After a near four-month closure due to covid-19 precautions, the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, will reopen to the public on July 5 with Andy Warhol: Revelation, the largest exhibition devoted to a founder of Pop Art and one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century to be held in the region. 

The museum will follow state and CDC guidelines for reopening, including revised hours and face mask requirements. Museum Director Stephen Reily said in a statement, "My colleagues and I will be wearing masks ourselves and using our state-of-the-art air filtration system, reduced admission levels, and time-ticketing to make sure our guests understand and prioritize those concerns as well.”

“We are also excited to offer free admission to all frontline healthcare workers for one full year (through June 30, 2021). People who work in hospitals, ambulances, and nursing homes are putting their own lives at risk to care for others and for our community, and we want to thank and welcome them to the Speed," Reily concluded.

“The Speed is honored to share this monumental exhibition with Louisville and our region, and we’re also proud to partner with Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, which holds the largest collection of Warhol’s work in the world, as the exhibition’s only regional venue. Featuring many of Warhol’s greatest masterpieces, Andy Warhol: Revelation also reflects the Speed’s longtime commitment to contemporary art, currently overseen by our Curator of Contemporary Art, Miranda Lash,” stated Reily.

Andy Warhol: Revelation tells the story of Warhol’s career through the lens of his lifelong Catholic faith. Born in Pittsburgh to a devout Byzantine Catholic family, Andy Warhol grew up attending mass regularly with his mother, Julia Warhola. Life revolved around the church community in the Warhola family’s Carpatho-Rusyn neighborhood, surrounding Andy in a sea of gilded iconography and Christian imagery, impacting the young artist for decades to come. Revelation uses items within The Warhol’s robust collection of the artist’s early works to trace the influence of those religious roots,
as well as the influence of his mother, Julia, an amateur artist herself, with whom he remained incredibly close until her death in 1972. It is no surprise that a boy who grew up worshiping in front of Byzantine Catholic icons ended up creating some of the most iconic two-dimensional images of the 20th Century.

The exhibition also highlights how Warhol aligned the legacy of iconic Catholic imagery with Pop Art as he reached celebrity status in the 1960s. The artist enacted techniques now synonymous with his name and the Pop Art movement on Renaissance masterworks such as Raphael’s Sistine Madonna and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, as well as on traditional symbols of Catholicism. Revelation also includes an exploration of the iconic female figures in the artist’s life
and in the greater world, such as the Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and his own mother. Through archival materials, drawings, paintings, prints, and film, Revelation explores Warhol’s complex relationship with his Catholic faith as a facet of his identity, and how this tension surfaces in his work even as he reached icon status himself.

Filling the 9,000-square foot third floor of the Speed’s 2016 addition, Revelation will consist of nearly 150 objects from The Andy Warhol Museum’s permanent collection, including rare source material and newly discovered items that provide an intimate look at Warhol’s creative process.

Through both obscure works such as the “sunset” film reel funded by the Catholic Church in 1967, and late masterpieces like the pink Last Supper (1986), the exhibition will present a fresh perspective on the artist. "This exhibition brings forth popular paintings paired with other works that are relatively unknown or rarely discussed within the Warhol canon,” said José Carlos Diaz, chief curator at The Andy Warhol Museum. “I am thrilled for this exhibition to travel to The Speed
and thankful for their support, enthusiasm, and scholarly contribution to the publication."

Andy Warhol: Revelation is curated by José Carlos Diaz, chief curator at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and includes a full-color catalog with contributions from Diaz and Miranda Lash. The exhibition opens at the Speed Art Museum on July 5, 2020, and was previously shown in Pittsburgh.

For more information, visit speedmuseum.org.