Kunst Museum, Zurich appears in Andy Warhol’s diary as the setting for a May 1978 retrospective and a brief press appearance. The visit brings together the public presentation of his career and his private reluctance to look back at the work that had made it recognizable.

The Zurich Visit

On Thursday, May 25, 1978, Warhol went to the museum for a press conference. His diary places the appointment within an ordinary morning in Zurich: he got up at seven, wanted soft-boiled eggs, bought newspapers, and took a cab to the museum. The matter-of-fact details set the scene for an appearance organized around his image and his earlier art.

Press Conference and Retrospective

Warhol did not have to speak at the press conference; people were there to take photographs. He found it difficult to look at the retrospective and wrote that he pretended to look at the walls. The museum visit thus records both the public display of his past work and his resistance to confronting it directly.

He spent about two hours signing Campbell’s Soup Cans, portfolios, and other materials. The signing turned the retrospective into a series of encounters with familiar works and their printed forms, while the press conference made his presence itself part of the event.

The Missing Pictures

Warhol noted that Peter Brant had not sent his pictures. The diary does not specify which pictures he meant or explain their role in the exhibition, so the omission remains a brief but distinct detail in his account of the visit. Set beside the retrospective and the signing, it gives the museum scene an unfinished edge: Warhol was surrounded by reminders of his earlier work, yet not all the pictures expected from Brant had arrived.