I grew up in Pittsburgh, and every visit home as an adult included a stop at the Warhol, housed in a grand neoclassical building in the shadow of downtown and looking out, appropriately, onto the Heinz factory along the Allegheny with its dual smokestacks emblazoned with the 5 and the 7. Each floor of the seven-story former Volkwein Music store is devoted to a period of Warhol’s life, allowing the visitor to commune with glittering screen gems, auto wrecks and electric chairs. Now the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio duplicates that experience, dipping into the Warhol’s considerable coffers to organize an exclusive Texas presentation, “Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune.” McNay chief curator René Paul Barilleaux digs deep into the museum’s troves to serve up three decades of the Pop king’s obsession with the dual side of media glitz, juxtaposing skulls and suicides with the visages of Jackie, Marilyn and Liza. Like a Star headline or a train wreck, we can’t look away. Through May 20 at the McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels, San Antonio, 210.824.5368; mcnayart.org.
IMAGE: Above: Andy Warhol’s Jackie, 1964, at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio. Photo © 2012 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.