return to previous page

Polaroid Sketchbook:
Photographs by Andy Warhol in the Permanent Collection

April 18–July 3, 2009
Chi Omega-Hargis Gallery

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was a key figure in the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, achieving fame worldwide as a painter, printmaker, filmmaker, record producer and, above all, as a “celebrity figure.” Central to most of his creative activities was the camera—in particular, the Polaroid instant camera. Warhol wielded his Polaroid as other artists might use a sketchbook, quickly recording variations on ideas for future use. In 2007, twenty years after the artist’s death, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts offered gifts of over 28,500 of Warhol’s photographs to 183 college and university museums across the United States in order to provide greater public access to Warhol’s art and his creative process, and to enable study of this important but relatively unknown body of work. Along with other institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago and Harvard University Art Museums, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art received more than 100 original Polaroid images and 50 gelatin-silver prints by this renowned artist.

Polaroid Sketchbook: Photographs by Andy Warhol in the Permanent Collection presents a cross-section of images from the bequest, including portrait shots of John Denver, Chris Evert, Halston, Sean Lennon, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cheryl Tiegs, and other public figures. Selected Polaroid prints are paired with examples of their resulting paintings, on loan from The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, to illustrate the photographs’ use as foundations for larger finished works.

John Denver, 1986 Polacolor ER 2008.3.60

Cheryl Tiegs, 1984     Polacolor ER     2008.3.29

 

Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art;
gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts