Press Release Andy Warhol’s Empire Returns to Its Iconic New York Setting for Anniversary Celebration
Andy Warhol, Empire, 1964, ©The Andy Warhol Museum
For immediate release
Monday, July 7, 2014
The 50th anniversary of Andy Warhol’s groundbreaking film Empire will be marked by a month-long special exhibition at the very building that is the namesake and sole image of the epic work.
Throughout July, Empire will be continuously shown in the Fifth Avenue lobby of New York City’s Empire State Building. The exhibition also features images of Warhol’s art and details of his life and filmmaking.
Additionally, on the evening of Friday, July 25, the Empire State Building will be illuminated with thousands of white lights sparkling in honor of the film’s anniversary. It was on that date in 1964 when Warhol trained his camera on the Empire State Building for six and a half hours, declaring, “The Empire State Building is a star!”
From the dusk of 8 p.m. into the darkness of 2:30 a.m., Warhol captured the changing lights of the towering structure and the sky above. When Warhol premiered the film, unedited, the following March, he projected it in slow motion, bringing its length to over eight hours.
“Andy Warhol is arguably the most famous American artist of the 20th century and Empire was his most famous film,” said Geralyn Huxley, Curator of Film and Video at The Andy Warhol Museum and project leader for the Empire State Building exhibition. “It is fitting that he and his work be honored by the most famous of American buildings.”
The exhibition will be displayed in four windows of building’s famed Art Deco lobby from July 1 – July 31, 2014. Admission to the lobby is free.
Empire is a classic example of Warhol’s early work in film, which began in 1963. He ignored Hollywood conventions by making a film that contained a single image for an extended period of time. Warhol said, “I never liked the idea of picking out certain scenes and pieces of time and putting them together, because… it’s not like life… What I liked was chunks of time all together, every real moment.”
Visible at times from up to 80 miles away, the Empire State Building is one of the most recognized and photographed landmarks on the planet. Warhol shot Empire from across Manhattan, from the 41st floor of the Time-Life Building.
The Empire State Building enhanced its present-day star quality in November 2012, by replacing its tower flood lights with a state-of-the-art LED lighting system as part of its Empire State ReBuilding program. The new tower lights are capable of producing up to 16 million color variations and an unlimited number of patterns and effects. Although the tower lighting regularly honors milestone events and charitable causes, singling out an individual – such as with the July 25th lighting evoking Warhol’s silver motifs.
EXHIBITION DETAILS:
Date: July 1 – July 31, 2014
Location: Empire State Building Lobby 350 5th Ave, New York, NY 10118
Admission Price: Free
The Warhol receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and The Heinz Endowments. Further support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.
The Andy Warhol Museum
Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Andy Warhol Museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials and is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Warhol is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Established in 1895 by Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is a collection of four distinctive museums: Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. The museums reach more than 1.4 million people a year through exhibitions, educational programs, outreach activities, and special events.