Via Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary:
Calgary prepares to play host to Andy Warhol, icon of Pop art for an exclusive, limited engagement. Legendary Athletes are paired with a legendary artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary (MOCA) as MOCA Calgary presents the full suite of 10 Warhol paintings in his Athlete series supplemented by related works from Alberta collections. Organized by MOCA, Calgary is the sole Canadian venue.
The Warhol series features paintings of sports stars: Muhammed Ali, O.J. Simpson, Pele, Jack Nicklaus, Dorothy Hamill, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Chris Evert, Tom Seaver, Willie Shoemaker, and Rod Gilbert.
The series was commissioned in 1977 by Richard Weisman, a New York investment banker who befriended Warhol in the 1970s; it fashions a snapshot of some of the dominant sports figures of the decade. Weisman who combines a passion for both art and sport wanted to do something to bring together these two often disparate worlds. Weisman took on the role of selecting the athletes and bringing them together with the artist. Warhol and Weisman travelled together all across the USA to meet and create the athlete portraits. More than simply the financial ‘producer’ Weisman acted as liaison smoothing relations between the artist and his subjects.
As complement to the Warhol works on view from Mr. Weisman’s collection, we present: Great Moments in Pop: featuring works by Warhol from Alberta collections.
Further, this adjunct exhibition presents the work of respected Calgary artists that reflect upon the multiple themes of sport and art as well as homages, riffs and variations upon signature Warhol themes and styles (including Shelley Ouellet, Chris Cran, John Will and Billy McCarroll).
Also see Kyle Shewfelt's post on the exhibit here.