Exhibitions

A few weeks before Andy Warhol's sudden death on 22 February 1987, he created his screen print series 'Beethoven 1987'. With it, Warhol not only created one of his last print works, but also an icon of Beethoven's reception in the 20th century. The series was published by Bonn gallery owner Hermann Wünsche, who brought Warhol to the Rhineland several times. It was presented to the public on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of the city of Bonn during the Beethoven Festival in 1989 in the Beethoven Hall. The two motifs for the silkscreen series, illustrations of Joseph Stieler's famous portrait of Beethoven and the autograph of the Moonlight Sonata, also come from the Beethoven-Haus. The special exhibition 'Beethoven by Warhol' traces the development of Andy Warhol's Beethoven portfolio over several years for the first time and places it in the context of his entire oeuvre. With over a hundred works by Andy Warhol, some of which have never been shown in public before, including unknown Beethoven drawings, record covers, trial proofs and silkscreen prints on canvas, as well as numerous ephemera, the themed exhibition highlights an important cultural chapter in the Bonn Republic.