Few artists conjure as many instant images at the mere mention of their name as Andy Warhol. Simply hearing it calls up vivid bursts of colour: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Mao Zedong, Coca-Cola bottles, or the celebrated Campbell’s soup cans. These are images recognisable even to those who rarely frequent museums or galleries – works that over the years have leapt off gallery walls to end up printed on T-shirts, tote bags, diaries, and all manner of everyday objects. In a sense, Warhol himself helped spark this phenomenon, turning pop-culture faces and consumer goods into artistic icons through repetition and serial reproduction. And it is that very same serial reproduction that has popularised his work today – even if via tote bags and T-shirts – replicated endlessly and transformed into a consumer commodity in its own right.
Andy Warhol is, quite literally, everywhere – even in the soup. And in his case, that is no mere turn of phrase: Campbell’s soup cans remain one of the defining emblems of his career. Yet behind that universe of vivid hues, celebrities, and instantly recognisable products hid an artist far more private than his public persona ever let on.
It is precisely this paradox that Andy Warhol. Pop Icons explores – the new exhibition at Palau Martorell featuring more than 180 works by the artist, drawn largely from private collections and therefore rarely accessible to the public. Curated by Edoardo Falcioni and Lola Durán – and produced alongside Arthemisia, the Italian firm behind several major shows at the Martorell – the exhibition brings together paintings, screenprints, drawings, photographs, Polaroids, and personal objects to examine the different facets of the artist. In Falcioni’s words, the aim is to offer “a 360-degree journey through the figure of Andy Warhol”: from the young illustrator who first settled in New York to the creator of pop art’s greatest icons, taking in the man who, always in private, nurtured a profound spiritual life.
Warhol’s Silver Factory arrives in Barcelona
The exhibition also marks a year defined by two anniversaries. On the one hand, it coincides with the 40th anniversary of Warhol’s death on 22 February 1987 – which is why the show will run through April 2027 – on the other, it celebrates four years since Palau Martorell reopened as an exhibition venue under cultural managers Jesús Rodríguez and José Félix Bentz. It was on 21 December 2022 that the neoclassical palace reopened its doors with a showcase dedicated to Joaquín Sorolla and his sun-drenched Mediterranean scenes. Since then, its halls, columns, and vaults have hosted exhibitions by artists such as Fernando Botero, Antoni Clavé, and Alphonse Mucha. Now, four years on, the space has been completely transformed once again to house Warhol’s visual universe and trace the obsessions that shaped his career.
Even before examining individual works, visitors are met with an exhibition design that speaks directly to Warhol’s visual world. Silver-foil-lined walls evoke the Silver Factory, the legendary New York studio where the artist worked and gathered musicians, actors, artists, and leading figures of the era. The silver palette – a nod as well to Warhol’s unmistakable wig – vibrant colours, music, and even brightly patterned cow wallpapers turn Palau Martorell’s two floors into a full-blown explosion of pop.
This scenography leads into eight thematic sections that depart from a strictly chronological order, inviting visitors instead to explore different facets of Warhol’s trajectory and uncover the connections between them.
The intimate Warhol: a genuine devotee
To uncover one of Warhol’s deepest obsessions, however, visitors must leave behind the Silver Factory recreated at Palau Martorell and travel back to his childhood. Born in Pittsburgh in 1928 to a Ruthenian family from the Carpathian region in present-day Slovakia, he grew up in a household steeped in religious tradition. His mother, Julia Warhola, played a foundational role in his life, both personally and in his earliest artistic steps. The two shared an exceptionally close bond, which the artist captured in the tender drawing Mother and Child, featured in the show. Beyond helping him co-create his early works – indeed, he admired her so deeply that he occasionally asked her to sign them alongside him – Julia also passed on her devout Byzantine Catholic faith, which remained with him throughout his life.
Warhol’s spiritual side is especially striking when set against the public image he cultivated, seemingly at ease amid consumerism, stardom, and glamour. He attended Mass throughout his life, kept sacred images at home – the very first icons he collected, predating even his celebrity photographs – and held a special fascination for devotional holy cards. Yet he rarely spoke about his faith outside his closest circle. It was an intimate dimension at odds with the flamboyant, seemingly superficial persona known to the wider public.
Several works in the galleries of Palau Martorell offer a glimpse into this lesser-known universe: four screenprints dedicated to Saint Apollonia and the canvas The Only Way Is In, whose inscription alludes to that quiet spiritual life the artist carried with him throughout his years, keeping it largely out of public view.
Yet these two sides of Warhol were not as far apart as they might appear. Both his religious devotion and his fascination with popular culture shared common ground: an obsession with images and the ways they circulate. Long before turning Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Mao Zedong into pop art icons, Warhol understood the power of devotional prayer cards – small images passed from hand to hand, kept at home, and treasured by collectors. Years later, he would apply that very same logic to film stars and consumer goods, multiplying the faces of public figures and everyday staples such as Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles.
Fame, music, and fashion: the visual archive of an era
Alongside that private dimension, Warhol harboured another, far more visible obsession: celebrity. From a young age, just as he had done with saints, he collected photographs of famous figures and closely tracked the faces filling newspapers and magazines. Over time, celebrities became his primary raw material. Armed with his Polaroid Big Shot camera, he photographed the stars of the day and used the instant prints as a starting point to study faces, select crops, and prepare his subsequent screenprints. The Palau Martorell show allows visitors to trace part of that creative process – even displaying the camera he carried with him everywhere. Each image passed through distinct stages – from photograph to acetate, and from there to colour and print – until becoming a composition ready to be repeated endlessly.
Yet the Polaroids also open a window onto his social circle. Reserved though he was, Warhol moved among some of the most influential figures of his time. Artists, musicians, fashion designers, and public figures all stepped in front of his lens. Among the photographs lining the galleries are images of the Pope and Salvador Dalí, captured alongside Warhol himself – snapshots that help reconstruct the atmosphere of that New York era and the web of relationships surrounding the artist.
In doing so, Warhol built a visual archive of his era. As co-curator Lola Durán recalls, “nobody was anybody until they had been photographed by Andy Warhol in that New York of his time”. Being immortalised by his camera became, in a sense, a passport into the collective imagination. Many of those faces were already omnipresent: Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor dominated magazine covers and cinema screens, while Mao Zedong’s portrait circulated relentlessly across Western media. He also photographed leading fashion designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani, Valentino Garavani, and Gianni Versace, reflecting another of his great passions.
Music occupied an equally central place in his universe. Warhol portrayed icons including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, and his bond with the music world is woven throughout the Palau Martorell itinerary: a soundtrack accompanies much of the visit and takes centre stage in dedicated rooms. One invites visitors to step inside Pop Garden, an immersive installation created by Italian studio Art Media Studio in 2018, well before immersive rooms became a widespread trend, enveloping guests in vibrant flowers, music, and mirrors that multiply every reflection. Elsewhere, music-related artefacts, including several guitars, underscore just how deeply sound was embedded in his creative and social sphere.
Being immortalised by Warhol’s camera became, in a sense, a passport into the collective imagination. Many of those faces were already omnipresent
Not all of his sitters belonged to the jet set, however. In 1975, commissioned by gallerist Luciano Anselmino, Warhol created the series Ladies and Gentlemen, devoted to Black and Latina drag queens from downtown New York. Living on the margins of mainstream fame, these performers were nevertheless accorded the exact same visual treatment as film stars, artists, and fashion designers. Through bold colours and direct frontal portraits, Warhol granted them a place in his pantheon of icons, shining a light on a community rarely positioned at the centre of the artistic and media stage.
Behind the soup cans, Marilyn, and Mao emerges an artist far harder to pigeonhole, possessing many more facets than are commonly acknowledged – a creator who, even as he laid bare the lives of the celebrities he reproduced for the world to see, kept some of his deepest convictions, including his religious devotion, shielded from the public gaze.