Money on the Wall: Andy Warhol

Money on the Wall: Andy Warhol
Curated by Blake Gopnik
18th October, 2024 – 27th April, 2025
Spritmuseum
Djurgårdsstrand 9
115 21 Stockholm

In the upcoming exhibition at Spritmuseum, Money on the Wall: Andy Warhol, curated by renowned art critic Blake Gopnik, the focus centers on what Warhol famously called “Business Art”—a concept he described as “the step that comes after art.”

“Those who say Andy Warhol was a sell-out aren’t wrong,” Gopnik states. “Business Art was one of his most significant and impactful creations. From the beginning, the dollar bill was one of his favorite motifs.”

From the launch of his Pop Art in 1961, Warhol deliberately intertwined his work with the commercial ethos of the consumer culture he portrayed. By the late 1960s, Warhol had fully embraced—and indeed helped to pioneer—a new wave of conceptual art that turned business and finance into the very materials of creation. He coined this approach “Business Art,” an artistic evolution that acknowledged the reality that Western modern life revolves around money and the power it wields. Warhol’s art not only depicted this truth but demanded viewers confront it head-on.

Andy Warhol, $, 1982, Polymer paint, 61×76.2 cm. © 2024
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The exhibition begins with a look at Warhol’s career in the 1950s as a commercial artist. It then explores his quintessential Pop Art pieces, which address themes of economics, commerce, and commodification. A notable highlight is Soap Opera, an early work combining real TV commercials with spontaneous scenes enacted by Warhol’s entourage.

Money on the Wall includes a collection of Warhol’s purely commercial works, such as video ads promoting products as varied as laxatives and ice cream. It also showcases pieces where Warhol appears as an advertising model, fashion figure, filmmaker, and even restaurateur.

The exhibition expands its scope to include a group of postwar artists like Yves Klein, Chris Burden, and Lee Lozano, who, like Warhol, engaged with commerce and finance to create art that speaks to our economic realities. The final section presents contemporary artists working in a similar vein, featuring names like Darren Bader, Andrea Fraser, Takashi Murakami, Carey Young, and the American collective MSCHF.

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“These artists provide crucial context, shedding new light on Warhol’s so-called ‘sell-out’ period during the 1970s and 80s,” notes Mia Sundberg, curator at Spritmuseum. “This includes his lucrative portrait commissions, Absolut Vodka ads, and reinterpretations of Edvard Munch’s iconic lithographs.”

Blake Gopnik, born in 1963, is an American art historian and critic based in New York. As one of the foremost experts on Warhol, he authored the definitive biography Warhol in 2020. Drawing from years of archival research and extensive interviews with Warhol’s circle of friends, lovers, and rivals, the book offers an in-depth exploration of Warhol’s groundbreaking ideas and their lasting influence on the art world.