Posted on Aug 15, 2008

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.

Posted on Aug 8, 2008

Business Week took a look at the schools where graduates have the most earning potential and found that Union alumni place among the top colleges in the country, right up there with all of the Ivy League instituitions.

To read the article, click here (registration may be required).

To view Union's image on the slideshow accompanying the article, click here.

Posted on Aug 8, 2008

People have often said the campus scenery belongs on a postcard.

Now you can see for yourself.

Schaffer Library has a new exhibit online showcasing hundreds of postcards featuring the College. The collection is courtesy of Robert N. Michaelson ’72.  The postcards include a wide-ranging set of images depicting structures, landscapes, activities, and individuals either on the College campus or associated with it. The majority of the postcards date from the first half of the 20th century.

Each side of Michaelson's postcards is available for viewing, along with the origin, date and what the postcard depicts.   

The library hopes to eventually add its own collection of up to 300 postcards to the database so people can view them online.

“We hope that this online postcard collection is the first of many digital collections the Library will make available to the campus and the community beyond,” said Ellen Fladger, head of the library's Special Collections and Archives.

To view the exhibit, click here.

Posted on Aug 6, 2008

The Aug. 4 issue of The New Yorker features a piece on the new book by Brenda Wineapple,“White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.”

Wineapple, the Doris Zemurray Stone Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, discussed the book on campus in May.

To read the article, click here.

Wineapple joined Union in 1976. In 2004, she published her acclaimed biography of Nathanial Hawthorne, “Hawthorne: A Life." She also is author of "Gênet: A Biography of Janet Flanner” and “Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein.” Her essays, articles and reviews have appeared regularly in national publications such as The American Scholar, New York Times Book Review, and The Nation.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.