Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) "Vote McGovern" 1972, Screenprint on Arches paper, 42 x 42 inches. Extra, out of the edition. Designated for research and educational purposes only. Image and Artwork © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. /Licensed by ARS. Due to copyright restrictions, this image should not be taken from this website. For images contact Shannon Thomason at thomason@uab.edu or 205-975-8858.Works by legendary late artist Andy Warhol will be on display in an unprecedented and highly anticipated exhibition presented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham from Jan. 9-Feb. 28, 2015.
The first major show by an artist of global renown at the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts since its opening in January 2014, “Warhol: Fabricated” will be a remarkable presentation of private and public Warhol pieces that have never before been exhibited together.
This innovative exhibition will combine nine Warhol screen prints and 90 photographic prints owned by UAB with loaned pieces from the Andy Warhol Museum, the Booth Western Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, beta pictoris gallery and private collectors, and an iconic photo of Warhol from internationally recognized photographer Bob Adelman. In addition, well-known New York-based contemporary artist Charles Lutz will display works from his “Denied Warhol Paintings and Sculpture”series.
Admission to AEIVA is always free. AEIVA is open to the public 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 12-6 p.m. Saturday and is closed Sundays and holidays. Call 205-975-6436 or visit AEIVA online.
Anchoring the exhibition are several signature Warhol pieces, most of which have never been shown in Birmingham, including “Marilyn,” “Mick Jagger,” “Red Lenin,” “Hammer and Sickle,” “Joseph Beuys in Memoriam,” “Reigning Queens (Queen Margrethe),” “Skulls,” “Cologne Cathedral,” “Sitting Bull,” “Geronimo,” “Annie Oakley,” “Kachina Dolls,” “Action Picture,” “Vote McGovern,” “Birmingham Race Riot,” “Electric Chair,” “Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick” screen tests, and “Silver Clouds,” along with Warhol wallpapers and more than 90 Polaroid photographs and silver gel prints.
The Andy Warhol Foundation in 2013 gifted to UAB nine never-before-displayed prints created by the artist, a significant addition to the 2008 gift to UAB of Polaroids, for which Warhol was famous, and 8-by-10-inch black-and-white prints.
Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) "Red Lenin," 1987. Screenprint on Arches paper, 39 3/8 x 29 1/2 inches. Extra, out of the edition. Designated for research and educational purposes only. Image and Artwork © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. /Licensed by ARS. Due to copyright restrictions, this image should not be taken from this website. For images contact Shannon Thomason at thomason@uab.edu or 205-975-8858.“With such a tremendous collection of major Warhol works of art in one exhibit, the show will be a regional draw, attracting art enthusiasts, critics and attendees from throughout the Southeast,” said CAS Dean Robert Palazzo, Ph.D. “We are thrilled to present to the public these fantastic works in the galleries of our beautiful new visual arts institute.”
Warhol, a pioneering artist who worked in media ranging from drawing and painting to prints, photography, film and sculpture, died suddenly in 1987. He left the bulk of his estate to the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and specified its broad mission to be the advancement of the visual arts. His impact on the global arts scene is unparalleled.
Perhaps more than any contemporary artist, Warhol shaped and defined, not only ways of viewing art, but also the understanding of society, culture, celebrity and politics, says Fields, who curated “Warhol: Fabricated.”
“His prolific ‘factory’ production process meant that he was able to mass-produce prints and other pieces in an almost-instantaneous response to the cultural conversation of the day,” Fields said. “From political leaders, movie stars and rock icons to household items, wallpapers and three-dimensional installations, Warhol’s art offered immediate commentary on the evolution of American society and its growing fascination with consumption: of goods, of media and of information.”
His pieces now seem prescient, as today’s society consumes — and demands — ever more, at an even faster pace, says Becker.
“Warhol’s impact on global contemporary art continues to expand as evidenced by more recent movements such as Russian, Japanese and Chinese contemporary pop art, each of which carries forward his seminal investigations of the icons of contemporary consumption and media culture,” Becker said.
Recently named photography adviser to the Library of Congress, Adelman is a renowned documentary photographer best known for his coverage of the American civil rights movement. While he is considered one of the most important civil rights photographers, Adelman is equally known for his documentation of the late ’60s New York art scene. For “Warhol: Fabricated,” Adelman will provide his most iconic portrait of Warhol.
A former assistant to controversial art world icon Jeff Koons, Lutz first gained his own notoriety in 2007 when he submitted his own reproductions of Warhol’s work to the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board for review. When Lutz’s works were returned to him officially stamped “Denied,” he promptly began exhibiting them. Inspired by a then-recent high-profile authentication denial of a work that had been previously deemed authentic, Lutz’s “Denied” series draws attention to issues involving reproduction, authenticity and the market value associated with Warhol’s work.
Anchoring UAB’s Cultural Corridor on 10th Avenue South, the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts is a new, cutting-edge facility designed by world-renowned late architect Randall Stout, a protégé of Frank Gehry. The 26,000-square-foot building, located across from UAB’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, was named for lead donors Judy and Hal Abroms and Ruth and the late Marvin Engel and features a series of three professional, state-of-the-art galleries for exhibitions as well as a 95-seat lecture hall, sculpture garden, and a series of climate-controlled collection storage spaces and receiving areas. The building also houses academic classrooms, laboratories and offices for the Department of Art and Art History, facilitating AEIVA’s dynamic mission of enhancing social, cultural and historical understanding through the visual arts across UAB and the broader community.