CITYist

Although the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announced in September that the remaining Warhol gems in their collection will be auctioned off, we can really only afford a can of chicken noodle soup and some imagination right now. Thankfully, the Metropolitan Museum of Art shop is filled with Warhol-inspired goodies for those on a budget to accompany the show, running now through Dec. 31.

On Tuesday, October 10, 2010, the Italian fashion brand Sisley (of the Benetton Group) exhibited and auctioned off a collection of one-of-a-kind motorcycle jackets specially painted by today’s most noted pop artists. Curated by Glenn O’Brien, the exhibition was launched at a gala during Milan Fashion Week, and the pieces were sold online and at Christie’s in New York on November 8 to benefit the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

If Andy Warhol was a woman, and that woman was a garden, how might it grow? Photographers Paul Solberg and Christopher Makos, longtime friends who collaborate in a prank-infused partnership dubbed “The Hilton Brothers,” set out to answer this strange question in their exhibit “Andy Dandy.” The show is a collection of diptyches—paired pictures—with Warhol in drag and vibrant blooms.

Andy Warhol bought a pair of Ferragamo shoes. One day, he got paint on them. And then, many, many years later, after the iconic artist’s death, the Ferragamo family won them back at auction. Interestingly, they were also the only men’s model Ferragamo ever designed—and now you can buy a replica of Warhol’s shoes, paint splatters and all.

Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) Self-Portrait (Strangulation), 1978. Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, ten parts. 16 x 13 in. (40.6 x 33 cm) each. Anthony d’Offay. © 2010 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Everyone knows Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup cans. Wander on down to MoMA and you can gaze at them any day. Less famous, however, is the work from his later years, during which he was more prolific and, arguably, more creative than at any other point in his career. This summer, the Brooklyn Museum presents the first ever U.S. exhibit of such work, encompassing 50 pieces of pop art, self-portraits and experimentation.