Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10th, 6 - 8pm

“I told them I didn’t believe in art, that I believed in photography.” -- Andy Warhol

Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present “Photographs,” an exhibition of unique black and white photographs shot by Andy Warhol between 1976 and 1987—the year of his death. While Warhol is generally known for his silkscreen paintings, this show underscores the important role that photography played in both the development of the artist’s trademark medium as well as his philosophy towards art in general. This collection of photographs from the Estate of Andy Warhol has never been exhibited on the West Coast. They serve as a chronicle of the artist’s life and interactions where the public is offered the rare opportunity to see the urban world through Warhol’s photographic eye.

On view is a group of works that have been carefully selected from over 200 unique, black and white photographs. These photographs were taken during the last ten years of his life, and show Warhol’s habit of documenting, through photography, both his personal and creative life. This body of work is the result of Warhol’s photographic practice of documenting his interactions with the city and its objects as he moved around them. His photographs, a collection of the commonplace and the ephemeral, provide us with insight into the creative process of one of the 20th Century’s most important artists.

Warhol’s art is inseparable from photography. After studying pictorial design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, he moved to New York and produced hundreds of drawings, most of them commercial projects for the publishing and fashion industries. His clients included Vanity Fair, Mademoiselle, and Bergdorf Goodman. Warhol first gained widespread recognition for a 1949 illustration commissioned by Glamour magazine for an article about success. The title of the section, "Success Is a Job in New York," embodied his attitude toward art-making as well as his infatuation with fame and fashion. As the artist once said, "Business Art is a much better thing to be making than Art Art." Many of his trademark colorful and whimsical drawings of people, animals, insects, shoes, and accessories were used as book illustrations, stationery, and album covers.

For further inquiries, please contact Laura Sumser at [email protected] or 323.658.8088.