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Andy Warhol: Velvet Rage and Beauty
Andy Warhol’s continuous pursuit of ideal beauty—visible in a body of his work that is brought here together for the first time.
Andy Warhol is arguably one of the most widely known and discussed artists of the twentieth century. While his depictions of consumer products and celebrities led him to become household famous, there is a red thread throughout his career, starting even in the late forties until his untimely death in 1987. In the eighties Warhol was continuously searching to visualize an ideal of beauty, male beauty, finding form and creating lasting images of what he desired. He visualized and therefore eternalized this continuous pursuit of ideal beauty.
From the early line and blotted line drawings to his screen tests and moving image experiments in the sixties, the torso paintings in the seventies through his collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, there is a continuous search to express an ideal of male beauty. During his lifetime these works were either considered inappropriate, immoral, deviant or even pornographic and therefore illegal. Many of these works never received the public exposure and recognition that they deserve. Neue Nationalgalerie is for the first time putting together a large survey focusing on this thematic and central aspect throughout Warhol’s different production phases and stages of career. This publication offers an insight into a Warhol, that during his lifetime never had a real “coming-out”.
Warhol died in 1987 at the age of only 58. He left behind an incredibly complex and influential body of work, which during his lifetime never experienced the open acceptance that we now have to look at these specific bodies of work.
Andy Warhol is arguably one of the most widely known and discussed artists of the twentieth century. While his depictions of consumer products and celebrities led him to become household famous, there is a red thread throughout his career, starting even in the late forties until his untimely death in 1987. In the eighties Warhol was continuously searching to visualize an ideal of beauty, male beauty, finding form and creating lasting images of what he desired. He visualized and therefore eternalized this continuous pursuit of ideal beauty.
From the early line and blotted line drawings to his screen tests and moving image experiments in the sixties, the torso paintings in the seventies through his collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, there is a continuous search to express an ideal of male beauty. During his lifetime these works were either considered inappropriate, immoral, deviant or even pornographic and therefore illegal. Many of these works never received the public exposure and recognition that they deserve. Neue Nationalgalerie is for the first time putting together a large survey focusing on this thematic and central aspect throughout Warhol’s different production phases and stages of career. This publication offers an insight into a Warhol, that during his lifetime never had a real “coming-out”.
Warhol died in 1987 at the age of only 58. He left behind an incredibly complex and influential body of work, which during his lifetime never experienced the open acceptance that we now have to look at these specific bodies of work.
- GenresPhotographyNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
Published September 3, 2024
About the author
Klaus Biesenbach
44 books4 followersBiesenbach founded Kunst-Werke (KW) Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin in 1991, as well as the Berlin Biennale in 1996, and remains Founding Director of both entities. Under his artistic and executive directorship, KW and the Berlin Biennale were started as self-inventive initiatives and are now federally and state funded institutions.
Biesenbach joined MoMA PS1 as a curator in 1996; the museum's director Alanna Heiss had hired him part-time while allowing him to maintain his directorship in Berlin. In 2004, Biesenbach was appointed as a curator in the MoMA's "Department of Film and Media". He was named Chief Curator of MoMA's newly formed 'Department of Media, in 2006, which was subsequently broadened to the Department of Media and Performance Art, in 2009, to reflect the Museum's increased focus on collecting, preserving, and exhibiting performance art. As Chief Curator of the department, Biesenbach led a range of pioneering initiatives, including the launch of a new performance art exhibition series; an ongoing series of workshops for artists and curators; acquisitions of media and performance art; and the Museum's presentation in 2010 of a major retrospective of the work of Marina Abramović—with whom he was formerly romantically involved.
Biesenbach joined MoMA PS1 as a curator in 1996; the museum's director Alanna Heiss had hired him part-time while allowing him to maintain his directorship in Berlin. In 2004, Biesenbach was appointed as a curator in the MoMA's "Department of Film and Media". He was named Chief Curator of MoMA's newly formed 'Department of Media, in 2006, which was subsequently broadened to the Department of Media and Performance Art, in 2009, to reflect the Museum's increased focus on collecting, preserving, and exhibiting performance art. As Chief Curator of the department, Biesenbach led a range of pioneering initiatives, including the launch of a new performance art exhibition series; an ongoing series of workshops for artists and curators; acquisitions of media and performance art; and the Museum's presentation in 2010 of a major retrospective of the work of Marina Abramović—with whom he was formerly romantically involved.
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June 28, 2025
inanılmaz keyifliydi.
i’ll celebrate
i’ll celebrate
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