Winnipeg Warhol show spans early work to Campbell's cans, Conrad Black

Last Updated: Thursday, October 4, 2007 | 2:24 PM ET

CBC News

Andy Warhol's silk-screen portrait of former media baron Conrad Black will join the pop icon's famed Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's soup prints in an expansive new exhibit opening in Winnipeg Friday.

An Andy Warhol silk-screen image of a young Conrad Black is part of the Winnipeg exhibit, which will later travel to Regina and Victoria, B.C.
(CBC)

The Winnipeg Art Gallery exhibit Warhol: Larger Than Life will feature more than 150 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photos, films and archival material.

The exhibit spans Warhol's entire artistic life and explores a trio of themes: his elevation of everyday objects into fine art, his celebration of celebrities and the creation of his persona — from poor, sickly boy in Pittsburgh into New York trendsetter.

"Visitors will be able to see all aspects of Andy Warhol's production, from early drawings that they might not expect from the '40s and '50s, when he was just out of art school, to when he was starting his commercial career in New York in the '50s through to his icons of the '60s, his Marilyn Monroes, his Campbell soup cans, his electric chairs," Helen Delacretaz, the art gallery's decorative and fine arts curator, told CBC News.

The show also explores Warhol's ties to Canada, including works featuring Wayne Gretzky, Karen Kain and a young Black, who became acquainted with the pop artist during the 1980s and described him as "a very entertaining character" in a recent interview.

The gallery worked with the Andy Warhol Museum in the artist's Pittsburgh hometown to create the exhibit.

Warhol: Larger than Life will continue at the Winnipeg Art Gallery until Jan. 6.

Later that month, it will move to Regina's MacKenzie Art Gallery for a three-month stay before travelling to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in May.