PITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum announces Adman: Warhol Before Pop, opening April 27, 2018. With the backdrop of 1950s New York and its burgeoning advertising industry, Adman: Warhol Before Pop focuses on the formative years of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. It provides insights into the beginning of Andy Warhol’s career, from his award-winning work as a commercial illustrator through to his first, little-known gallery exhibitions of drawings and artist books. With over 300 objects—from rare drawings and photographs to vintage advertisements, artist books and recreated department store window displays—many on public display for the first time, Adman provides a comprehensive look at Warhol’s first decade in New York.

Children, shoes, album covers, and women’s fashions, dominate this early period of commissioned commercial work and artistic projects. But intimate drawings of young men, archival material from a world tour through Europe and southeast Asia, and drawings produced with his mother, present the complexities of Warhol’s personal journey for success at the start of his career. Foremost to the narrative of this exhibition, Adman lays bare the visual and aesthetic foundation, one dependent on a commercial sensibility, that influenced Warhol’s entire artistic career.

This exhibition is a collaboration between The Andy Warhol Museum and Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney and was curated by Nicholas Chambers, senior curator, modern and contemporary international art at Art Gallery of NSW. The exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum is organized by Jessica Beck, The Warhol’s Milton Fine curator of art.

The Adman: Warhol Before Pop exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by The Andy Warhol Museum and Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney. The hardcover, 248 page book includes over 150 illustrations and essays by Warhol scholars and other experts in their field, providing insight into the beginning of Warhol’s career, from his award‐winning work as a commercial illustrator through to his first, little‐known exhibitions. The publication is available at The Warhol Store