GREENWICH, Connecticut — When it comes to Andy Warhol, it seems there’s very little we haven’t seen. But “Andy Warhol,” an exhibition of over 200 works at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, offers a refreshing personal angle on the artist and a few surprising pieces. To get specific: The library has a selection of Warhol’s drawings and gold-foil works — cats, shoes, and flowers — hung in a cozy salon-style display, along with a pair of painted wooden shoes, and a folding hand-painted screen.
“This is the way Peter shows the work in his home and we really wanted to create that atmosphere,” explained Allison Brant, speaking about her art-collecting father, who knew Warhol well, last Sunday at the Greenwich soiree marking the kickoff of the new show. Her tour of the works began with the first one that Brant acquired (at the age of 21) — a drawing of Campbell’s Soup cans — and ended with a portrait of Murray Brant, Allison’s grandfather, in mauve, blue, and pink. Along the way, we passed “The Last Supper” (Warhol’s last project), a towering portrait of Mao, and one of Warhol’s earliest works, a punchy and somewhat raw painting of the comic strip detective Dick Tracy.
“I grew up with Dick Tracy,” Peter Brant explained later. “I used to tell my kids that he was watching them,” he added, and laughed before turning to lead friend Aby Rosen on a personal tour of the show.
Outside, under an enormous white tent, near a smoking spit of roasting lamb, guests including Owen Wilson, Leonardo DiCaprio, May Andersen, Mary Boone, and Jeffrey Deitch swilled cocktails. Party favors included cookies decorated with an image of Warhol’s “Dick Tracy.”