Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art

The Bellagio hotel boasts some of Las Vegas’ biggest artistic masterpieces. The hotel lobby's ceiling is adorned with a Dale Chihuly sculpture, commissioned exclusively for Bellagio. The piece, called Fiori di Como, is made of 2,000 colorful hand-blown glass flowers. The Picasso restaurant inside the Bellagio not only offers gourmet cuisine, but also surrounds diners with an extensive collection of original Picasso artwork.

But by far the largest display of art in the hotel can be found in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. The gallery presents world-class exhibitions of art and objects drawn from internationally known museums and private collections. Past exhibitions have included Monet masterworks, Andy Warhol’s celebrity portraits, Faberge treasures from the Kremlin and Alexander Calder mobiles.

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (BGFA) features "Classic Contemporary: Lichtenstein, Warhol & Friends." Organized in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), the exhibition showcases notable paintings and sculpture by major contemporary artists with a focus on the 1960s and '70s.

"Classic Contemporary: Lichtenstein, Warhol & Friends" includes many of the major works in MCASD's collection, primarily large-scale paintings along with sculpture and works on paper. The iconic artists to be featured were the leaders of their generation – Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt and Ed Ruscha, among others. Their innovative use of material and imagery was at the forefront of Pop Art and Minimalism movements.

Masterworks on display include Andy Warhol's iconic "Soup Cans" (1962), Frank Stella's "Sabra III" (1967), strikingly decorative, monumental canvas sections derived from the lines of a protractor curve; Roy Lichtenstein’s "Mirror" (1971), a depiction of a mirror's surface that preposterously reflects its own schematized representation; and Sol LeWitt's "Floor Piece #4" (1976), one in a series of compositions based on the cube. Classic examples of Abstract Expressionism by Hans Hofmann and Clyfford Still will also be on view. 

This exhibition also marks a transition by the BGFA to showcase the next generation of artists beyond the late 19th and early 20th century masterworks found in previous displays. 

"We are excited about this chance to bridge the gallery's past exhibitions with future ones while still being true to the core of BGFA's mission of showing only the best," said MGM MIRAGE Curatorial Advisor Michele C. Quinn.

At the end of the exhibit, visitors can watch a film and browse through a variety of books about the featured artists.

For those wanting to take a little piece of the experience home with them, an adjacent store at the gallery offers a wide array of unique gift items, books, toys, jewelry and exhibition-related merchandise including a full-color exhibition catalogue.