If you were to take a poll to select the artist who has best represented the Twentieth Century, the odds are that the man in the street would vote for Andy Warhol.

Andy believed art is for everyone, and to his worldwide audience of millions who had never met him he became both pop star and friend - in some ways more familiar than family or acquaintances.

Andy had a universality which transcended all divisions. He loved glamour but he also loved the ordinary, the boring and the trashy and recognised their hidden beauty.

While he sensed the potential of everyone to be famous for at least

fifteen minutes, he discovered the ability in himself to confer glamour simply by his selection of an image.

He chose factory production methods to freeze emblematic images from the real world using simple techniques of printing and photography to update traditional painting.

He transferred his delight in being part of the fabric of his own time to his audience, which in its turn spread it for him far and wide and imbued it with meaning.

Andy knew that history constantly repeats itself and that the relationship of the individual to society remains an impossible conundrum. But he also knew that such universals look different every time around.

He hid his wisdom behind simplicity and a fashionable facade, but despite the wigs and camouflage it shone through illuminating everything he touched.

We are proud to have commissioned Andy's last Self-Portrait and to have organised exhibitions of his work across the world.

This exhibition is held in memory of the past century as Andy saw it, and in honour of Fred Hughes, his friend and manager for more than three decades.