Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, 1978, one of four screenprints on Bristol Strathmore paper © 2009 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York The name, image, and likeness of Muhammad Ali appears courtesy of Muhammad Al
Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life & Legends
Andy Warhol is considered one of the leading figures in the Pop art movement and one of the most widely acknowledged artists of the twentieth century. This exhibition features selections from Andy Warhol’s forty-year span of work in the art of photographic silk-screen printmaking. While many of the works were made in the 1970s and 1980s, their subject matter—iconic people, trends, and issues—reflects Warhol’s decades-long process of mirroring popular American culture. Warhol transforms photographic imagery—from rather mundane still lifes of fruits to portraits of comic characters and endangered species—through color, design, form, and multiples. Due to the infinite possibilities of printmaking, Warhol’s portfolios contain a vast array of techniques, ranging from collage and drawing to the use of diamond dust and color variation.
Warhol was extremely interested in color, and his personal library contained many books on the great modern colorists, including Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, and Joseph Albers. Warhol mixed colors, but he also used them straight from the tube. In the 1970s and 1980s, Warhol worked with assistants and printers to create the print portfolios Sunset, Grapes, Space Fruit: Still Lifes, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, Myths, Endangered Species, and others. The color choices in these series were very important to the artist. For the Sunset series, Warhol originally created 632 prints of the sun, each with a different combination of colors. In the Myths and Grapes series, Warhol used a glittery substance called diamond dust to draw attention to the surface and to create changes in the colors of the prints. In the Endangered Species series, he used bright and complementary combinations of colors to draw attention to the animals and their plight. Also included in exhibition are Muhammad Ali, a Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), 1967 from a portfolio of 10 images, and the full portfolio of Campbell’s Soup II, 1967.
This touring exhibition is a selection of works from The Bank of America Collection, one of the oldest and largest corporate art collections in the world, reflecting the diversity of artistic expression in America and internationally. As the company has grown in recent decades, the size and scope of the collection has also grown. Today, the Bank of America Collection has been enriched with the art from more than three thousand legacy banks, each with a particular emphasis—regional, thematic, contemporary, or historical. Bank of America is deeply committed to supporting educational and cultural organizations by sharing its collection. Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life & Legends represent Bank of America’s commitment to build communities. Ken Lewis, chairman and CEO of Bank of America, expressed it best: “We believe, very simply, that it is the actions of individuals working together that build strong communities…and that business has an obligation to support those actions in the communities
it serves.’’
