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.

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”.