This major retrospective—the first to be organized by a US institution in 30 years—builds on the wealth of new research, scholarship, and perspectives that has emerged since Andy Warhol’s early death at age 58 in 1987. More than 400 works offer a new view of the beloved and iconic American Pop artist, not only illuminating the breadth, depth, and interconnectedness of Warhol’s production across the entirety of his career but also highlighting the ways that he anticipated the issues, effects, and pace of our current digital age.
Warhol gained fame in the 1960s for his Pop masterpieces, widely known and reproduced works that often eclipse his equally significant late work as well as his crucial beginnings in the commercial art world. This exhibition brings together all aspects and periods of his varied and prolific career and includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, videos, archival and printed material, installation, films, and media works. By showcasing the full continuum of Warhol’s work, rather than focusing on a certain period, this presentation demonstrates that the artist didn’t slow down after surviving the assassination attempt that nearly took his life in 1968 but entered into a period of intense experimentation.
Warhol, with obvious self-deprecation, described his philosophy as spanning from A to B. As this exhibition decidedly proves, his thinking and artistic production ranged well beyond that, but his true genius lies in his ability to identify cultural patterns and to use repetition, distortion, and recycled images in a way that challenges our faith in images and questions the meaning of our cultural icons.
This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Artwork
Warhol was an amazingly prolific artist. Chart his career and some of the themes he explored in the image galleries below.
Celebrity
Warhol was fascinated with the idea of celebrity in all its various forms—from movie stars and athletes to political figures and rock stars.

Liz #3, [Early Colored Liz], 1963
The Stefan T. Edlis collection, partial and promised gift to the Art Institute of Chicago. Rights of Publicity and Persona Rights: House of Taylor - The Elizabeth Taylor Companies

Triple Elvis [Ferus Type], 1963
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Elvis Presley™; Rights of Publicity and Persona Rights: Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC. elvis.com

Shot Orange Marilyn, 1964
Private collection

Mao, 1972
The Art Institute of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize and Wilson L. Mead funds

Ladies and Gentlemen (Marsha P. Johnson), 1975
Museum Brandhorst, Munich

Muhammad Ali, 1977
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park; gift of The Frederick Weisman Company, 1982.1.6. Muhammad Ali™; Rights of Publicity and Persona Rights: ABG Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC

Liza Minnelli, 1978
Private collection

Debbie Harry, 1980
Collection of Deborah Harry
Death and Disaster
In the mid-1960s Warhol produced a “Death and Disaster” series that focused on images of car crashes, race riots, electric chairs, and a grieving Jacqueline Kennedy. He returned to darker themes again in the 70s and 80s with canvases focused on skulls and guns.

Lavender Disaster, 1963
The Menil Collection, Houston

Nine Jackies, 1964
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc. Leonard A. Lauder, President

Big Electric Chair, 1967–68
The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Edlis Neeson Collection

Skull, 1976
Collection of Larry Gagosian

Gun, 1981–82
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; gift of Vicki and Kent Logan
All images: Andy Warhol. © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Sponsors
Leadership support of Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again is provided by

Bank of America is the National Tour Sponsor.

Major support for the Chicago presentation has been made possible by Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation.
The Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute of Chicago is the Lead Affiliate Sponsor.
Additional funding is contributed by the Shure Charitable Trust, Maureen and Edward Byron Smith Jr. Family Endowment Fund, Constance and David Coolidge, Robert J. Buford, Penelope and Robert Steiner, William and Robin Downe, Cairy and Thomas Brown, Margot Levin Schiff and the Harold Schiff Foundation, Vicki and Bill Hood, and Lauren G. Robishaw.
Members of the Exhibitions Trust provide annual leadership support for the museum’s operations, including exhibition development, conservation and collection care, and educational programming. The Exhibitions Trust includes an anonymous donor; Neil Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation; Jay Franke and David Herro; Kenneth Griffin; Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation; Karen Gray-Krehbiel and John Krehbiel, Jr.; Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy; Ann and Samuel M. Mencoff; Sylvia Neil and Dan Fischel; Anne and Chris Reyes; Cari and Michael J. Sacks; and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Official Airline of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Additional support is provided by the Illinois Office of Tourism.
