Editorial
December, 2019
- The Continuous Thread: Celebrating Our Interwoven Histories, Identities and Contributions
- James Tissot: Fashion & Faith
- Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983
- November Theater Roundup
- Immersed in Light at Grace Cathedral
- At Minnesota Street Project, the Sky’s the Limit
- Introductions: Tenderloin Museum
November, 2019
October, 2019
September, 2019
August, 2019
July, 2019
June, 2019
May, 2019
April, 2019
March, 2019
- Lauren Yee’s Multi-Layered Play is a Chinese Puzzlebox
- MoAD Hosts Exhibition from Harlem’s Studio Museum
- New Asian Art Exhibition Spotlights Kimono
- New Opera Reimagines “Howards End”
- British Light Artist Bruce Munro Illuminates Montalvo
- Berlin & Beyond Showcases German Film
- Matthew Goudeau Takes Helm of Grants for the Arts
- Art-making From a Trans/Queer POV
February, 2019
January, 2019
December, 2018
November, 2018
October, 2018
September, 2018
August, 2018
July, 2018
June, 2018
May, 2018
April, 2018
March, 2018
February, 2018
January, 2018
December, 2017
November, 2017
October, 2017
September, 2017
- Cunning Sociopolitical Tale Premieres at Crowded Fire
- Why Citizenship? YBCA Invites Artists to Ponder the Question
- Margaret Jenkins Dance Opens 43rd Season
- One-Woman Play Captures Yearning for Home
- Poignant Ballet Examines Homelessness
- Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed
- Degas: A Tip of the Hat to Milliners
August, 2017
July, 2017
June, 2017
May, 2017
April, 2017
March, 2017
February, 2017
- “The Blues Project”: A Performance for Our Time
- Faith-Based Play Explores Compassion, Belief, Community
- Photo Exhibit Captures a Lost Generation of Syrians
- Noche Flamenca Brings Passion, Soul to “Antigona”
- The Tale of Two Afghan Women at Heart of New A.C.T. Play
- Feb Film Fests: Eclectic, Compelling
- Cal Performances: A Home Away From Home For The Trocks
January, 2017
December, 2016
November, 2016
October, 2016
September, 2016
August, 2016
July, 2016
June, 2016
May, 2016
- Beethoven Pops Up All Over Town
- The San Francisco Symphony Brings Bernstein Classic to the Stage
- Activism Takes Center Stage at SF International Arts Festival
- Ojai at Berkeley Celebrates Josephine Baker, Simone Weil
- SFDanceworks Debuts Inaugural Season
- Bringing the Blues Forward
- CJM Hosts Bill Graham Retrospective
April, 2016
March, 2016
February, 2016
January, 2016
December, 2015
November, 2015
October, 2015
September, 2015
August, 2015
July, 2015
June, 2015
May, 2015
April, 2015
March, 2015
February, 2015
January, 2015
December, 2014
November, 2014
October, 2014
September, 2014
August, 2014
July, 2014
June, 2014
May, 2014
April, 2014
March, 2014
February, 2014
January, 2014
December, 2013
November, 2013
October, 2013
September, 2013
August, 2013

Andy Warhol show comes from the Whitney to SFMOMA; it promises to give form to the this ”profoundly influential, restlessly creative, complicated figure.”
Though Andy Warhol may be best known as a pop artist—his iconic paintings of Campbell Soup cans, Coca Cola bottles and comic book characters launched his career—in reality, his engagement with pop art was brief, lasting only a few years.
“Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again,” a comprehensive, 40-year retrospective of over 300 works, which opens at SFMOMA this month, attempts to humanize the artist behind the myth while emphasizing Warhol’s creativity and originality. It arrives after a run at the Whitney, where the show was organized.
“This is a chance to see the expanse of Warhol’s whole career and the development and complexity of the work,” says Gary Garrels, SFMOMA’s Elise S. Haas senior curator of painting and sculpture. “Bits and pieces have been looked at before but there has been nothing this holistic or personal. His identity as a gay man, for instance, is an important element of the show.”
The exhibition includes work from Warhol’s formative years in the 1950s, including delicate line drawings of Truman Capote, whom he idolized, and commercial advertising art he produced in New York. Among that work is a 1956 collection of ink illustrations of pointy-toed slippers collaged with gold metal leaf and embossed foil. Each is dedicated to and named for a figure important to Warhol or well known in fashion circles, including Capote, Diana Vreeland, Elvis Presley, Kate Smith, Babe Paley, Mae West and the transgender celebrity Christine Jorgensen.
Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh during the Depression, the gay son of immigrant parents,
Warhol grew up as an outsider infatuated with American pop culture, glamour and Hollywood. His celebrity worship reached its apex in commissioned silk screen portraits of the rich, powerful and famous, his single largest body of work. Nearly 40 such pieces from the 1970s and ’80s are displayed here in an immersive grid installation. The 40- by 40-inch silkscreens of Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Dennis Hopper, Versace and the Shah of Iran, among others, were intended to culminate in “Portrait of Society,” a monumental project he left unfinished. The success of Warhol’s portraiture practice provided revenue for pet projects like Interview Magazine, which he founded, and experimental, less remunerative ventures in underground film and cable television, some of which are shown in this exhibit.
The show also includes lesser-known artworks produced during a period that stretched from the 1970s until Warhol’s death in 1987. “It’s an overlooked, neglected and undervalued part of his career and there hasn’t been much serious scholarship devoted to it,” notes Garrels. An imposing portrait of Chairman Mao looking down from on high is featured in this section, along with “Ladies and Gentleman,” a series that represented Warhol’s most overt engagement with gender and queer identities. The subjects of these portraits were Latino and black drag queens and trans women recruited from Manhattan bars and other hangouts. Warhol printed and enlarged the photos before applying layers of paint in vivid contrasting colors.
As a post-modern artist who came of age in the 1950s and ’60s, Warhol had a consummate understanding of media culture and the power of images, especially his own. A notorious shape shifter and poseur, Warhol’s self-portraits are key to the evolution of the public personas he inhabited and the nuanced mutability of his various masks. “I always thought I’d like my tombstone to be blank,” he once said. “Actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.’” He used photo booth images for his first self-portraits (1963-64), a quartet of panels in shades of blue where he portrays himself in sunglasses, brashly confronting the camera. By 1967, the self-portraits had grown coy, their subject introspective and increasingly elusive. For “Self-portrait (in drag),” a half-dozen color photos taken in 1989-82, he posed—quite convincingly—as incarnations of several different women.
“He’s the quintessential artist of the 20th and 21st centuries and more relevant than ever,” says Garrels. “People may think ‘I know what Warhol is about.’ But I hope the exhibition will open Warhol up to visitors and that they’ll come away with a deeper sense of this profoundly influential, restlessly creative, complicated figure.”
May 19 → Sept. 2
SFMOMA
151 Third St., San Francisco