RSSFor Andy Warhol, image was everything
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"Marilyn," taken from an announcement of a retrospective show.
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"It was his spontaneous intuition that not to be received as an image in the common consciousness is to be bereft of the only reality that matters. This thought may be enlisted to explain his propensity to repeat, over and over, the same image of the same personality -- Marilyn, Liz, Jackie, Elvis -- as if the quantity of iterated images increased the substance, in the only way possible, of those who had become labels for themselves."
-- Art critic Arthur Danto
GOLDENDALE -- Andy Warhol was a great manipulator of images, including his own.
He was an artist -- one of the most important and influential of the 20th century -- more interested in labels than the contents.
He approached household products like celebrities, and vice versa.
"He was not interested in, say, Norma Jeane Baker and her struggles," says Sue Taylor, a noted art critic, professor of art history at Portland State University and corresponding editor for Art in America magazine.
Instead, Warhol's focus was solely on Baker's glamorized, Hollywood-created persona of Marilyn Monroe.
In her cult of celebrity.
In her marketed image.
And in mass-producing that iconic image, Warhol commented on our consumption of it.
He was also "the great leveler who reduced all subjects, no matter what their measure of importance, to the same degree of interpretation," states the brochure for "Andy Warhol and Other Famous Faces," an exhibition of portraits that opens Saturday at the Maryhill Museum of Art, just south of Goldendale. It will be on display through Nov. 15.
The show features a number of Warhol's famous pop art portraits from the '60s and '70s -- Marilyn, the Beatles, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Sitting Bull, General Custer, Geronimo, Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Carter, Liza Minnelli -- as well as portraits by a number of artists inspired by Warhol's work. They include Robert Rauschenberg's famous 1970 screen print "Signs" and Red Grooms' 1987 lithograph "Elvis," both of which not only depict people, but also certain eras in American history.
All of the work in the exhibit is on loan from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation. This is the third exhibition of works loaned by Schnitzer that Maryhill has organized.
"For a long time, I've wanted to do an Andy Warhol portrait show," explains Maryhill curator Lee Musgrave.
"I always felt Andy revolutionized portraits," Musgrave says while taking a break from hanging the neon-colored collection in an upstairs showroom.
However, it was Schnitzer -- he will give a talk at Maryhill on Aug. 2 -- who encouraged Musgrave to also include artists influenced by Warhol.
Unlike regal, realistic one-of-a-kind portraits, Warhol took ready-made images from magazines and newspapers, and through the mass-media tool of printmaking, blurred the lines of high and low art.
He made art out of mass-produced items and images -- and then sought to also mass produce the art.
"When artists struggled to be authentic and original, he did the opposite," says Portland State's Taylor.
Next Thursday, Taylor will present his lecture, "Andy Warhol, Postmodern Persona," which highlights Warhol, who died in 1987, and his impact on art and pop culture.
An American icon himself known for his distinctive mannerisms and hip New York studio dubbed "The Factory," Warhol and his prints are still recognized even by people who don't follow art or recite his, well, famous "15 minutes" quote.
But to see his work in person is to see its richness and scale, to see beyond its glossy mass-produced persona.
"You're struck by that this was made by hand," says Musgrave.
At the Maryhill show, you can get up close and study the glitter lining in Queen Elizabeth II -- the prints of her are two of the most striking in the exhibit -- or Warhol's smudged fingerprint underneath the Beatles.
And, yes, there's even the emblematic "Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato)" -- perhaps a de facto portrait of the artist.
"It's easy to chuckle when you see those Campbell's soup cans," says Taylor. "But there's a great deal of substance there."
Warhol tidbits
* Andy Warhol had an uncredited cameo in the 1982 comedy "Tootsie."
* Warhol played himself in a 1985 episode of "The Love Boat."
* Crispin Glover portrayed Warhol in "The Doors," and David Bowie played him in "Basquiat."
* The 1996 independent film "I Shot Andy Warhol" is based on the real attempted murder of Warhol by Valerie Solanas.
* Warhol designed the famous banana album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico, and conceived the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers" album artwork that included a working zipper.
If you go
WHAT: "Andy Warhol and Other Famous Faces" opens Saturday at the Maryhill Museum of Art.
WHEN: Maryhill is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Nov. 15.
WHERE: Overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, the museum is off State Route 14, just west of U.S. Highway 97 near Goldendale.
HOW MUCH: Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $2 for ages 6-16 and free for ages 5 and under.
INFO: Call 773-3733, or visit www.maryhillmuseum.org.
MORE WARHOL: Here are upcoming events related to the "Andy Warhol and Other Famous Faces" exhibition:
* 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Aug. 2 -- Visitors can join the museum's education staff to create a free self-portrait using Warhol's "blotted line technique."
* 7 p.m. Thursday -- Art critic Sue Taylor will present the lecture "Andy Warhol, Postmodern Persona," which highlights Warhol and his impact on art and pop culture. Free with museum admission.
* 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 2 -- Noted master printer Frank Janzen will lead a mono-print workshop for those with a serious interest in printmaking. Cost is $60 and advance registration is required.
* 3 p.m. Aug. 2 -- A talk by art collector Jordan Schnitzer. All of the work in the Warhol exhibit is on loan from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation. Schnitzer began collecting art at age 14 and has a contemporary print collection of more than 5,000 works. The talk will be followed by a walk through the exhibit led by Maryhill curator Lee Musgrave. Free with museum admission.
ABOUT MARYHILL: The castlelike museum was founded by Northwest entrepreneur Sam Hill and opened to the public in 1940. It's home to early 20th century European works, Native American artifacts, a captivating chess set collection, stunning Rodin sculptures -- the second largest collection on the West Coast -- and a number of beautiful, yet a little feisty, peacocks wandering the grounds. (See if you can spot Frederick, the all-white peacock.) Four miles east of Maryhill is the museum's full-scale replica of England's famous Neolithic Stonehenge.
AT STONEHENGE: At 7 p.m. Saturday, Keith Scales, artistic director for the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon in Portland, will present the work of 19th century Irish poet W.B. Yeats at the Stonehenge Memorial. The free program will feature two short plays by Yeats titled "The Cat and the Moon" and "At the Hawks Well."
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