Behind-the-Scenes at the Whitney’s Installation of their New Andy Warhol Retrospective

Ahead of the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Andy Warhol retrospective, From A to B and Back Again, we sent the photographer Daniel Arnold, fresh off his cross-country trip exploration of the Warhol sitters for our fall issue, to capture the installation of Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper. We’re told it’s the first time the museum has ever allowed a photographer to document the mounting of a show, which opens this weekend and runs through March 2019. The wallpaper first debuted at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1996 and was made, allegedly, at the behest of the art dealer Ivan Karp, who asked Warhol to, well, paint some cows. Upon seeing Warhol’s cow heads, Karp famously burst out, “They’re super pastoral! They’re ridiculous! They’re blazingly bright and vulgar!” And now they’re in a museum.