August 16 – November 2, 2008
American Pop is organized around the special display of Andy Warhol's Athletes Series. Begun in 1977 and completed in 1979, the 10 paintings capture the decade's athletic superstars with the late-20th-century's ultimate expression of fame—a Warhol silk-screened portrait. The story behind how Warhol came to photograph and "paint" Dorothy Hamill, Muhammad Ali, Pele and Jack Nicklaus reveals the ongoing importance of friendships between patrons and artists in contemporary art. Additional works drawn from regional collections along with the Crocker's own holdings tell the story of how Andy Warhol and other artists made Pop one of the most successful, yet controversial movements of the era.