The George Lindemann Journal by George Lindemann

Marilyn Monroe, Meet Paris Hilton

'Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years'
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sept. 18-Dec. 31

Museums tend to give Andy Warhol a fresh look every, oh, 15 minutes, but on Sept. 18, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art plans to explore the Pop master's influence on contemporary art—in an ambitious, definitive way—by pairing his works with dozens of artists who have come since. It's a bold move for the Met, which is still better known for showing art older than 20th-century masters.

Some of the pairings in "Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years" make easy sense: Early on, Warhol scoured newspapers for banal advertisements and gory stories to silk-screen into fine art, a move quickly picked up by German artist Sigmar Polke. (Polke's 1964 work in the show, "Plastic Tubs," still feels catalog cheery.)

The museum also explores Warhol's Popsicle-colored self portraits, below, as well as portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. A few of them will hang alongside photographer Cindy Sherman's glossy self-portraits and painter Karen Kilimnik's portrait of real-estate heiress Paris Hilton. In a wry twist, Ms. Kilimnik titled her 2005 work "Marie Antoinette Out for a Walk at Her Petite Hermitage, 1750."

Other sections of the 145-work exhibit look at the sexuality and gender politics enveloped within Warhol's cryptic persona. By donning that silver wig and making films with a Factory full of friends and lovers, he arguably convinced a cloistered art establishment to take in all comers. That includes British painter David Hockney, whose "Boy About to Take a Shower" from 1964 will get matched with Warhol's 1977 "Torso from Behind."

The museum will also make the case that Warhol's fondness for papering gallery walls with repeated images of his art helped usher in the wall-to-wall installations so popular today. At the least, Polly Apfelbaum's flowery floor piece from 2007, "Pink Crush," could be the coolest thing the Met ever laid down.