The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts recently donated over 100 of the famed artist’s original photographs to the College.
The collection of 158 photographs includes color Polaroids and 8-by-10 silver gelatin prints. They are among more than 28,000 original Warhol photographs valued in excess of $28 million donated to 183 college and university art museums to provide expanded access for research and study of this important body of Warhol’s artwork.
Warhol was world-renowned for his work as a painter, an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer and an author. Among his most famous works are the Campbell’s Soup Cans” from the Campbell Soup Company. Warhol also coined the phrase “15 minutes of fame,” which refers to the fleeting celebrity-hood many enjoy before the media attention wanes. He died in February 1987.
“A wealth of information about Warhol’s process and his interactions with his sitters is revealed in these images,” said Jenny Moore, curator of the foundation’s Photographic Legacy Program.
“Through his rigorous – though almost unconscious – consistency in shooting, the true idiosyncrasies of his subjects were revealed. Often, he would shoot a person or event with both cameras, cropping one in Polaroid color as a “photograph” and snapping the other in black and white as a “picture.” By presenting both kinds of images side by side allows viewers to move back and forth between moments of Warhol’s “art”, “work”, and “life” – inseparable parts of a fascinating whole.”
The photographs, which will be maintained by the College’s Permanent Collection, are available to the campus community and the public for scholarly research.
“We are extremely pleased to have received this important gift,” said Rachel Seligman, director of the Mandeville Gallery and curator of the Permanent Collection. “Not only is it a significant addition to our holdings of contemporary photography, but it provides an ideal opportunity for original research and scholarship, and a deeper understanding of this artist’s creative process.”
Seligman is planning a future exhibit to showcase the prints.