One Life: Echoes of Elvis
January 8 through August 29, 2010
First Floor

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Echoes of Elvis opens January 8, 2010, marking the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s birth. Although Elvis died more than thirty years ago, the world remains fascinated with his image and music. His records have continued to sell by the millions and public interest in his music, career and life has yet to subside. During the last half century, Elvis became part of the artistic discourse as well. Early in Elvis’s career, Andy Warhol illuminated the role he played in the new and youth-powered popular American culture; later, Ralph Wolfe Cowan, Red Grooms and others created mythical, spiritual and earthly images of the man whose legacy includes multiple superlative moments in music, entertainment, life and afterlife. To this day, both the historical Elvis Presley and the fantasy-based vision of Elvis are the subject of poetry, literature, music, film and the visual arts.

Images
Elvis Presley / Ralph Wolfe Cowan / 1976-1988 / Oil on canvas / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of R.W. Cowan

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