piglet  2col

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) and Suzie Frankfurt (1931–2005), “Wild Raspberries,” New York, 1959, bound artists’ book with 40 page and 18 plates, litho offset and hand coloring with tissue overlays; gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946, Williams College Museum of Art, ©2007 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York.

sam  1col

Andy Warhol, “25 Cats Name (sic) Sam and One Blue Pussy,” 1954, bound artists’ book with 36 plates (including cover), litho offset and hand coloring, written by Charles Lisanby, printed by Seymour Berlin; gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946, Williams College Museum of Art, ©2007 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York.

myshoe  2col

Andy Warhol, “My Shoe is Your Shoe (from A la recherche due shoe perdue with poems by Ralph Pomeroy),” 1955, hand colored off-set lithograph; gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946, Williams College Museum of Art, ©2007 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York.

WARHOLA BECOMES WARHOL’ AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE FEB. 10, 3 CUTS

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WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) will present “Warhola Becomes Warhol — Andy Warhol: Early Work.” The exhibition will be on view February 10–June 10.

Drawn from the museum’s collection, this exhibition features Warhol’s early work from 1952 through the late 1960s, demonstrating his evolution from commercial artist to Pop icon.

“Warhola Becomes Warhol” contains more than 50 works on paper and sculpture, including hand colored offset lithographs, blotted line drawings and rare artist books. The exhibition includes several rare pieces, including an unbound, original manuscript of Snow in the Street and Rain in the Sky, 1952.

Also to be on view are several of Warhol’s rarely displayed Polaroid portraits of celebrities, including Mick Jagger; working “dummies,” or mock-ups, created for Warhol’s Interview magazine; and an original collage, circa 1966, that became his iconic cow wallpaper. Several later works, such as “Jackie,” 1964, and “Self Portrait,” 1986, will also be on display, allowing visitors to understand how the techniques that Warhol learned as a commercial artist became the vehicles he later employed to mass produce his artwork and create the Warhol brand. 

“We see from Warhol’s early commercial work how astute he was and how he constructed an identity for himself that made him a household name,” says WCMA Director, Lisa Corrin. “We are grateful to have a major Warhol scholar, Professor Ondine Chavoya, on our faculty. His perspective on the artist will be complemented by those of a graduate student in our art history program, and that of a young artist, Alex Donis, who is coming from Los Angeles for the opening and for a discussion with Professor Chavoya.” The discussion will take place Tuesday, February 27, at 7 pm, at the museum, following the reception that celebrates the museum’s spring exhibitions. Both events are open to the public.

Warhol has been cited as one of the most famous and famously controversial American artists of the second half of the Twentieth Century. His astute eye explored the inventory of American contemporary consumerism in the 50s and 60s, and he wrestled with issues of artistic appropriation and mass production. A child of poor Czech immigrants, Andy Warhola was born and raised in an industrial section of Pittsburgh. In 1949, after formative experiences at Carnegie Tech (Carnegie Mellon), Andy Warhola came to New York to start a career as a commercial artist. In the 11 years that followed, Warhola became Warhol — generating a peculiarly “personalized” portfolio — each piece marking what is now regarded as one of New York’s most successful careers in commercial illustration.

Warhol became one of the most recognized American Pop artists of his day. His art, which was characterized by techniques and themes drawn from mass culture, employed the use of pseudo-industrial silkscreen process to create “commercial objects” such as Campbell soup can paintings. Warhol also used this same technique to portray celebrities such as Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Marilyn Monroe and cows.

The Williams College Museum of Art is on Main Street. For information, 413-597-2429.