Andy Warhol
A Factory

'I wish I could invent something like bluejeans. Something to be remembered for. Something mass.' Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol: A Factory was a multidisciplinary examination of Andy Warhol’s production, which encompasses an unprecedented range of art and archival material in a multimedia framework. This panoramic exhibition utilized Warhol’s seminal paintings and sculptures as the basis for an investigation of his work in diverse areas, expanding the prevailing perspective on this harbinger of post-war American culture.

Warhol dubbed the three successive studios he kept during his lifetime Factories. Thus the term "factory" in the exhibition’s title designates Warhol’s Factory as a geographical site and a historical concept as well as a traditional factory with numerous contributors. Each Factory was a nucleus for innovative and frequently iconoclastic endeavours’ prolifically creative microcosms where Warhol and the Factories’ participants generated a panoply of works embracing painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, photography, film, fashion, video, television, and music. Spanning from the 1950s to the late 1980s, Andy Warhol: A Factory surveyed the cross-current of activities that constituted the Factories’ artistic output.

The exhibition was organized as a segmented labyrinth, presenting overlapping components of art in multiple media, which broke down the traditional hierarchy of disciplines. This methodology served to illustrate the manner in which Warhol pursued the same subject matter with different artistic vehicles and underscores the numerous approaches which can be taken to consider his endeavours. Andy Warhol: A Factory covers: Graphic and Comercial Art; Publications, Celebrities; Disasters; Brillos; Flowers; Silver Factory Films; Superstars; The Velvet Underground and Nico; Television and Video; Maos; Skulls; Hammers and Sickles; Oxidations; Shoes; Dollar Signs; Rorschachs; Ads;Stitched Photographs; Art Historical Appropriations; Portraits; and Self-Portraits.

Andy Warhol: A Factory was conceived by Germano Celant; Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim Museum New York, with Vivien Greene, Assistant Curator. John Hanhardt, Senior Curator of Film and Media Arts, was supervising the video and film components, the latter in consultation with Callie Angell, Curatorial Consultant for Film at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The acclaimed architect, Gaetano Pesce, has designed the installation concept. A catalogue with an introductory text by Germano Celant and 600 illustrations accompanied the exhibition.

Andy Warhol: A Factory had been organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.

Following the presentation in the Kunsthalle Wien, the exhibition will tour to the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (May 31 – Sept. 19, 1999); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Oct. 17, 1999 – Jan. 13, 2000); and the Fundação de Serralves, Porto (Feb. 11 – May 14, 2000). The exhibition will conclude in New York as part of the Guggenheim Museum?s millenial program in Summer 2000.

Main sponsor of the presentation in Vienna: Porsche Wien-Liesing, New Beetle