Andy Warhol at the Frist
Ever wondered where the phrase “fifteen minutes of fame” came from? What does this famous phrase and Cambell’s soup products have in common? The answer would be the famous American painter, filmmaker and graphic designer Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the son of an immigrant family. He attended Carnegie Mellon University in his hometown of Pittsburgh concentrating in commercial art. He eventually landed a job at RCA Records to design album cover art and promotional materials. Warhol later founded his own art studio known as “The Factory” and began including famous celebrities of the time in his artwork. Among many, some of his most famous works of art include pieces of art featuring Marilyn Monroe and Elvin Presley.
This summer, I was fortunate enough to see the travelling exhibit of Warhol’s work at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in downtown Nashville. The exhibit was great and had a large selection of Warhol’s work including album covers from his early days at RCA records to a lot of the pop art that made Andy Warhol a household name. The exhibit did a great job of including other pieces of Warhol’s work from “The Factory” that I had never hear of before and it was really exciting to see these pieces. I also learned that Mick Jagger, a member of The Rolling Stones, was a very good friend of Warhol’s.
Next to the Warhol exhibit, the Frist Center features the work of Vesna Pavlovic, an assistant professor of art at Vanderbilt University. This exhibit was also interesting and contains photographs from Pavlovic’s native Serbia as well others relating to a central theme of projected histories. So, if you are looking for something to do downtown in Nashville, consider visiting the Frist Center. Both of these will close on September 11th so be sure to stop by before then!