NYPD Brillo

One of the exhibits in the newly reopened Queens Museum tells the story of Andy Warhol's mural for the New York State Pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair, 13 Most Wanted Men. Warhol created silkscreen portraits from the mugshots of 13 of the NYPD's most wanted fugitives from justice. Not surprisingly, the police and many others objected and it was removed and replaced by Warhol with a large silver square.

(Courtesy Andy Warshol Museum)

Around this time, Warhol was beginning to create the Brillo and Campbell soup boxes that would explode his reputation and excite much ridicule of "Modern Art." The stack in the center of the museum's floor vaguely recalled something I'd seen just moments ago walking across Flushing Meadows Park, the scene of the crime in 1964.