The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will present its second exhibition of photographs by Andy Warhol at the opening reception of Eye to Eye with Andy Warhol: The Multiples on Friday, May 4 from 5-7 p.m. The public is invited to attend the exhibition’s reception, which is being held in conjunction with the Presque Isle First Friday Art Walk.
The exhibition, which will be on display May 4 through June 16, is being sponsored by the Maine Community Foundation (The Meander Fund); the Maine Arts Commission; the Bank of Maine Presque Isle; and Morningstar Art and Framing, which framed the exhibit. The photos are among the 153 silver gelatin prints and Polaroid photographs that UMPI received in the spring of 2008 – valued at more than $100,000 – from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program.
Eye to Eye draws on multiple images of individuals in the UMPI collection that posed for Warhol’s much desired, and much solicited, portraits, according to curator for the show and former Reed Art Gallery Director Sandra Huck.
“The photographs offer a unique glimpse at the subjects and the process Warhol utilized to find just the right angle, light, color and attitude of his sitters that provided the source material for the final portrait,” Huck said. “When grouped, the subtle shift in dynamics between the photographer and subject is apparent. The exhibition also recalls the serial imagery that informed so much of Warhol’s work throughout his career. Much of his work is a deliberate mirror on an era of excess.”
Included in this show are 75 photos, including images of Linda Cossey, Lyn Revson, Frieder Burda, Phillipe Niarchos, Shirley Fiterman, and Jon Gould. The catalog for the exhibition was written by Linda Zillman and designed by UMPI Fine Art student Rowena Forbes as a directed study. The show was co-curated by Zillman.
“Zillman’s catalog is a thorough investigation of the models, themselves,” Reed Art Gallery Director Heather Sincavage said. “She tirelessly researched each person and their relationship with Warhol. And Zillman and Huck’s curation of the show is in the spirit of Warhol’s iconic grid format of multiple portrait images. This concept is prominent beginning with the selection of photos from our collection to the design of the exhibition itself. It is all with acute attention to what makes Warhol’s approach to the portrait dynamic.”
In 2007, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., donated more than 28,500 original Warhol photographs – valued in excess of $28 million – to 183 college and university art museums across the U.S. through its Photographic Legacy Program, in honor of the foundation’s 20th anniversary. The subsequent exhibitions of these thousands of photographs have provided greater access to Warhol’s artwork and process, and enabled a wide range of people from communities across the country to view and study this body of Warhol’s work. The University was one of three in Maine to receive such a gift from the Photographic Legacy Program.
“The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s latest exhibition offers a glimpse into an extensive body of work by Warhol,” Zillman said. “Using serial imagery, Warhol created iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Ethel Scull, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, to name only a few. His portraits range from well-known celebrities and public figures, to celebrity ‘wanna-be’s,’ and to many who remain unknown to us today. We are so pleased to be able to showcase these images for the greater community.”
The reception for this Warhol exhibition, which will feature a talk at 5:30 p.m. by Linda Zillman on the curation of the show, will be held in the Reed Fine Art Gallery on Friday, May 4, from 5-7 p.m. The public is invited to attend. There is no charge and light refreshments will be served.
The Reed Fine Art Gallery is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The gallery is closed Sundays and University holidays. For more information about this event, please contact Sincavage at 768-9442.
