In addition to Warhol’s highly anticipated retrospective at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, the Dia Art Foundation is planning an ambitious reunion of Warhol’s monumental Shadows. Up to 50 of the series’ brightly coloured canvases, which the artist designed to be installed edge to edge, will take over the Calvin Klein headquarters in Manhattan this October.
Andy Warhol, Shadows (1978–79). Detail of installation of 72 of 102 paintings at Dia Art Foundation. Photo by Bill Jacobson courtesy of Dia Art Foundation.
“We all think of Warhol as the artist who worked with serial images, and we see these iconic images reproduced so frequently, but you rarely see the way he first presented this work,”
Dia’s director Jessica Morgan
“Not only are there these various colours, the canvas has a very gestural quality, seeing the entirety of the Shadows, perhaps Warhol’s most abstract work, will offer a different perspective on an artist who we think we know.”
“Dia’s decision to present Shadows concurrently with the retrospective at the Whitney adds crucially to our effort to provide a holistic view of Warhol’s oeuvre and offers the public an unprecedented opportunity to map Warhol’s trajectory and to experience the significance of seriality in his work,”
De Salvo said in a statement.
Dia’s co-founder Heiner Friedrich commissioned Shadows in 1978. It was last shown in New York City, at Dia’s former Chelsea headquarters, in 1998–99, before it inaugurated the organization’s flagship in Beacon, New York, in 2003.
In the lead-up to the exhibition, Calvin Klein is helping support conservation of the Shadows.
“When you install the piece, the canvases literally align, so historically there’s been a lot of handling involved to get the hang in a perfect configuration,”
Morgan explained.
The conservators are replacing the backing on the canvases and adding cleats that will allow Shadows to be hung without having to adjust each canvas individually.
“Andy Warhol: Shadows” will be on view at the Calvin Klein headquarters, 205 West 39th Street, New York, October 26–December 15, 2018.
“Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again” is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, November 12, 2018–March 31, 2019.
