IU Art Museum to go Warhol

Everything is going Warhol at the IU Art Museum this spring.

The museum’s new “Shot by Warhol” exhibit, featuring a selection of 154 of Andy Warhol’s personal photographs, will open Saturday and remain through May 8.

The museum received the photos from a grant through the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Curator Nan Brewer said the museum chose Warhol’s work because he is one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century, yet his photography is not widely shown.

“Warhol himself didn’t exhibit, except for maybe less than a handful of solo exhibitions of his photography during his lifetime,” Brewer said. “(The exhibit) is an interesting way of showing how his personality was reflected in his choice of photography.”

Brewer, who conceptualized “Shot by Warhol,” organized the photos by styles that influenced him, including everything from celebrity portraits to documentary photography.

The exhibit, decorated in Warhol’s early factory style with silver paint and aluminum foil, shows the depth and variety of his work with cameras.

“His color Polaroids, which he started making in the ’70s, were very much photographic studies for his painted portrait commissions,” Brewer said. “The other half of his photography is black and white photography, which is more of a visual diary of his life’s activities.”

Brewer worked in cooperation with publicist Jessica Reed and the IU Cinema to plan events promoting the exhibit, starting opening weekend.

Associate professor of art history at the University of Southern California Richard Meyer will open with a lecture about Warhol’s photography at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Fine Arts Building 015. It will be followed by a reception at the museum.

A selection of Warhol’s 16mm films will be shown at the IU Cinema at the same time as the reception. Brewer will give a guided tour of the exhibit Sunday.

The museum is also sponsoring “Warhol Happenings” on Thursday nights in March, Reed said. Local indie band Tammar kicks off the “Happenings” on Thursday with a concert featuring Velvet Underground cover songs, as well as original music.

The film “I Shot Andy Warhol” will play March 24 in the museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery.

The final and biggest “Happening,” “Factory Night,” will be featured in the exhibit March 31. It includes a Warhol look-alike contest, pop art-inspired snacks, a photographer and DJ White Light. Retro clothing is encouraged, as is bringing a can of soup to donate to the Community Kitchen of Monroe.

Reed said she hopes to see a variety of people enjoying the exhibit and corresponding events.

“Andy Warhol is so well-known, even to people outside the art world,” Reed said. “We hope the exhibit will bring a large crowd.”