Arts AlUla to present FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla, an exhibition that celebrates one of the world’s most famous and recognisable artists’ personal fascination with fame and celebrity.
Produced in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum – the internationally renowned American institution that holds the largest collection of the artist’s work and archive – FAME will bring together some of Warhol’s most iconic artworks in an exhibition curated especially for Maraya, the mirror-clad arts and cultural venue in the ancient desert city of AlUla, Saudi Arabia. FAME is part of the Arts AlUla festival which launched last year as AlUla’s flagship annual arts festival and which runs from February 16th to February 28th, 2023.
One of the oldest cities on the Arabian Peninsula, AlUla has been a place of artistic exchange for thousands of years, acting as a historic crossroads for successive civilisations. The region is being revived as a global destination for the arts through major collaborations with high profile artists, curators and institutions that will develop cross-cultural connections and drive creative change across the country.
In homage to a heritage built by diverse cultural perspectives, Arts AlUla will present FAME:
Nora Aldabal, Executive Director, Arts and Creative Industries for Arts AlUla
Andy Warhol in AlUla as part of a long term vision of spectacular and multicultural arts
initiatives. We aim to drive a new era of cultural exchange, including exhibitions that feature
the most important regional and international artists from the mid 20th century to the
present day.
FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla is curated by Patrick Moore, Director of The Andy Warhol Museum, which is one of the four internationally venerated Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. The exhibition will feature Warhol’s paintings and prints of Hollywood stars, sporting legends and musicians – including Elizabeth Taylor, Muhammad Ali and Dolly Parton among others – alongside filmed portraits described as “screen tests” of 60s counter-culture icons. The installation will also include Andy Warhol designed wallpaper and Warhol’s ground-breaking work, Silver Clouds. The artworks will be accompanied by rarely seen archival photographs including Hollywood publicity photos and Polaroid portraits made in his studio and later utilised as source material for his paintings and prints.
The exhibition focuses on fame as a way of understanding Warhol as a person and the trajectory of his career. From his childhood in industrial Pittsburgh, Warhol gazed at Hollywood glamour and dreamed of escaping to be a part of that world. As Warhol achieved that dream, becoming one of the world’s most famous artists, he also came to understand that fame comes with many complications.
The concept of fame is alluring but also illusory, a reflection of our present-day experienc of the world as human connections are transformed through new technologies and social media. Focusing in on the notion of celebrity, the exhibition draws a line between the artists’ reflections on society then, to contemporary culture, highlighting Warhol’s ongoing relevance to the next generation and new audiences.
FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla, 17th February – 16th May 2023 Maraya, AlUla @artsalula
