AND ONE MORE THING: The idea of...

AND ONE MORE THING: The idea of Elvis art usually brings to mind gaudy colors on black velvet. But a Memphis curator is hoping to show that the King holds as much appeal to highbrow artists as to the kitsch world.

Wendy McDaris, in partnership with the Presley estate, is lining up works for a traveling exhibit called “Still King . . . ,” planned to open in the fall of 1994 at a major East Coast museum still to be determined. Among the more than 70 artists likely to be represented in the exhibit are Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg and Peter Blake.

“The Elvis postage stamp helped to validate the idea that Elvis Presley was a major historical figure to contend with, not just in terms of music but in a number of other ways,” McDaris says. “He was really something else to a significant number of intellectuals and artists, and that’s what we’re trying to show.”