Andy Warhol’s Social Network: Interview, Television and Portraits

For immediate release

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

The Andy Warhol Museum announces Andy Warhol’s Social Network: ‘Interview’, Television and Portraits, on view September 24, 2022 – February 20, 2023.

Andy Warhol’s Social Network: ‘Interview’, Television and Portraits presents the cross-section between Warhol’s longest running project, Interview magazine, his portrait commissions and his ventures in television with Fashion, Warhol TV and Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes. Featuring 204 issues of Interview magazine from 1969 to 1987, Andy Warhol’s Social Network will highlight this rare holding within The Warhol’s permanent collection that has never before been shown in its entirety. Organized chronologically, visitors will experience the visual transformation of the magazine from underground film journal to an arbiter of mainstream popular culture featuring iconic celebrities, fashion brands and aspirational living of the young, wealthy and influential.

As one of the few institutions with a near-complete holding of the magazine and the sole holder of Warhol TV, The Warhol is uniquely positioned to present this exhibition for the first time. Interview magazine serves as the spine to the show, in both the floorplans and the conceptual frame. Through a selection of commissioned portraits and episodes from Fashion, Warhol TV and Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, this exhibition demonstrates how Warhol intermingled these works with the content and covers of the magazine and cross-referenced this material with his television series. Interview magazine combined the essential elements in Warhol’s artistic practice: celebrity, advertising, technology and fashion, and was instrumental in his ability to expand his own social networks and cultivate new audiences.

“With Interview Warhol created an identity and brand entirely his own by breaking the mold of traditional print media – he used original artworks for the covers by Richard Bernstein, he let his own staff and other celebrities interview each other, he insisted on as little editing as possible, and he unabashedly embraced commercial advertising as part of this lifestyle brand. Not only was this model, prescient, but it forecasted contemporary culture’s continued interest in fantasy, fame, celebrity and wealth,” said Jessica Beck, chief curator. “Like with all his work, Interview was original, but also tapped into a younger vibration, celebrated youth culture and created a world of reflection by mirroring the trends of fashion, beauty and culture of its time.”

The enterprises included in Andy Warhol’s Social Network explore Warhol’s keen sense for business. His portrait commissions, now well-known as a standalone body of work, served as a funding stream to support creative pursuits like Interview and Warhol TV while also helping build a social network of celebrities, social influencers, patrons of the arts and business elites. Here Warhol predates our modern engagement with social media, where advertising serves as a crucial source of revenue in online media. As a side story within the exhibition, collages created by Richard Bernstein, the cover artist responsible for the iconic covers of Interview magazine throughout the 70s and 80s, will be presented for the first time as a group. Over sixty of his original collages will be on display.

“Interview was more than just a celebrity magazine—it was art, and Richard Bernstein’s distinctive portraits were masterpieces,” said Rory S. Trifon, president of The Estate of Richard Bernstein. “Each intricate and strikingly colorful work of art is an incredible chronicle of the time whose visual language shaped our culture today. We are incredibly grateful to The Warhol for this incredible exhibition showcasing Richard’s talent and genius across his career and for recognizing his instrumental contribution to Andy Warhol and Pop Art history.”

The exhibition reveals Warhol’s forethought of the power of advertising over popular culture. Intermixing advertising with celebrity content, Interview was a magazine that celebrated the rich, powerful and beautiful, while also selling this fantasy of fame and wealth to a broader public. By filling its pages with advertisements of alcohol, beauty products, designer fashion and expensive jewels, the magazine presented a model for aspirational living, which has been normalized today with social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, where companies have turned everyday citizens into brand ambassadors. Social media platforms have changed the nature of advertising by collapsing space between celebrities and the public. While this shift has democratized and expanded who can hold the power to influence culture, it has also allowed advertisers to usurp habits of everyday life to feed the commercial machine of capitalism. Interview’s use of brands and advertising was a prescient model for this trend of brand takeover.

“Warhol’s social circle was a collision of different worlds,” said Tyler Shine, assistant curator of art. “He skillfully managed to mix the downtown art scene with socialites, celebrities, and the publishing industry. This exhibition not only highlights these connections, but also the strategies Warhol used to make it possible.”

By presenting the intersections between Warhol’s commissioned portraits, Interview and television, this exhibition responds to the ongoing question— “How would Warhol operate in our modern world of social media?”—with a complex look at how he predicted the modern obsession with celebrity culture and contemporary society’s new habit of documenting, sharing and branding our everyday lives.

Andy Warhol’s Social Network: ‘Interview’, Television and Portraits is curated by Jessica Beck, chief curator with Tyler Shine, assistant curator and Isabella Hanley, Fine Foundation fellow.

A free public opening celebration of the exhibition featuring music collective Axel F. (DJs Adrian Loving, Jahsonic and DJ Smi) with music ranging from Warhol’s days at Studio 54, Area, The Palladium, Mudd Club and the Paradise Garage will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2022 from 8–10 p.m. at The Warhol. A video installation curated by Adrian Loving featuring classic images from 1980s New York club culture, clips from Warhol’s television shows Fashion, Warhol TV and Fifteen Minutes along with Interview magazine covers will be on view throughout the evening. Reservations are required. Visit warhol.org.

Additional public programs are being organized and will be announced at a later date.

A press preview of the exhibition that includes a tour with Jessica Beck, chief curator, and Tyler Shine, assistant curator, will be held on Friday, September 23, 2022 at 3:30 p.m. at The Warhol. Reservations are required. Email press@warhol.org.