KANSAS CITY — The psychedelic image of Marilyn Monroe's face dominating the front of Union Station is a bold announcement that something different is afoot.

Workers have installed the station's first out-and-out art exhibit with a major collection of 84 pieces by Andy Warhol.

It's not profound as in the "Dead Sea Scrolls." It's not unnerving as in "Bodies Revealed." It's not candy as in "The Chronicles of Narnia." But the new exhibit, which runs through Jan. 10, has a bit of all that.

Station officials hope "Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life & Legends" will appeal to a broad audience.

"I encounter in people all the time an expectation that Union Station should be doing new and different things and testing boundaries," said Christopher Leitch, director of the Kansas City Museum and the project manager for the exhibit.

Warhol once said that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. He died in 1987, but his art and reputation have endured. Warhol worked at the intersection of art and popular culture, and his name became synonymous with Pop Art. He worked in many media, including film. The Union Station exhibit is composed exclusively of silkscreen prints on loan from Bank of America.

It features Warhol's "unique interpretations of American consumerism, pop culture and an obsession with visual identity," according to Lillian Lambrechts, senior curator for Bank of America.

The works span Warhol's career. There's the familiar, such as the Marilyn portrait and 10 Campbell's Soup cans. But the subjects also encompass a Birmingham, Ala., race riot and endangered species. There is a set of wildflower prints. And there are portraits ranging from Howdy Doody to Uncle Sam to Muhammad Ali to Robert Mapplethorpe.

"These prints are exquisitely made and beautifully framed," Leitch said.

The exhibit is self-guided, with printed programs and a recorded guide that can be downloaded. There is an opportunity at the end for a hands-on exercise in color.

Other Warhol exhibits currently at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence and at the Ulrich Museum of Art in Wichita are composed of photographic works and are complementary to the Union Station exhibit.

Bank of America has long been a patron of Union Station, contributing to the annual Memorial Day concert, as well as to the creation of the lower-level exhibit space where the Warhol show will be presented.

The exhibit will coincide with the 10th anniversary, on Nov. 10, of Union Station's reopening. President and chief executive officer George Guastello said he was excited to be offering Warhol's works.

"One good icon deserves another," he said in a promotional statement.

But officials have no illusion that the Warhol exhibit will solve the station's financial difficulties.

Union Station's operating costs far exceed the revenue it brings in, and the board of directors has told the Kansas City Council that the station will need public support to stay open.

They conservatively project attendance at about 16,000. Tickets, on sale now, are priced lower than those of the blockbuster shows of recent years.

Admission for those 13 and older is $12. For children 3-12 and for Union Station members, it is $8. Group rates also are available. Call 816-460-2020 for more information.