“... The painting by [Warhol] that most awed the class was of Phipps Conservator in Schenley Park. Andy created a painting of a young girl, possibly a classmate, sitting in front of the greenhouse’s all-glass façade and dome, which he transformed into a veritable fairyland by bestowing every imaginable color on the scores of glass panels which comprised the structure. All of us thought it wonderfully inventive, never dreaming that his clothing of the conservatory in a coat of many colors was based on observation. It had escaped everyone else’s notice that the panes of glass in the main section of the 19^th-century building were actually old glass plate negatives. Andy discovered this years before, that if you were inside looking out, [you] could see the faint images on some of the panels. For his painting, Andy simply noted the rainbow effect of the sun’s rays as they moved across the edifice.”
—Bennard B. Perlman, classmate of Warhol’s at Carnegie Tech

Created during the artist’s time at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Girl in Park (Phipps), 1948, offers a unique look into the early practice of the 20^th century art and pop culture icon, Andy Warhol. An example of the artist’s nascent painterly style and a precursor to the silkscreen practice for which he would become known, the present work depicts a girl sitting at Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park in Warhol’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Using a variety of colors and textures to mimic the rainbow effect of the Conservatory roof, the present work explores Warhol’s playful side.

Warhol painted Girl in Park under the instruction of Carnegie Tech professor Sam Rosenberg, one of Warhol’s favorite and most influential instructors. The work, along with Boy and Tree and Nosepicker II, have been in the collection of the Warhola family since Andy created the works, presenting a rare opportunity to acquire an early work by the artist.

Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania
- Provenance
  Bequeathed by the artist to the present owners circa 1950
- Exhibited
  Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, Success is a Job in New York: The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol, March 14, 1989–September 9, 1990
  Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland Museum of Art (on loan)
  Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum, February 3, 2010–April 1, 2019 (on loan)
  Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum, Andy Warhol: The College Years, August 6, 2010–January 2, 2011
  Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pearlstein | Warhol | Cantor: From Pittsburgh to New York, May 30–September 6, 2015; then traveled as New York, Betty Cunningham Gallery, Pearlstein | Warhol | Cantor: from Carnegie Tech to New York, December 3, 2015–March 5, 2016, pp. 30, 59 (illustrated, p. 30)
  Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Andy Warhol: Now October 10, 2020–February 21, 2021; then traveled as Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario; Dallas Museum of Art, Andy Warhol, March 27–June 13, 2021, fig. 5, pp. 14, 15, 210, 216 (illustrated, p. 14)
- Literature
  Callie Angell, et. al., The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, 1994, p. 146 (illustrated)
  Rudo Prekop and Michal Cihlář, Andy Warhol and Czechoslovakia, New York, 2011, p. 116 (illustrated)
  Anthony E. Grudin, Like A Little Dog: Andy Warhol's Queer Ecologies, Oakland, 2022, fig. 11, pp. 28, 30, 211 (illustrated, p. 30)
- Artist Biography
  Andy Warhol
  American • 1928 - 1987
  Andy Warhol was the leading exponent of the Pop Art movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. Following an early career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol achieved fame with his revolutionary series of silkscreened prints and paintings of familiar objects, such as Campbell's soup tins, and celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe. Obsessed with popular culture, celebrity and advertising, Warhol created his slick, seemingly mass-produced images of everyday subject matter from his famed Factory studio in New York City. His use of mechanical methods of reproduction, notably the commercial technique of silk screening, wholly revolutionized art-making.
  Working as an artist, but also director and producer, Warhol produced a number of avant-garde films in addition to managing the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founding Interview magazine. A central figure in the New York art scene until his untimely death in 1987, Warhol was notably also a mentor to such artists as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
  
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