In the age of TikTok, Instagram, and viral videos, Andy Warhol’s prediction that “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” has undeniably come to pass.

Toledo Museum of Art salutes the father of Pop Art with two pieces of Warhol’s work, currently on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in the artist’s hometown of Pittsburgh.

The two pieces on loan include two acrylic and silkscreen ink on linens, including Self Portrait, from 1986, and Mount Vesuvius from 1985. 

Toledo Museum of Art Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Jessica S. Hong said Warhol’s work is more prescient than ever in the age of social media.

“Given our media landscape – with the saturation of commercial advertising to the constant self-promotion on social media platforms – the concerns and explorations of 20th century Pop artists have continued to resonate, such as questions of what we value, what is valuable, issues around commodification of culture/popular culture and cultural hierarchies,” said Hong. 

Pop Art began in the 1950s as an affront to traditional art styles such as Abstract Expressionism, elevating images from mass media and popular culture to the level of high art. Warhol turned the art world upside down with his portraits of Brillo pads and Campbell’s soup cans, which have become pop culture icons. Today, Pop Art and Warhol in particular continues to resonate with modern audiences. 

“(The) movement served as a near rebellion to now canonical traditions such as Abstract Expressionism, redefining what art can be as well as the role of the artist; this dedication to experimentation, pushing/expanding boundaries if not eschewing them entirely, has been and will always be part of artistic processes and practices,” said Hong.

A true Renaissance man, Warhol wrote books such as Popism and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), and produced several underground films such as Chelsea Girls and Sleep. He assembled a menagerie of outsider artists into an art commune he called The Factory. One Factory member, Valerie Solanis, shot Warhol in 1968 after he refused to produce a screenplay she had written, an event dramatized in the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol, starring Jared Harris as the titular artist and Lili Taylor as the would-be assassin. Warhol survived the attack, dying at the age of 58 in 1987 following gallbladder surgery.

In the ‘70s, Warhol was a fixture in New York nightlife, regularly frequenting the notorious club Studio 54. He hobnobbed with the celebrities of the day, counting Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, and Liza Minnelli among his friends.

Self Portrait features Warhol’s famously cowlicked white wig against a dark background, an image that has been featured all over the world, especially on T-shirts and wall prints. Mount Vesuvius is a potent black and white image depicting the chaos of a volcanic eruption. 

In conjunction with the two loaned Warhol pieces, Toledo Museum of Art is offering two printmaking workshops to the public—a letterpress of Pop Art Prints and Printmaking Discovery: Art of the Drypoint Print. (Registration information is on the TMA website at https://www.toledomuseum.org/)

“Printmaking is such an important part of art history; we are excited to re-activate our printmaking studio here at TMA in conjunction with the magnificent Andy Warhol loans,” said Studio Programs Coordinator Jennifer Cantley.

The two pieces are on loan from The Andy Warhol Museum through January 16, 2022. 

First Published September 26, 2021, 6:00 p.m.