New Exhibit Exploring Warhol’s Czechoslovak Roots Opens in Prague

Family photos, audio recordings, and more will augment the largest collection of Warhol paintings in the Czech Republic

Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas

Written by Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas Published on 08.12.2016 09:22:27 (updated on 08.12.2016) Reading time: 1 minute

The Gallery of Art Prague (GOAP) has announced on its Facebook page that it will open Warhol/Warhola! an expansion of its collection, the largest in the Czech Republic, of the American pop-art icon’s paintings, on December 9.

The exhibit will include unique family photographs, documents, audio recordings, and other objects that explore Andy Warhol’s Czechoslovak roots—Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, but his parents emigrated from the small village of Miková in northeastern Slovakia.

The exhibit, which will commemorate thirty years since the visionary artist’s death in February 1986, purports to be the most comprehensive collection of Warholia ever assembled.

Photo: Wikpedia / UA-Lora
Photo: Wikpedia / UA-Lora

According to a report from Aktualne.cz, exhibit curators Rudo Prekop and Michal Cihlář have been collecting memorabilia linked to Warhol’s early life and career for more than twenty years.

The exhibit is a culmination of the duo’s years of combined research, tirelessly scouring not only Pittsburgh and New York City, but Slovak villages in an effort to create a paper trail associated with the Warhol family.

The largest part of the exhibit is devoted to Warhol’s mother Julia, an artist in her own right; it also includes photographs of Warhol’s elusive birth certificate. The name of the exhibition refers to the family name Varkhola, later Americanized to Warhola.

GOAP curently hosts an on-going Warhol exhibit that includes some forty LPs designed by the artist from 1949-1987, as well as seperate Mucha and Dali exhibitions.

For more details visit www.goap.cz.

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