Warhol Exhibit Draws a Throng

From the red-vested valets who greeted patrons in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art to the tented patio where museumgoers waited for their turn inside the gallery, it was clear that the Andy Warhol retrospective that opened Saturday was something special.

About 4,000 people attended the opening day of the exhibition, the largest such day for a MOCA show since the museum opened in 1986. Many attendees had received tickets ahead of time as part of their MOCA membership, but others bought $17 tickets at the door.

Visitors to the museum were almost unanimous in their praise for the exhibit, which spans Warhol’s career from his earliest pen-and-ink drawings to the “Last Supper” renderings created shortly before his death from a heart attack after routine surgery in 1987. Many said they had known little about Warhol beyond his iconic portraits of Mao, Elvis and Marilyn.

“Mostly, we are really getting a better understanding of his work,” said Erika Rosemark, 80, a retired teacher from Sherman Oaks who brought along friend Sylvia Weishaus to see the show. “We’ve seen the soup can, the Jackie Kennedy--but the early works give you a real clear vision of the seeds of what he did later. We’re trying to go through it chronologically.”

Warhol’s brightly colored, silk-screened canvases drew praise from even the youngest attendees, and the exhibition afforded parents an opportunity to teach their children a little bit about American pop culture.

“I think it’s pretty neat,” said Hadley Hendon, 7, of West Hollywood, standing in front of a collection of Brillo soap, Campbell’s soup, Del Monte tomato and Heinz ketchup boxes rendered in silk-screen on plywood. “I like all of the self-portraits; I just think they’re amazing. He looks like Freddy in ‘Scooby-Doo.’”

Debbie Haber of Encino, pushing a double stroller containing daughters Tess, 3, and Sophie, 15 months, said most of the images are ones that even the youngest of children can understand.

“Although Tess asked what an electric chair was,” she added, “and we said it was just a chair.”

Other guests praised the breadth of the collection, which occupies every room of the museum and includes more than 240 works.

“I grew up in Los Angeles, and I’ve been exposed to Andy Warhol since my earliest memories,” said Al Underwood, 38, as he stood with friend Jacey Erwin, 29, in a room that contained, among others, Warhol paintings of green Coke bottles and Campbell’s soup cans. “I was exposed to Warhol, but I didn’t know Warhol. Here, my whole life experience with this particular artist can be distilled down, compared and contrasted. I can get a sense of what it all means.”

Los Angeles is the only American city to host the Warhol retrospective, which debuted at the New National Gallery in Berlin in October. The city of Los Angeles contributed $250,000 to bring the exhibition here.

Tricia Cary, 24, drove from Ventura County to MOCA early Saturday with her mother-in-law, Eileen Hamilton. By noon, the women had seen the entire show and were waiting for a valet to bring them their car.

“I’m the Warhol fan,” said Cary. “And I loved it.”

Cary said that she felt drawn to Warhol’s “disaster” images, a series of canvases depicting, among other things, car crashes, atomic bombs and race riots. “You don’t like to look at the atomic bomb or scenes of destruction, but you are drawn to them.”

“With Warhol,” Hamilton added, “even the disturbing is appealing.”