Feature article
|
 |
|
 |
ETSU exhibits showcase Andy Warhol photography
By staff report
 |
| Andy Warhol's Polaroid portrait of Dolly Parton |
Two exhibitions of the photography of Andy Warhol are being hosted this fall by East Tennessee State University.
Several of Warhol’s black-and-white silver gelatin prints are on display in “The Appalachian Warhol” at the Reece Museum through Jan. 7, 2010, and “Constructing Image: Insights to the Andy Warhol Photographs,” a collection of his Polaroid portraits, continues through Nov. 6 at Slocumb Galleries in Ball Hall.
Receptions for both exhibitions will be held at 5 p.m., Nov. 5, following a 3 p.m. panel discussion and slide presentation featuring interdisciplinary perspectives about film, gender and pop art at the Reece Museum.
These photographs are part of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program, an unprecedented project that distributes the artist’s work to select museums and galleries nationwide to provide broader public access to these important pieces.
The exhibits are presented by the ETSU Department of Art and Design, Slocumb Galleries and the Reece Museum in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and ETSU’s Mary B. Martin School of the Arts. Additional support is provided by the ETSU College of Arts and Sciences’ Office of the Dean, the ETSU Foundation, the Johnson City Area Arts Council, Mountain States Health Alliance, Creative Signs, the Nelson Fine Art Center, the Southern Appalachian International Film Festival (SOAPIFF), the Museum of Modern Art and the Andy Warhol Museum.
ETSU is one of only three institutions in Tennessee to receive this prestigious collection and the sole recipient in East Tennessee.
The displays provide the opportunity for both academic and creative research and will assist students, faculty and the public in developing a better understanding of Warhol — a significant figure in the history of American pop art — and his work.
Warhol extensively photographed celebrities, couples and others, and used the photographs as the basis for his commissioned portraits, paintings, drawings and prints. The two exhibitions at ETSU will “provide a glimpse into Warhol’s working process, as well as insights to his seemingly public life and his reclusive persona,” according to the Warhol Foundation.
The Reece Museum exhibit focuses on Warhol as an individual from the Appalachian region and the effects of his upbringing on his work, with photographs that served as his “visual diary,” documenting people, places and events in his everyday life. The Warhol Foundation says these images “demonstrate the range of Warhol’s aesthetic interests and the reach of his curious and far-roaming eye.”
Warhol was born to Eastern European immigrant parents in Pittsburgh. His father was a construction worker and coal miner, and his mother has been described as a religious woman who was dedicated to her family and whose creativity influenced her son as he developed his artistic skill.
Warhol became what many in the Appalachian Studies field consider an Appalachian expatriate artist, like his fellow Pittsburgh natives Mary Cassatt and Henry Ossawa Tanner, by leaving his childhood home to pursue his artistic endeavors. He eventually earned notoriety for his flamboyant New York lifestyle, his social elite inner circles and his cutting-edge and world-changing artistic ideas.
The Slocumb Galleries exhibit provides insights into Warhol’s philosophy and practice as an artist. “The Polaroid portraits reveal the artist’s profound and frank engagement with the personality in front of his camera — be it a celebrity, a beauty, a tycoon or a socialite,” according to the Warhol Foundation.
While Warhol is better known for larger-scale paintings, the Polaroid photographs served a vital role in his artistic process. For most of his iconic portrait works, he used either Polaroid or photo-booth shots as the basis for the silkscreen images, and the resulting paintings culminated in idealized images.
In addition to these exhibits, several of Warhol’s original films, including “Chelsea Girls,” “Empire” and others, will be screened during SOAPIFF on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 29-30, from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Ball Hall auditorium. The complete schedule of movie screenings and events for the film festival is available online at soapiff.com.
All events are free and open to the public.
Reece Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday. Three special parking spaces at the east end of the Reece Museum are designated for patrons of the museum and the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, a Tennessee Center of Excellence of which the museum is a division.
Slocumb Galleries hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
To receive a temporary permit to park in the special Reece Museum spaces or to park in faculty/staff or student lots to visit Slocumb Galleries, patrons should go to the ETSU Parking Office, 908 W. Maple St.; call 423-439-5636; or e-mail parking@etsu.edu.
For more information or special assistance for those with disabilities, call Reece Museum Director Theresa Burchett at 423-439-4392 or Slocumb Galleries Director Karlota I. Contreras-Koterbay at 423-483-3179.
--------GoTriCities--------
Andy Warhol photography exhibitions
WHEN: “Constructing Image: Insights to the Andy Warhol Photographs,” through Nov. 6; “The Appalachian Warhol,” through Jan. 7, 2010
WHERE: “The Appalachian Warhol,” Reece Museum; “Constructing Image: Insights to the Andy Warhol Photographs,” Slocumb Galleries
COST: Free
CONTACT: 423-439-4392 or 423-483-3179
|
|
|
|
|
