Oh, and no photos allowed inside! I took this in the free parking lot across the street.
My kids and I are huge pop art fans and so we were particularly excited to check out The Andy Warhol Museum which is located in the city of his birth-Pittsburgh. After getting over the sticker shock (it cost the 5 of us $50 to check out the 5 floors) we headed into the theater to watch the looping movie about his life, his art, his movies and his eclectic life. The movie itself was quite interesting and we were excited to wander through the museum and check out some of his more memorable and iconic works.
Sadly, this museum didn't hold a candle to the Met (honestly what museum can???) or even Moma. We quickly came to the conclusion that all the best stuff was either in museums in other big cities or in private collections. I really can't blame the museum for trading on Andy's name and persona but we left kinda sorta feeling ripped off. There was some great stuff by some of Warhol's contemporaries like Basquait and Haring and some weird experiential stuff like floating mylar balloons that you were encouraged to gently swat. The museum also houses the infinite boxes that Warhol and his friends packed up as a sort of archive of the stuff from his studio that was more familiarly known as "The Factory". But they are simply closed boxes-I guess that makes some sort of a statement.
We expected the gift shop to be super cool but even that was a let down. I guess the estate doesn't license much and so there weren't any items with Warhol images on them. If anything, I'd say the film was worth the time but not quite the price of admission seeing you could probably watch in on Netflix. Visit if you've got time and are a devoted Warhol fan. Oh, and BTW, make sure you don't park in the museum parking lot which is a whopping $7. There is literally a free lot around the corner just keep your parking ticket for when you leave.
