KOBLENZ, GERMANY.-Dr. Martin Irvine, President and Director of Irvine Contemporary, Washington, D.C. is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Celebrity Portraits from the Andy Warhol Factory Years: Photographs by Billy Name, Curtis Knapp, Gerard Malanga & Carl Fischer—The Martin Sanders Collection at the Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany. The exhibition at the Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, was curated by Dr. Beate Reifenscheid, Director, Ludwig Museum. Catalogue published by the museum with an essay by Martin Irvine. Opening reception at the museum: August 26, 11:00.

Celebrity Portraits from the Andy Warhol Factory Years, which was first exhibited at Irvine Contemporary in February 2006, spans exactly two decades of portrait photography surrounding Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York (1963-1983). This exhibition brings together 32 photographs by Gerard Malanga, Billy Name, Carl Fischer, and Curtis Knapp in a unique set from the private collection of New York-based collector Martin Sanders.

Sanders acquired the photographs from Irvine Contemporary and has now assembled one of the most important photography collections from the Warhol years. The exhibition is the first of its kind, presenting many photographs never exhibited before as a curated collection. The exhibition includes the unique color processed self-portrait from the Andy Warhol Screen Test Series by Warhol’s assistant and collaborator, Gerard Malanga, which Malanga produced from frames of the very first Screen Test film as a positive and negative diptych pair. Mr. Sanders has worked closely with Dr. Irvine for the acquisition of this body of photographs and for the museum exhibition, and Dr. Irvine has also written a catalogue essay to accompany the Ludwig Museum exhibition.