52 Exhibitions: Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (1989).
In 1989, MoMA presented the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of Andy Warhol, two years after his untimely death. This landmark exhibition spanned two floors of the Museum, featuring more than 300 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and films by this exceptionally prolific artist. Curator Kynaston McShine argued in the massive catalogue that accompanied the exhibition that Warhol’s “sheer, inescapable fame…has often disguised the fact that he was one of the most serious, and one of the most important, artists of the twentieth century.” At the time, however, critics were divided, and the exhibition generated vigorous debate about Warhol’s merits. One anti-Warhol writer nevertheless had to concede that his “influence has been so strong that Picasso and even Pollock today appear to be distant, chthonic gods.” After its New York showing, the retrospective traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago and then across Europe, where it was rapturously received.
Read numerous out-of-print publications associated with the Warhol retrospective.
