The glamorous style of Andy Warhol immediately evokes classic images like John Lennon and the Campbell's tomato soup can. Fascinated by life around him, Warhol was a ruthless photographer, capturing the people and places he encountered. Behind his most well known pieces is simply his talent as a photographer, as he once asserted, ""Color makes it more like a photograph. But in black and white it's just a picture. A picture just means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures.""
The Mayer Gallery in the Chazen Museum of Art is hosting a selection of Warhol's prints from The Andy Warhol Foundation in ""Andy Warhol Photographic Studies"" from Oct. 5 to Dec. 9.
Although the exhibit is small, it makes a strong statement about the world that Warhol saw around him and how he chose to manipulate subjects in an unprecedented way. Many photographs in the exhibit are unidentified individuals, an area of Warhol's research that allowed him to explore different poses that expose the idiosyncrasies of his subjects. He took multiple photographs when doing portraiture, trying his best to capture the persona of each subject.
Many of Warhol's portrait sitters were dusted with light powder and makeup in order to highlight lips, eyes and hair. The makeup enhanced all of his high-contrast images so he could use color to modify the final portrait. Warhol used both men and women in these portraits, exploring angles and diverse features of the human body.
Plaques in the exhibit describe Warhol's ability to ""[place] a camera between himself and his world ... to exercise some control over it."" An interesting section of the exhibit includes a Polaroid image of a pair of shoes and another of a Cabbage Patch doll. In addition to unidentified subjects, Warhol's portraits feature people and places he worked with in his life; including significant others, business partners and figures he revered, such as Truman Capote.
Though he was well versed in portraiture, Warhol was completely at ease blending aspects of art and business: ""Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art."" In New York City, Warhol's first job was a commercial illustrator and photographer for shoe advertisements.
Warhol chose to capture images of everywhere he went and everyone he saw. Thus, he saw notions of interesting forms as well as fascinating people. Some of the gelatin silver prints in the exhibit are simply of street signs or street scenes, providing more images to the comprehensive collection of Warhol's work.
The highlight of the exhibit comes in the form of a classic Marilyn Monroe portrait, combining all of Warhol's talent into one work. The essential icon of film in the middle of the twentieth century is adorned in green, yellow, pink and red hues, exemplifying the immense aptitude that Warhol had when capturing subjects.
Images toward the end of the exhibit feature Jon Gould, a former vice president of corporate communications at Paramount Pictures. Warhol fell in love with him and they eventually moved in together. There are a variety of gelatin silver prints showing Gould interacting with other people and nature, as well as some of him isolated.
By ending the exhibit with mostly celebrity portraiture and people involved in the production of Warhol's films and art collections, one is left with a peculiar feeling. Andy Warhol spent his life dealing with celebrities, so what is commemorated in his portraits of unidentified subjects?
""Andy Warhol Photographic Studies"" will be on display until Dec. 5 at the Mayer Gallery at the Chazen Art Museum in Madison
