Baku, June 24 (AZERTAC). "Life, Death and Beauty" exhibition of Andy Warhol, the famous artist of the 20th century, has opened at the Heydar Aliyev Center.

The exhibition was organized with the support of Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Andy Warhol Museum.

The event brought together representatives of the Andy Warhol Museum, as well as ambassadors of the diplomatic corps accredited in the country, cultural and art figures.

Director of the Heydar Aliyev Center Anar Alakbarov highlighted the exhibitions held at the Centre. He said "our aim is to popularize Azerbaijan in the world, as well as to deliver the country’s realities to the world community and promote our culture".

He also provided information about the activity of the Centre. The project is intended to play an integral role in the intellectual life of the city. Located close to the city center, the site plays a pivotal role in the redevelopment of Baku.

The Heydar Aliyev Center represents a fluid form which emerges by the folding of the landscape’s natural topography and by the wrapping of individual functions of the Center. All functions of the Center, together with entrances, are represented by folds in a single continuous surface. This fluid form gives an opportunity to connect the various cultural spaces whilst, at the same time, providing each element of the Center with its own identity and privacy. As it folds inside, the skin erodes away to become an element of the interior landscape of the Center.

Deputy Director of Andy Warhol Museum Patrick Moore hailed the exhibition at the Heydar Aliyev Centre.

Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became a renowned and sometimes controversial artist. The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives. It is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist.

Warhol’s art encompassed many forms of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. He was also a pioneer in computer-generated art using Amiga computers that were introduced in 1984, two years before his death. He founded Interview Magazine and was the author of numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties. He is also notable as a gay man who lived openly as such before the gay liberation movement. His studio, The Factory, was a famous gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons.

Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame". Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market". Warhol`s works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

The exhibition will last till September 9.