at Christie's in New York for $195 million, setting the record for the most expensive contemporary work of all time.
However, even those who want to see graphic works by Andy Warhol can rest easy. Some of these, in fact, are permanently exhibited in some of the most prestigious contemporary art museums in the world.
Starting from the United States, in particular New York and Pittsburgh, his hometown.
Where to see Andy Warhol's works in the United States
In 1993, six years after his death, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the artist was born in 1928, wanted to pay homage to its fellow citizen by inaugurating the largest museum in the world dedicated entirely to Andy Warhol.
The Andy Warhol Museum
Third floor at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh
Image rights The Andy Warhol Museum
This museum houses, to date, the largest collection of unique artwork and graphics by Wharol, along with archival materials. In fact, it houses drawings, paintings, photographs, prints and even films and videos shot by the artist.
It is one of the most complete museums dedicated to this artist in the world and the largest in North America. Including the serial work called “Time Capsules”, consisting of 610 containers that Warhol himself filled and sealed.
Still overseas, other famous graphic works by this great artist such as “Flowers” (1964) and “Marylin Monroe” (1967) can be admired at the MoMa – Museum of Modern Art in New York, or at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, also 'it is located in the Big Apple, where the self-portraits of 1986 and the productions “Electric Chairs” (1964) and “Orange Disaster” (1963) are preserved.
If we wanted to focus only on authentic and autographed graphic works by Warhol, one of the largest selections is certainly found at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. This museum holds, in fact, the bold portfolio of colored silkscreens entitled “Ten Portraits of Twentieth-Century Jews,” made by Warhol in the early 1980s, as well as a large selection of flower drawings by himself and his intimate polaroids or those of friends and acquaintances from the 1970s.
Versions of his vibrant “Flowers” series (1967-68) and one of his silkscreen canvases of Mao (1972) are housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, while The Broad, a museum dedicated to contemporary art next to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, houses some of his early cartoons and humorous sketches from when he was not yet famous.
Where to see Andy Warhol's works in Asia
Moving to Asia, you can admire some interesting works by the father of Pop Art at the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul.
One of the most valuable assets of this collection is undoubtedly the “Forty-Five Gold Marilyns” edition (1979), a disturbing and dramatic scale version in gold silkscreen on black canvas which once again celebrates the blonde Hollywood diva.
Where to see Andy Warhol's works in Europe
Andy Warhol with his art has become a source of inspiration for all contemporary artists.
It is normal, therefore, that his works are exhibited almost everywhere, through temporary exhibitions and permanent displays organized at art galleries and museums in major cities around the world, especially in Europe.
Some of his most important works, such as “Liz Taylor” (1965), “Skulls” (1976) or “Gun” (1981) are exhibited at the British National Museum of Modern Art in London, known as Tate Modern, which is one of the most visited contemporary art museums on the planet and holds the largest selection of works by this artist.
Andy Warhol
Elvis I and II 1964
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Gift from the Women's Committee Fund, 1966
© 2020 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London
Photo taken from tate.org.uk
The Tate Galleries have also acquired some lesser-known but nonetheless fascinating unique works, such as “Birmingham Race Riot” (1963), which provides insight into Warhol’s engagement with the theme of political activism.
Staying in Europe, unique works and drawings by Warhol can also be admired at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. Here, among other things, are also some of his conceptual sculptural works from the Brillo Soap Pads Box series from the 1960s.
That said, to answer the question of this article where to see Andy Warhol's graphic works in Europe, the answer can only be: at the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce (MMUAW) in Slovakia.
Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce
Photo taken from the museum website: https://www.muzeumaw.sk/en/article/museum
This institution, founded in 1991, is dedicated to current trends in contemporary art and, in particular, to the life and art of Andy Warhol. Here you can admire about 200 original graphic works by the founder of Pop Art, some of which come from private collections or belong to the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York. The works belong to all of the artist's creative periods, including his dominant artistic themes.
Where to see Andy Warhol's works in Italy
Andy Warhol dedicated several works to our country. Among these is one of his “Disasters”, the triptych “HURRY UP” (1981) in which the headline of the newspaper Il Mattino the day after the Irpinia earthquake is reproduced in capital letters.
This great artist's affection for Italy is reciprocated. In fact, every year temporary exhibitions and events dedicated to him are organized in many regions. There are also permanent exhibitions in Rome, Naples and Milan.
In Rome, for example, it is possible to admire for free at the Bilotti Museum the unique work by Warhol “Mother and Daughter. Tina and Lisa Bilotti” (Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas) created in 1981. While at the Casa di Goethe in Via del Corso 18 there is a portrait of Goethe created by Warhol himself in 1982.
Andy Warhol, Mother and Daughter: Tina and Lisa Bilotti, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 1981
Photo taken from the Carlo Bilotti Museum website: https://www.museocarlobilotti.it/
Two graphic works by the great Andy Warhol are also exhibited in two important Neapolitan museums, Capodimonte and Madre. At the Museum of Ancient Art of Capodimonte, where there is a section dedicated to contemporary art, there is “Vesuvius” (1985), a work created by Warhol to pay homage to the Neapolitan panorama with the characteristic volcano in the background.
At the Madre, on the other hand, you can admire unique works such as the “Spalding Soft Ball” and “Five Campbell's soup”, everyday objects transformed into works of art according to the characteristic vision of this artist.