In 1968 Andy Warhol declared, “in the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” In our current social media landscape, something of this prophecy has come true. Recognition is bestowed on more and more faces each day with Instagram stars, YouTube sensations, and “influencers” channeling through the news cycle. Warhol himself did much to foster this phenomenon; with his films, magazine, paintings, and prints he invited an enormous number of people to occupy a central place in his art. Much of Warhol’s work is populated with icons still recognized today but surrounding this trove of work lays a vast array of faces whose identities have been lost to time. For its contribution to Warhol x 5, CCS Bard will present Warhol: Unidentified, an exhibition that gathers together Polaroid headshots and candid photographs that are characterized more by anonymity than fame. In doing so, it offers yet another angle from which to view Warhol’s work.
THE WARHOL X 5 EXHIBITION PROJECT
Warhol x 5 is a presentation of five overlapping exhibitions at the following university art museums: the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College; the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz; the University Art Museum at the University at Albany; the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College; and the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. Drawing upon one another’s collections, each museum will explore a unique aspect or theme of Warhol’s work. The exhibitions will feature works donated by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as well as other works by Warhol in the museums’ collections. Sharing resources among five museums will allow each venue to develop and expand on themes related to their own Andy Warhol holdings, while providing joint programming and curriculum opportunities for each of the participating campuses All five venues are open to the public and free of charge.
