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APRIL 28, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Matt Montgomery
401 454-6348
mmontgom@risd.edu
Possession Obsession: Objects from Andy Warhol’s Personal Collection
Only tour venue for exhibition
Friday, July 19 through Sunday, October 13, 2002
Public opening on Gallery Night: Thursday, July 18, 5-9pm
PROVIDENCE, RI — The fascination with Andy Warhol goes beyond the artist’s art. His life — the circle of celebrity friends and acquaintances, his words (misquoted, refuted and otherwise), and his personal mythmaking — served as a point of interest for observation, gossip and voyeurism. Possession Obsession: Objects from Andy Warhol’s Personal Collection “offers a rare opportunity to reunite several hundred objects sold at the legendary1988 Sotheby’s auction after Warhol’s unexpected death and to examine one of the least studied aspects of his oeuvre: collecting. The exhibition focuses on areas where Warhol maintained a deep, abiding interest, such as 19th-century American furniture and folk art, cookie jars and other collectibles, Art Deco furniture and silver, Native American art and artifacts, and fine and costume jewelry.
Organized by the Andy Warhol Museum and curated by John W. Smith, archivist for The Warhol, the exhibition explores the role that collecting played in the artist’s life and the ways in which it influenced other aspects of his art.
The presentation of this exhibition recalls another historic exhibition at The RISD Museum involving Warhol. In 1969, the artist was invited to curate the exhibition called Raid the Icebox I which featured works he selected from the permanent collection. Warhol was drawn to an eclectic mix of objects. He liked the cabinets of shoes in storage and displayed all of them exactly as they were stored. He also chose baskets, Navajo blankets, paintings, ceramics and costume accessories. He created an alternative museum. Raid the Icebox I has become a landmark exhibition, the precursor of “artist ’s interventions ” of the 1990s that rethink the nature of traditional collecting museums.
Warhol began to collect seriously in the mid-1950s and continued to do so until his death in 1987. By the early 1970s, collecting had become an obsession with Warhol and he devoted a part of nearly every day to making the rounds of Manhattan flea markets, antique shops, jewelry stores and auction houses. Although Warhol’s collection of cookie jars and other collectibles drew the greatest media attention at the Sotheby’s auction, his collection also contained important examples of Federal-era furniture, Art Deco furniture and silver, 20th-century painting and sculpture.
The 1988 Sotheby’s auction of Warhol’s collection received extensive coverage, but has since been given very little serious critical attention. By presenting a focused, carefully selected group of objects from Warhol’s collection, this exhibition aims to demonstrate that for Warhol collecting was not merely a leisurely pursuit, but in fact represented a vital form of artistic practice. Through collecting, Warhol found another forum to explore his ideas about history, nostalgia, popular culture and consumerism — themes that are central to other areas of his work.
RELATED EVENTS
Thursday, July 18, 6:30pm
The RISD Museum
Artists Speak. Artist Mark Lancaster, who worked for Warhol in The Factory, will talk about Warhol and the art scene in the 1960s.
September 29, 2:30pm
The RISD Museum
Film screening of I Shot Andy Warhol
Sunday, October 13, 2:30pm
The RISD Museum
Panel Discussion: Artists, curators and art historians discuss the relationship of the artist to the museum using Raid the Icebox I as a point of discussion.
NOTE TO REPORTERS
Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art, is available for interviews about this exhibition and related issues. Please contact Matt Montgomery at 401/454-6348 or mmontgom@risd.edu.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM
The Museum of Art was founded as part of Rhode Island School of Design in 1877. Today, its permanent collection consists of nearly 80,000 works of art from diverse periods, cultures, and genres. Located on the edge of downtown Providence, the Museum showcases an array of ever-changing exhibitions, which encompass a range of areas and periods of world culture.
HOURS AND ADMISSION
Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm; third Thursday monthly until 9pm. Admission: $6/adults; $5/senior citizens; $2/children, 5-18; $3/college students with valid ID. Free: Friday, 12-1:30pm; Sunday, 10am-1 pm; third Thursday monthly, 5-9 pm; Free-For-All Saturdays (last Saturday of the month). Information: 401 454-6500.
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