RENO, NV – Photographs of movie stars and images from popular culture were the inspiration for Andy Warhol throughout his print-making career.  This winter more than 100 of Warhol’s iconic prints will be featured at the Nevada Museum of Art (NMA) in Andy Warhol’s Dream America: Screenprints from the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.  The exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of Warhol’s printmaking career, as well as a unique opportunity to view a large selection of complete portfolios featuring some of Warhol’s most recognizable prints—including images of Marilyn Monroe and the Campbell’s Soup cans.  Andy Warhol’s Dream America: Screenprints from the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation will be on exhibit from January 20 through May 27, 2007 at the Nevada Museum of Art.

In his 1985 book AMERICA Andy Warhol wrote, “Everybody has their own America, and then they have pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see… The fantasy corners of America seems so atmospheric because you’ve pieced them together from scenes in movies and music… and you live in your dream America….”  This exhibition provides insight into how Warhol visualized his “Dream America.”

Comprised of works from the collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Andy Warhol’s Dream America includes prints ranging in date from the 1960s to the 1980s and showcases some of Warhol’s most iconic subjects including images of Marilyn Monroe, Jacquelyn Kennedy and Mick Jagger.  Additionally the exhibition presents a selection of lesser known portfolios such as Cowboys and Indians featuring popular Western figures such as John Wayne and Geronimo and Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, which includes images of Albert Einstein and The Marx Brothers.  Other highlights of the exhibition include a series of self-portraits, as well as Warhol’s The Souper, a cotton paper dress decorated with screen prints of the Campbell’s Soup can, and Jonas Mekas’ groundbreaking 12-minute film Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (1964).

“The Nevada Museum of Art is honored to present the work of Andy Warhol, an icon of American art and popular culture whose work continues to impact audiences,” says Steven High, CEO of the Nevada Museum of Art.  “This exhibition will offer our community a rare opportunity to view the range of the artistic output Warhol achieved during his twenty-year career.”

Andy Warhol, one of the most influential and provocative artists of the twentieth century, looked to images of American popular culture, fame, stardom and glamour to create some of the most iconic and defining artwork of our time.  He began making silkscreen prints in 1962 and was highly influential in turning silk-screening into a popular art form rather than a process used solely for commercial purposes.  Although the silkscreen process facilitated the repetition of images, Warhol often made each one unique through subtle variations.  Over the years, he turned everything from Hollywood celebrities to household items into colorful prints, which he made in his downtown New York studio, known as the “Factory.

Nevada Museum of Art, Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Visual Arts, E. L. Wiegand Gallery located at 160 West Liberty Street in downtown Reno.  For more information visit : www.nevadaart.org