Ireland’s largest-ever Andy Warhol exhibition has officially opened in Dublin. Located in the Hugh Lane Gallery, it features 250 works by the queer artist, borrowed from museums and private collections in the US, Canada and Europe.

Visitors to Andy Warhol Three Times Out can expect to see iconic pieces, including the Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, Skulls and Electric Chairs. There are also several popular portraits on show, including of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Chairman Mao and Warhol himself.

The artist’s avant-garde films Empire, Sleep, Kiss and Outer and Inner Space will be displayed too, as will his immersive Silver Cloud sculpture.

Interestingly, there is also a section focusing on the collaborations of Warhol and Irish painter Francis Bacon with acclaimed US artist and photographer Peter Beard. According to curators, this is to provoke “new thinking on the status of these two titans of the 20th century”.

It’s opening week for #AndyWarholThreeTimesOut here at Hugh Lane Gallery! There are still a few tickets available for Friday 6th October. Tickets available here: https://t.co/5ZipIsMdCx

— Hugh Lane Gallery (@TheHughLane) October 2, 2023

Five years in the making, this is Hugh Lane’s first Warhol exhibit, and it aims to celebrate his vision and combination of commercial processes with fine art production. Credited as one of the most important and recognisable artists of the 1900s, he challenged conventional canons in the sector and dismissed traditional distinctions between fine art and popular culture.

As reported by RTÉ, Gallery Director and exhibition Curator Barbara Dawson said it shows how he “utterly changed the way the world experiences art”.

“His work explored the relationship between artistic expression and the flourishing consumer culture of the 1960s, new technology and celebrity status, as well as mortality, in a diverse body of works that underpins his artistic genius.”

Dawson added, “As society navigates the age of social media and surveillance capitalism – how our data is being captured and monetised – it is impossible to overlook Warhol’s prescient vision so relevant to us today.”

The Andy Warhol Three Times Out exhibition will be open in Dublin from today, October 6, to January 28. For more information, visit the Hugh Lane Gallery’s website.