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What You Need to Know: Indianapolis’s Long-Sharp Gallery is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a delightful exhibition of nearly two dozen of Andy Warhol’s non-commercial drawings—many of which are on view to the public for the first time. The show “Andy Warhol: A Survey of Portrait and Figurative Drawings from the Mid-1950s” opened on what would have been Warhol’s 93rd birthday (August 6, 1928)  Each of the drawings have come to the gallery from the artist’s estate (some have never even been framed before) and a seventy-page catalog commemorating the exhibition is also being published. Those in Indianapolis should be sure to catch the exhibition in person, but for those further afield the gallery has an interactive virtual tour as well. 

Why We Like It: Warhol’s drawings from the 1950s capture whimsical moments with a satirist’s eye. The exhibition is divided into a few categories that offer a window in drawings place in Warhol’s practice including portraits made while traveling, those of famous women, scenes of dancing, drawings inspired by his time spent in the studio of his friend Otto Fenn, and a few drawings from his unpublished “Studies for a Boy Book.” Mostly made with ballpoint pen, the drawings are informal and playfully clever. 

According to the Gallery: “This exhibit looks principally at Warhol’s non-commercial work from the mid-1950s, and 15 of the drawings are being exhibited for the first time since his death. The exhibit is educational; it looks at Warhol’s life at the time the works were made and what (may have) influenced the compositions. Particularly exciting is a very rare self-portrait from the mid-1950s. Most of his early self-portraits are in museums and there is one offered here for acquisition. According to the Artnet Price Database, only two self-portraits on paper between 1940 and 1960 have crossed the auction block in the last 20 years.”

Andy Warhol
Untitled (Female Figure Seated) (1954)
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Andy Warhol, Untitled (Female Figure Seated) (1954). Courtesy of Long-Sharp Gallery.

Andy Warhol
Untitled (Woman Reading Letters) (1955)
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Andy Warhol, Untitled (Woman Reading Letters) (1955). Courtesy of Long-Sharp Gallery.

Andy Warhol
Young Male (1956)
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Andy Warhol, Young Male (1956). Courtesy of Long-Sharp Gallery.

Andy Warhol
Untitled (Female Figure) (1955)
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Andy Warhol, Untitled (Female Figure) (1955). Courtesy of Long-Sharp Gallery.

Andy Warhol
Untitled (Dancing Couple) (1954)
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Andy Warhol, Untitled (Dancing Couple) (1954). Courtesy of Long-Sharp Gallery.

“Andy Warhol: A Survey of Portrait and Figurative Drawings from the Mid-1950s” is on view at Long-Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, through September 25, 2021.