Nixon, Chuck

From February 25, 2009 to April 18, 2009

The USC Fisher Museum of Art proudly presents a selection of the museum’s most recent acquisition of 100 original Polaroid photographs and 50 original black and white gelatin silver prints dating from 1972 to 1985 granted through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program. These photographs were given to the USC Fisher Museum as part of an unprecedented gift in honor of the Andy Warhol Foundation’s 20th anniversary in 2007. The aim of the Photographic Legacy Program is to provide greater access to Warhol’s artwork and process, and to enable a wide range of people from communities across the country to view and study this important yet relatively unknown body of Warhol’s work.

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The original polaroids and gelatin silver prints that will be on display were the source materials for Andy Warhol’s portrait paintings, and thus provide an interesting glimpse into his artistic process. There is a broad range of subjects Warhol, from celebrities to unknown figures in the Polaroid photographs, and from candid shots to formal compositions in the black and white prints. One can also see how the artist treated the same subjects through the two mediums. Some notable portraits included in this collection are Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali, Candy Spelling, designer Gianfranco Ferre, Bianca Jagger, Artist Georgia O’Keefe, and Andre Talley of Vogue among others.

In conjunction with the display of master and contemporary works from the Fisher’s permanent collection that was organized by Curator Ariadni A. Liokatis, Looking Into Andy Warhol (co-curated by Liokatis and Art History Professor Richard Meyer) is a continuation of the seventieth anniversary celebration of the USC Fisher Museum of Art. This exhibition will be on view from February 25 to April 18, 2009.

About the Andy Warhol Foundation and Photographic Legacy program: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987. In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, its mission is the advancement of the visual arts. For more information, please visit www.warholfoundation.org.

Click to read the Los Angeles Times review.