The Art Gallery of New South Wales will be showing the early work of Andy Warhol’s career.

Before his paintings of Campbell’s Soup, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol was one of New York’s most sought after commercial illustrators and an emerging artist of the 1950s.

This year, the Art Gallery of New South Wales will welcome Adman: Warhol Before Pop. This is the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to Warhol’s early career in more than 25 years. It reveals his origins in the worlds of art and advertising during the pre-Pop, pre-Mad Men era.

Warhol’s sexual identity as a gay man impacts his 1950s work in profound ways. Adman: Warhol Before Pop showcases a group of rarely seen homo-erotic drawings made for Warhol’s private sphere and a group of sensuous drawings of young men related to his 1956 exhibition ‘Studies for a Boy Book’.

This extraordinary survey of early work from the art and archival collections of The Andy Warhol Museum presents over 300 objects including drawings, photographs, artist’s books, shop-front window displays, vintage advertisements and personal ephemera, many of which have never been placed on public display.

Adman: Warhol Before Pop is a rare opportunity to experience the formative years of the world’s most influential artists, providing deeper insight into the making of an icon.