Andy Warhol at the Musée du Luxembourg

Categories : Exhibition, published on : 8/20/26

The exhibition not to miss in Paris this autumn

Paris welcomes one of the most anticipated art events of the season this autumn. From 16 September 2026, the Musée du Luxembourg presents Andy Warhol. Line and Image, an exhibition exploring a lesser-known facet of the American artist: his drawn work. It's a must for any art lover passing through the capital.

Warhol the draughtsman: a lesser-known side of the pop art icon

Think of Andy Warhol and you think of screen prints, Campbell's soup cans, serialised portraits of Marilyn Monroe, rarely of drawings. That's precisely the premise of this exhibition: to show that line and gesture accompanied Warhol from the very beginning of his career to its very end, from his first Self-Portrait in 1942 to the preparatory sketches for The Last Supper in 1986.

Trained as an illustrator, Warhol never gave up drawing, even after adopting the mechanical processes for which he became famous. The show reveals a restless experimenter: portraits, caricatures, genre scenes, advertising illustrations. It was through this constant practice of drawing that Andrew Warhola became Andy Warhol, gradually shaking off the influences of Klee, Picasso, Cocteau and Shahn.

A journey in five parts

The exhibition unfolds across five thematic sections, tracing:

his beginnings as a commercial illustrator
his fascination with handwriting
his obsession with faces and masks
a gay iconography that remained largely private for decades
his reflections on death, which became central after the 1968 assassination attempt

After a decade devoted to painting and then film, Warhol returned to drawing in the 1970s, this time in service of his commissioned portraits, the portrait of Mao being the most celebrated example. Drawing became a testing ground, where colour and composition choices were worked out before making their way onto canvas.

Inside The Factory

With around 150 drawings brought together alongside paintings, screen prints, photographs and archival documents, the exhibition reveals the techniques Warhol devised to reproduce and multiply his images: stamps, transferred lines, stencils, collage. Rare, sometimes previously unseen pieces offer a glimpse into the artist's New York studio, The Factory, and into the ongoing dialogue between hand and machine that defines his entire body of work.

Practical information

Venue: Musée du Luxembourg, 19 rue de Vaugirard, 75006 Paris
Dates: 16 September 2026 – 10 January 2027
Opening hours: 10:30am – 7pm (late opening Mondays until 10pm)
Audience: all ages

Staying close to Paris's major exhibitions

Hôtel Fabric, tucked away in the 11th arrondissement, is the perfect base for exploring Paris's major exhibitions. After a morning spent among Warhol's drawings and a stroll through the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg, head to the Marais to wander between contemporary art galleries and neighbourhood addresses, before returning to your room for a well-earned rest.

Book your stay at Hôtel Fabric and make this exhibition the starting point of your next Parisian escape.

Exhibition running from 16/09/2026 to 10/01/2027. Open daily, 10:30am – 7pm. Late opening on Mondays until 10pm.