Opening Reception:
Wednesday, September 13, 5-7 p.m.
Simmons University presents Andy Warhol: What’s the Difference? an exhibition of large scale prints from the Simmons Collection September 7 — October 11 2017 at the Trustman Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 The Fenway in Boston. A reception will be held on Wednesday September 13 from 5-7 P.M. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.
Andy Warhol: What’s the Difference? showcases a variety of striking Warhol portraits, still lifes and abstractions made between 1968 and 1987 and donated to Simmons University by the Andy Warhol Foundation in 2013. These screenprints are among the forgotten Warhols: prints, proofs and portfolios long overlooked as minor works. Simmons’s pieces are test proofs and extras left over from the production of Warhol’s limited-edition print series, and found in his possession when he died. While artists traditionally destroy objects like these once the final prints are finished, Warhol, a notorious pack rat, never did. We have no way to know why he saved them, or whether he considered them valuable or disposable. While objects like these have long been relegated to the margins of Warhol’s career, this exhibition demonstrates that we have much to learn from them.
Andy Warhol: What’s the Difference? also raises questions about authorship, reproduction and originality that are central to Pop art itself by inviting visitors to consider and respond to the questions, what’s the difference between these objects and officially sanctioned works? What makes an artwork authentic, and why do we decide some pieces are more important, or more “real,” than others? If Warhol never intended these prints to survive, would that matter? Why?
Several of the works in the show are well known in Warhol’s official oeuvre. Pieces such as Myths (The Star) and Cowboys and Indians (Teddy Roosevelt) demand our attention not only as compelling visual objects but as thought-provoking examples of image-making. The curator of the exhibition, art historian and Simmons professor Heather Hole, tells us that every print in this exhibition is based on at least one photograph. She states, “Warhol created images of images of images, not seemingly-authentic expressions of an inner self made by hand or from scratch. These works of art reflect a culture in which we experience much of the world not directly, but through screens.”
The Trustman exhibition is held in conjunction with Everybody, Everything: Photographs by Andy Warhol, August 14-October 21, at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, President’s Gallery.
Trustman Art Gallery hours are 10 AM – 4:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM on Wednesday and Thursday. The gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Kyle Mendelsohn at (617) 521-2268 or find us on Instagram.