Rhode Island College's Bannister Gallery to Receive Warhol Photographs

Quick: who was the artist who said, "I've never met a person I couldn't call a beauty."? I'll give you a hint: think Campbell's Soup and Heinz Ketchup. If you said Andy Warhol, you're right. During the sixties, the Prince of Pop Art, Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) claimed his fifteen minutes of fame by appropriating popular culture images and transforming them into art.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the young Warhola grew up into a stammering creative genius notoriously strange friends. Lambasted by some critics for being a manipulative entrepreneur of art, Warhol was praised by others who saw his work as a critique of the mass-marketed, commodity culture of America. Though Warhol's integrity as an artist has often been called into question, even the most die-hard art purists can't deny that Warhol's work transformed the art world, making art accessible to the masses.

Thanks to a recent donation, Rhode Island College will be furthering the accessibility of the artist's work with a forthcoming exhibition in the E.M. Bannister Gallery. 159 Andy Warhol originals were given to the college as a part of the late artist's legacy program. With a value of $182,200, the collection includes black-and-white photographs and silver gelatin prints of celebrities taken by Andy Warhol between 1970 and 1987.

Warhol took thousands of photographs, most of which were never seen by the public. Twenty years after the artist's death, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts launched the Photographic Legacy program, which aims to give the artist's work a broader public range. Some 28,500 photographs have been donated to over 180 college and university museums and galleries across the United States.

The artist often used two cameras, a Polaroid and an SLR 35 mm, for his photography. Curated groups of photographs that included both Polaroid snapshots and black-and-white pictures were given to each institution. "By presenting both kinds of images side by side, the Photographic Legacy Program allows viewers to move back and forth between moments of Warhol's "art", "work", and "life" - inseparable parts of a fascinating whole," says Jenny Moore, curator of the Warhol legacy program.

Rhode Island College was invited to participate in the Photographic Legacy program. After a laborious application process, the Bannister Gallery was chosen as one of the recipients. "[Our selection] allows us to be connected to a very important contemporary artist and allows us to extend our reach as a research resource for scholars, including faculty and students," says James Montford, director of the Bannister Gallery. Although the photographs will not be available for public viewing in the gallery until October 2009, Montford may arrange a smaller public viewing in the spring.

Some of the celebrities featured in the RIC collection include famous regulars of legendary nightclub, Studio 54: Bianca Jagger, former wife of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, who gained notoriety in the 70's for her entrance on a white horse to her birthday party; Pia Zadora, star of the 60's cult classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and former wife of billionaire Meshulam Riklis; and gay culture icon, Liza Minnelli, star of the film Caberet and daughter of Judy Garland of Wizard of Oz fame. Other photograph subjects include John Travolta, Giorgio Armani, and Martin Scorsese.

Founded in 1987, as stipulated in the artist's will, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts aims to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process by supporting cultural organizations that directly or indirectly support artists and their work. The Photographic Legacy program is one of several programs designed to benefit the arts.

Other beneficiaries of the legacy program in Rhode Island include Brown University's David Winton Bell Gallery, University of Rhode Island's Fine Arts Center Galleries, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Additionally, former Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art at RISD, Julia Bryan-Wilson received a $40,000 post-doctoral fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation in 2006 for her book, Art Works: Artistic Labor in the Vietnam War Era.

The fate of URI's Fine Arts Center Galleries is up in the air, as the school has just cut the funding. The question remains as to what will happen to the artwork if the gallery does in fact close its doors. No word is available yet regarding the collection's pending fate.

For more information about The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts' Photographic Legacy Program: http://www.warholfoundation.org/book3.pdf