190,000th visitor to the exhibition “Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Party of Life”: Best-attended exhibition since the opening of the museum

On January 21, 2025, state minister Markus Blume together with museum director Achim Hochdörfer, curator Franziska Linhardt and collector Udo Brandhorst welcomed the 190,000th visitor to the exhibition “Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Party of Life.” Lena Linke, a pupil of the Samuel-Heinicke-Fachoberschule, visited the museum with her class and was delighted to receive the exhibition magazine as well as a matching tote bag and exhibition posters. “Party of Life” is the best-attended exhibition in the museum’s history. Thanks to the huge public interest, Museum Brandhorst experienced a record year in 2024 with almost 230,000 visitors in total.

Arts minister Markus Blume stated: “Starting the year with a record number of visitors! I am very happy to welcome the 190,000th visitor to the exhibition ‘Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Party of Life.’ There is great public interest and that is no surprise: the exhibition and the extensive supporting program have been a celebration—from the ‘Long Thursday’ with music, food and drinks to the complementary film program. Museum Brandhorst has brought the creative energy of the pulsating art metropolis of New York to Munich. This is what a modern exhibition concept should look like. Sincere thanks to the whole team!”

Director Achim Hochdörfer is thrilled: “We are overwhelmed by the many people who visited our exhibition ‘Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Party of Life.’ The great interest shows how relevant the works of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring still are today. Created at a time of extreme sociopolitical upheaval, themes such as consumer culture, queerness, the fear of nuclear war, the stigmatization of illness or the striving for community in times of crisis offer numerous connections to the questions and discourses of our own times.”

With “Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Party of Life,” Museum Brandhorst presents the world’s first comprehensive institutional exhibition dedicated to the two artists. The title of the show borrows the motto from Keith Haring’s birthday parties: “Party of Life” relays the cosmos of the 1980s, of MTV, discos, vogueing, hip-hop, New Wave and graffiti. The exhibition traces Haring’s and Warhol’s friendship in this environment. It reveals parallels in their artistic identity, their openness to cooperation and collaborative projects, as well as in their inclusive attitude: Art and its messages should reach as many people as possible.

In addition to famous key works, the exhibition also focuses on film and photo recordings, archive material as well as posters, records and everyday objects. The exhibition at Museum Brandhorst, which houses the largest Warhol collection in Europe with over 120 works , as well as a growing collection of Haring’s works,thus opens up new perspectives on both artists.

The exhibition “Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Party of Life,” curated by Franziska Linhardt, can be seen at Museum Brandhorst until Sunday, January 26, 2025.

Preview: Opening on April 9, 2025: "Five Friends: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly."