Posted: 01 Jun 2012
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Pittsburgh, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum is proud to present "Heroes & Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross" on view at the museum through January 8th 2012. "Heroes & Villains" is the first museum exhibition celebrating the artwork of Alex Ross, today’s foremost comic book artist. Ross, acclaimed for the photorealism of his work is often referred to as “the Norman Rockwell of the comics world.” Heroes & Villains features over 130 works represented as paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures from Ross’s personal collection. The pieces range from a crayon drawing of Spider-Man that he created at the age of four through to today’s paintings. This exhibition outlines Ross’s career of redefining comic books and graphic novels for a new generation of followers of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and other classic comic book superheroes. The exhibition also includes original artwork by Frank Bez, J.C. Leyendecker, Andrew Loomis, Norman Rockwell, and Lynette Ross (Ross’s mother and a successful commercial illustrator), as well as artworks and archival material from The Andy Warhol Museum collection.
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1970 and raised in Lubbock, Texas, Alex Ross grew up in a world of colorful, painted images. His interest in the difference between right and wrong was influenced by his father Clark, a minister, who instilled a strong moral framework in Ross. Ross’s mother, Lynette, was a successful illustrator in the 1940s and 1950s, the same time that Warhol was creating his commercial illustrations in New York City. By the time Ross was 13 years old he was drawing and scripting comic books. At the age of 17, Ross went on to study painting at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he was influenced by Salvador Dali’s hyperrealism, as well as by such classic American illustrators as Norman Rockwell and Joseph Christian Leyendecker. Ross began his professional career as a storybook artist for an advertising agency. At the age of 19 Ross received his first comic assignment from Marvel Comics – a comic titled 'Terminator: The Burning Earth'. Five years later, Ross created the illustrations and cover art for 'Marvels', a full feature comic book, designed along with writer Rick Busiek. Ross’s photorealistic gouache technique showcases superheroes and villains such as Spider-Man, the Human Torch, Captain America and Galactus. His sophomore project, 'Kingdom Come', is a comic in which an alternate DC Universe is filled with aging superhero forces including Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern, who come out of retirement to fight modern superhumans. Thanks to his talents, Ross would go on to win the Comic Buyer’s Guide Award for Favorite Painter seven times in a row, resulting in the retirement of the category. Ross has graciously prepared an original artwork for The Warhol – a painting of Andy Warhol flying in the air with swans. This original artwork will be available to the public in a limited edition poster exclusively at The Warhol Store. In addition, Warhol’s uncompleted film Batman/Dracula (1964), which has not been on view since 1964, is also included in the exhibition.
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1970 and raised in Lubbock, Texas, Alex Ross grew up in a world of colorful, painted images. His interest in the difference between right and wrong was influenced by his father Clark, a minister, who instilled a strong moral framework in Ross. Ross’s mother, Lynette, was a successful illustrator in the 1940s and 1950s, the same time that Warhol was creating his commercial illustrations in New York City. By the time Ross was 13 years old he was drawing and scripting comic books. At the age of 17, Ross went on to study painting at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he was influenced by Salvador Dali’s hyperrealism, as well as by such classic American illustrators as Norman Rockwell and Joseph Christian Leyendecker. Ross began his professional career as a storybook artist for an advertising agency. At the age of 19 Ross received his first comic assignment from Marvel Comics – a comic titled 'Terminator: The Burning Earth'. Five years later, Ross created the illustrations and cover art for 'Marvels', a full feature comic book, designed along with writer Rick Busiek. Ross’s photorealistic gouache technique showcases superheroes and villains such as Spider-Man, the Human Torch, Captain America and Galactus. His sophomore project, 'Kingdom Come', is a comic in which an alternate DC Universe is filled with aging superhero forces including Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern, who come out of retirement to fight modern superhumans. Thanks to his talents, Ross would go on to win the Comic Buyer’s Guide Award for Favorite Painter seven times in a row, resulting in the retirement of the category. Ross has graciously prepared an original artwork for The Warhol – a painting of Andy Warhol flying in the air with swans. This original artwork will be available to the public in a limited edition poster exclusively at The Warhol Store. In addition, Warhol’s uncompleted film Batman/Dracula (1964), which has not been on view since 1964, is also included in the exhibition.
The Andy Warhol Museum, located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist. Over the course of his career, Andy Warhol transformed contemporary art. Employing mass-production techniques to create works, Warhol challenged preconceived notions about the nature of art and erased traditional distinctions between fine art and popular culture. The Andy Warhol Museum's permanent collection is comprised of more than 8,000 works of art by Warhol including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, film, videotapes, and an extensive archives that consists of ephemera, records, source material for works of art, and other documents of the artist's life. Together, the art and archives make The Andy Warhol Museum the most comprehensive single-artist museum in the world. The Andy Warhol Museum is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and is a collaborative project of the Carnegie Institute, the Dia Art Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (AWFVA). The museum is located in an 88,000-square-foot (8,200 m2) facility on seven floors. Containing 17 galleries, the museum features 900 paintings, close to 2,000 works on paper, over 1,000 published unique prints, 77 sculptures, and 4,000 photographs. In addition to its Pittsburgh location the museum has sponsored 56 traveling exhibits that have attracted close to 9 million visitors in 153 venues worldwide since 1996. Plans for the museum were first announced in October 1989, about 2½ years after Warhol's death. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.warhol.org
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