Andy Warhol: The Business of Art

Andy Warhol: The Business of Art takes its premise from this famous quote by the most entrepreneurial artist of the 20^th century – Andy Warhol. Bringing together approximately 200 works across media, the exhibition traces the artist’s thirty-nine-year career through the industries of fashion and food, music and magazines, film and television, politics and philanthropy. The exhibition reveals Warhol’s wide-ranging associations with some of the world’s most influential celebrities and iconic brands including Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, Mick Jagger, Campbell’s Soup, Coca-Cola, and Apple, among many others.

From very early in his career, Warhol’s art and commercial work was intertwined. After graduating from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949, he moved to New York and found work creating illustrations for prominent fashion magazines. By the end of the 1950s he was working for high-end clients like Tiffany & Co. and was the most sought-after commercial artist in New York. It was not unusual for artists to survive by taking on commercial work, but many avoided using their real names and tried to separate themselves from their economically driven art.

Warhol embraced his status as a commercial artist and developed his personal practice right alongside and intertwined with his commercial art. He created album covers for Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, and Diana Ross; magazine illustrations for Vogue, Time, and Interview; wine labels, perfume ads, and jazz festival posters made in collaboration with Keith Haring all with his signature wit and style. In Warhol’s hands, a commercial commission was never merely commercial; it was as true an expression of his artistic creativity as any other work. 

The Business of Art introduces audiences to a lesser-known dimension of one of the twentieth century’s most recognizable artists and invites us to look again at the line we have so often drawn between art and commerce. 

This exhibition is drawn from the collection of Paul Maréchal.

Paul Maréchal, curator, scholar, and collector of Andy Warhol’s printed matter, is the author of four Warhol catalogues raisonnés: Andy Warhol: The Record Covers 1949 – 1987 (2008); Andy Warhol: The Complete Commissioned Posters 1964 – 1987 (2014); Andy Warhol: The Complete Commissioned Magazine Work (2014), and Andy Warhol Ephemera (2018). He is the Curator of Power Corporation of Canada’s corporate art collection and is a professor on the subject of Art Market Fundamentals at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is currently completing the catalogue raisonné of Andy Warhol textiles.