Andy Warhol: Mobil at VFA

When Andy Warhol painted Mobil in 1985, the price of gas was about $1.13 a gallon. Living in Manhattan, Warhol didn’t have to drive. He didn’t have a drivers license but he did have a car...and did have to, occassionally, buy gas.

 

Warhol ordered a Rolls Royce from London. "In 1974 he bought a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow," said Mark Loiacono, who curated a show of Warhol’s car-themed works at the Whitney in 2018. "He owned it until he died. It was brown." 

 

 

Actually, it was Walnut over black two-tone, according to Car and Driver magazine. He was always a passenger in the car, which was, reportedly, sometimes driven by people in his circle of celebrity friends, including Liza Minnelli, Truman Capote, Imelda Marcos and Jacqueline Kennedy.

 

In 2016, Warhol’s Rolls, in pristine condition, was purchased by Ron Rivlin, owner of the Andy Warhol Revolver Gallery in West Hollywood. 

 

The iconic Mobil screenprint, available at VFA, is yet another example of how the works of Andy Warhol always seem timely.

 

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The works of Alejandro Cartagena (b.1977) are on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

 

The exhibit received a glowing review in Forbes: “Shot between 2011 and 2012 when Cartagena was out of school, out of work, and down on his luck, Carpoolers has gone on to achieve worldwide acclaim, becoming one of the most important photographic series of the 21st century. A slice of life in Monterrey relatable across continents and cultures.”

 

“My grandfather was a construction worker,” Cartagena told Forbes. “I see (the workers) and I think of my family and our relationship to construction and day laboring. It's part of how I grew up.”

 

Cartagena was born in the Dominican Republic and has lived in Mexico since the age of 13. He became interested in social, urban and geopolitical issues and has used his skills as both a photographer and editor to explore these issues.

 

“If you want a house,” Cartagena asks, “who constructs it? What is the bureaucracy behind the permits to build it? To be efficient, it needs to connect to transportation, utilities, communication, and supply systems. My projects come back to a gut feeling that I need to document this.”

 

The photos for Carpoolers were shot from a bird’s eye view, looking down from a freeway overpass. “I went to the same place at the same time for a year” he said, “and the same trucks reappeared on different days, weeks, and months. Inadvertently, the project’s theme expanded from workers going to work to the routine of the city and how these micro actions must happen over and over again for the city to function.”

 

Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules is the artist's  first retrospective. On view are works he has done over the past two decades. The exhibit at SFMOMA will run through April 19, 2026.

 

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 Please contact us if you would like more information about the work of Andy Warhol and Alejandro Cartagena available at VFA.

 

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 References:

Brett Berk. Andy Warhol Didn't Drive, but He Was Obsessed with Cars. Car and Driver. November 12, 2018.

Alexa Montgomery. Revolver Gallery Acquires Andy’s Rolls-Royce. Revolver. 2016.

UPI. Gas Price Averages Over $1 a Gallon. Los Angeles Times Archive. July 13, 1987.

Bruno Ceschel. Alejandro Cartagena’s Prolific Career as a Photographer and Editor. Aperture. October 24, 2025.

Chad Scott. Alejandro Cartagena Photographs At San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art. Forbes. December 19, 2025.

January 14, 2026