WHAT: "Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids"
WHEN: Exhibit opens today at 10 a.m. and continues through Feb. 21. Opening reception today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street
By Cliff Bellamy
cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744
DURHAM -- An exhibit currently on view at The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, "Picasso and the Allure of Language," explores Pablo Picasso's relationships with writers, offering viewers a different vantage point on the 20th century's most recognizable artist. An exhibit opening at the Nasher today also seeks to offer a new window on one of the most visible artists of the latter part of the 20th century, Andy Warhol.
Warhol (1928-1987) first worked as a fashion illustrator before breaking out as an independent artist. His silkscreen paintings of Campbell's Soup cans and Brillo Pad boxes heralded the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. He also worked in experimental film, and designed record album covers for the Rolling Stones, Diana Ross and other artists. Because of his use of mass production-type techniques in some of his work, Warhol is credited with expanding the public's view of what was acceptable as subjects for art.
"Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids," opening today, examines a lesser known side of his work. While many viewers are familiar with his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and other famous figures, not many are familiar with his Polaroids, said Wendy Hower Livingston, manager of marketing and communications for the Nasher. "He used the Polaroids as his sketchbook, as studies for his paintings," she said. In addition to being aids for portraits, the Polaroids "in an of themselves" are significant and "represent a relatively unknown body of Warhol's work," stated Trevor Schoonmaker, curator of contemporary art at the Nasher, in a press release.
From this exhibit, viewers can get "a look at his creative process, how he worked, how he thought about his subject matter," said Emily Kass, director of the Ackland Art Museum at UNC, where the exhibit will travel in October next year.
The exhibit takes its name from the Polaroid camera Warhol used to make the portraits. An example of that type of camera is part of this exhibit. The exhibit includes about 250 Polaroids and 75 of Warhol's black-and-white prints he took between 1970 and 1987. The exhibit is organized by the Nasher Museum, the Ackland and the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro. All three institutions received gifts of about 100 Polaroids and 50 black-and-whites in 2008 on the 20th anniversary of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program, a division of the Andy Warhol Foundation. All three museums decided to combine their gifts to create this exhibit, Livingston said. After premiering at the Nasher, the show moves to Weatherspoon (June 6-Sept. 19, 2010) and the Ackland (Oct. 2, 2010-Jan. 2, 2011).
Each museum in turn will offer something different in its show, Kass said. "The three of us are using it as a way to expand interpretation of Andy Warhol's work," she said. The Nasher plans to screen several of his films, and the Ackland is considering including works by younger artists who were influenced by Warhol, Kass said.
Most of the Polaroids and photos in this exhibit are on view for the first time. Among the first-time exhibits are several black-and-white portraits of Durham native and Vogue magazine editor at large Andre Leon Talley, and black-and-white images of Studio 54 owner Steve Rubells.
The late Raymond Nasher, the Nasher museum's namesake, and his wife Patsy once gave a party for Warhol, and Patsy Nasher met Warhol through an art collector friend. Unique to the Nasher exhibit is the series of portraits and accompanying Polaroid studies Warhol did of Patsy Nasher and daughters Andrea, Joanie and Nancy between 1978 and 1980. Visitors can compare the Polaroid image to the painted portraits.
Other Polaroids stand alone, and are grouped in various themes, including musicians and sports figures. Part of the fun of this exhibit, Livingston said, is seeing images of famous public figures in their younger years.
Among the figures whose Polaroid portraits are on view are musicians Carly Simon and Ric Ocasek, and athletes Jack Nicklaus and Dorothy Hamill. There are several black-and-white and Polaroid portraits of Grace Jones, and a Polaroid of writer Truman Capote. On some Polaroids, Warhol's name is stamped in the bottom right corner. Yet another set of black-and-white photos is of street scenes in New York.
