Warhol Museum at Expo, 2013

This past Saturday, I made my way down to Navy Pier for the first time ever (and I've lived in Chicago for 5 years), only to find myself feeling annoyed by all the tourists blocking my way and anxious to get through the crowds as fast as possible. I started the day feeling refreshed, inspired, and eager to see what the international art world brought to the Midwest. However, after being lost in crowds trying to ride the ferris wheel, and attempting to find the Festival Hall that Expo was taking place at, I found myself feeling  progressively more and more annoyed by the flood of people running around trying to get a picture with the pirate sculptures at the pier. Upon entering Expo, I put on headphones to drown out the crowd, and made my way through the right side of the hall, quickly glancing at work, not really feeling inclined to stop and look at any pieces. When I made my way to the back of the festival hall, I immediately stopped and took a moment to breathe, as a few monochrome Andy Warhol photographs caught my attention. I was drawn to the Warhol Museum's exhibition as the subject matter was something I was familiar with. The Warhol Museum was exhibiting five prints by photographer William John Kennedy, that were taken in the year of 1964. The exhibition was comprised of four hand-printed silver gelatin photographs and one chromogenic print, which were all large-scale, alongside mounted excerpts, essays and descriptions. 

The first mounted excerpt was the Foreword which stated that photographer William John Kennedy was able to capture remarkably intimate portraits of Andy Warhol, who was a very private person and a very public artist. The first photograph of the exhibition is the Homage to Warhol's Marilyn, 1964. Kennedy stated that Marilyn Monroe was a personification of the duality of the celebrity, embracing both the glamorous and tragic aspects. 

"The image is a thought-provoking and revealing portrait of the artist's conflicted and brilliant personality-one which Warhol carefully protected from the public eye throughout his lifetime by developing a deliberate public persona of studied detachment and aloofness." 

The Andy Warhol Museum is located in Pittsburgh, PA. They are currently housing a retrospective of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge's (of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV) works over the years.