Instant Warhol

“A picture means I know where I was every minute. That’s why I take pictures. It’s a visual diary.” – Andy Warhol

The exhibition is entirely dedicated to a selection of photographs and Polaroids by Andy Warhol, which the artist executed during the last twenty years of his life.

Instant Warhol brings together a selection of Polaroid and gelatin silver print portraits featuring friends from Warhol’s inner circle, movie stars, celebrities, and members of the international jazz set, including Gianni Agnelli, Bianca Jagger, Grace Jones, Alexander Iolas, Basquiat, Valentino, and Diane von Furstenberg, alongside shots from the Sex Parts and Torsos and Ladies and Gentlemen series. Polaroids featuring Warhol’s self-portraits – where he is captured in drag or wearing his legendary fright wig – and photos of daily fragments of life are also included.  

To Warhol, photographs were artworks, experimental tools, and biographical documents, while the camera was his personal recording devices. The variety of subjects, which Warhol objectified, glamorized, lampooned, or heroicized, illuminates the artist’s attitude towards fame and gender identity, as well as his ongoing investigation into ideas of originality and authorship. With this exhibition, the gallery aims at underlining the crucial role of photography in Warhol’s life and work for the definition of a distinctively Pop aesthetic.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with James R. Hedges, IV, who currently owns the largest private collection of Warhol’s photographs worldwide.