Andy Warhol at Sperone Westwater

The Brant Foundation Loan Program:

Andy Warhol

Sperone Westwater, New York

PRESS RELEASE: Sperone Westwater is pleased to present Andy Warhol By Hand: Part II, Drawings 1950s – 1960s curated by Vincent Fremont, Warhol’s right-hand man for two decades and a founder of the Andy Warhol Foundation. A continuation of the exhibition recently held at the New York Academy of Art curated by Fremont and David Kratz, Part II focuses on 125 drawings from the 1950s and 1960s, presented in several thematic groupings including flowers, female and male portraits, religious iconography and travel. The New York Academy of Art was developed in the 1980s by a devoted group of artists and art patrons, including Warhol, to promote and preserve skills training in drawing, painting and sculpture.

As Philip Kennicott recently observed in The Washington Post, “working directly on paper remained an essential outlet for Warhol’s energies throughout his career” and “[the drawings’] intimacy is unlike almost anything else in Warhol’s canon.” Although he established his fame with silkscreened works, Warhol’s distinctive drawing practice developed early in his studies and remained an important habit throughout his life. Vincent Fremont notes, “It is important for people to know the vital role drawing played in Andy Warhol’s life as an artist. By focusing only on Andy’s drawings, this exhibition is a way to highlight without distraction Andy’s innovative process and experimentation which encompassed pen and ink, blotted line and graphite.”