Absolut stunning Warhol exhibition in Stockholm

In October the exhibition Money On The Wall: Andy Warhol opened in the Spritmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden. The Spritmuseum is home to the complete Absolut Art Collection, 850 works by 550 artists around the iconic Absolut Vodka bottle – or rather the bottle became iconic because of the artworks – created between 1985 and 2004. First one was the famous ‘black’ bottle by Warhol in 1985, the beginning of one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever.

In 2020 a second but long forgotten blue version of the Absolut bottle, also painted by Warhol in 1985, surprisingly turned up at an auction. For decades just a rumor, it was now proven to be really existing. The blue version now is also part of the Spritmuseum’s Absolut Art Collection, curated by Mia Sundberg.

The Money On The Wall show is the first time Warhol’s blue Absolut Vodka painting is shown to the public. Spritmuseum got Warhol biographer and art critic Blake Gopnik on board to curate the exhibition, with a brilliant focus on Warhol’s business art: his practice of constantly tearing down walls between commerce and fine art, throughout his career.

I am very proud that I was able to contribute to this exhibition by lending three pieces from my collection: two original ink drawings commissioned for record covers in the 1950ies (Trombone By Three on Prestige Records (1957), and Chopin:Nocturnes performed by Jan Smeterlin on the Epic label (1955)), and the mega rare cover for the NBC promotional box Voices And Events (1950). In fact, just like the blue Absolut Vodka painting, all three items have their world première at an exhibition.

Warhol’s two Absolut Vodka paintings, shown together for the first time. It’s remarkable that they have a slightly different size.

Blake Gopnik (r.) and I discussing the 1950 NBC promotional boxes *Night Beat* and *Voices and Events*.

Warhol’s work as a commercial illustrator in the 1950ies.

A handwritten note by Warhol listing different types of money.

Curator Blake Gopnik during his opening speech, in front of some of Warhol’s commissioned portraits. These lucrative commissions brought in the money, that allowed Warhol to also make less commercial to even unsellable paintings, like the Skulls series, Hammer and Sickle series or his infamous Oxidation paintings. Picture Spritmuseum/Part Projects. Photographer Henric Hemmerlind

Warhol as a fashion model, photographed for his portfolio by Christopher Makos.

Cardboard replicas of the Brillo boxes, by Charles Lutz (2013, created for the Armory Show in New york). True to Swedish tradition: also at the Warhol exhibition in Moderna Museet in 1968 cardboard boxes were shown instead of Warhol’s wooden Brillo box sculptures.

Blake Gopnik didn’t stop at Warhol; in order to deeper explore the business art concept, Money on the Wall also places Warhol in a context with artists working on similar themes – from Warhol’s time to the present day: Takashi Murakami, Jens Haaning, Andrea Fraser, Carey Young, Darren Bader, Edvard Munch, the art collective MSCHF, Mason Rothschild…

MSCHF for instance is the art collective behind the Museum Of Forgeries: they bought a genuine Warhol drawing of fairies for $20.000, had it mechanically copied 999 times, and shuffled the original between the fakes. All 1000 were then sold for $250 a piece under the name ‘Possibly Real Copy of Fairies by Andy Warhol’. Three of the ‘possibly real copies’ are on view in the Spritmuseum exhibition, which means at least two fakes made it to a real Warhol exhibition. Brilliant, or what?

Another MSCHF endeavour is the Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag; pictures and explanation below.