Andy Warhol’s ink drawings, produced in the late 1950s before his famous screenprints, are a rare treat for both Warhol lovers and any fan of great drawings. A whopping 48 of them, along with four television episodes from the late 70s, are on view now at Anton Kern Gallery in New York. The two-floor exhibition, “Andy Warhol: Fashion” is curated by Vincent Fremont, a longtime Warhol collaborator, co-founder of the Andy Warhol Foundation, and producer of Fashion – a public access television show that ran from 1979-80. It’s a look at fashion-connected works that straddle Warhol’s most famous series and may change how you view one of the most famous artists in history.
Warhol’s career began as a commercial artist, producing illustrations for magazines like Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar in his signature-style “blotted line” technique. The delicate, near-dotted-lines of those drawings was produced by pressing a clean sheet of paper over a still-wet ink drawing. Several works in the gallery feature both sheets of paper from the process for a mirrored double image. “Female Head in Flowered Hat” (below) is a standout, revealing areas of pencil that were never inked on the right page. Look closer into the un-inked pupal of the left eye. Even the casually torn edges of the paper and the remnants of aging tape seem to contribute to the overall composition and life of each sheet. Whether intentional or not, I’m so grateful that these drawings are never framed with a mat to hide those edges.
One of the most intriguing aspects of a Warhol drawing is the evidence of intriguing decisions. For example, two different works both titled “Female Fashion Figure” from around 1957 (above) use a sort of white-out line to cover previously traced black lines, creating a sort of pure shadow-like outline on the right figures. The reduction now draws more attention to the tiny flowers on the waist – perhaps foreshadowing or coincidence of the famous flower paintings that Warhol would create about seven years later. More fascinating still, and something to watch even closer, are the drawings on the back side of some pages. Though you can’t turn over the paper, you can often see through the translucency of the paper. In “Seated Girl” for example, a line drawing of several shoes is visible through the paper – just to the left of the young woman (detail below).
Though the drawings are the center of the exhibition, three flatscreens in the gallery are looping episodes from the public access show “Fashion”, produced in 1979-80 by Vincent Fremont and executive produced by Warhol, developed for Manhattan Cable Channel 10. They’re entertaining (I stayed for two full episodes) and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch the intro “logo” of every episode – a two second clip of Warhol himself saying “Fashion”. It’s a spark of just how famous and instantly-recognizable his image and voice would become for years after the drawings while also demonstrating a surprising thread that connects those early drawings to his most famous paintings to his video and magazine work – a fascination, exploration, and participation in fashion, media, and art throughout his entire life.
The Anton Kern Gallery is located just two blocks from The Museum of Modern Art. So I recommend visiting the museum immediately after your time at the gallery to see Warhol’s most famous work: the Campbell’s Soup Cans, painted just a few years after the drawings. The 32 famous canvases at MoMA currently reside on the 4th floor (you’ll see a few amazing flower silkscreens too!). You may even hear an audible buzz before you see the paintings, as that wall always inspires a certain joyous energy in the small crowd gathered near it – which is why it’s so complex and intriguing to see the drawings and the paintings in the same afternoon. Not only does it provide an unexpected angle on Warhol, but there’s a total gear shift of speed. The smaller scale of the paper, the delicate blotted lines, the emerging ghosts of drawings on the verso, and even the time-based medium of the videos on view, all encourage a slower looking that rewards with every step closer.
What: Andy Warhol: Fashion, curated by Vincent Fremont
Where: Anton Kern Gallery, 16 East 55th Street, New York, NY
When: July 9 – August 15, 2025
Note: “Summer hours” are Monday-Friday 10am-6pm
All artwork and installation images courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, photographed by Izzy Leung.
Detail photographs by the author, David Behringer.