Warhol Show Explores Voyeurism as Art in Muscarelle Show

By Amber Lester Sunday, November 15, 2009

Andy Warhol's iconic "Marilyn."

Warhol’s voyeurism-as-art approach will be explored in a new exhibit curated for the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary. The exhibit, called “Deeply Superficial: Andy Warhol’s Voyeurism,” opens with a members-only event at 5 p.m. Nov. 6 and to the public on Nov. 7. The members-only opening will feature a lecture from Warhol’s longtime assistant Gerard Malanga.

“Deeply Superficial: Andy Warhol’s Voyeurism” will be on display Nov. 6, 2009 to Jan. 17, 2010 at the Muscarelle Museum of Art on the campus of the College of William and Mary.

The museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

General admission is $5, with an additional $5 to see the Warhol exhibit. Museum access is free to members, college students, faculty, staff and children under the age of 12.

Because of Warhol’s ongoing popularity and the timing of the show during the holidays, Museum Director Aaron DeGroft anticipates 15,000 to 20,000 people will see the exhibit. “These are works you cannot just go to a museum and find,” he said, referring to the pieces never shown prior to this exhibit.

In 2008, the Muscarelle received a donation of 150 Warhol photographs from the Warhol Foundation. That gift started the preparation for “Deeply Superficial,” which Bonebakker calls an “experimental” exhibit.

The show combines works in different mediums under the chosen concept – voyeurism. Viewers entering the pink-and-gray space will first see Warhol’s photographs displayed side-by-side with a Polaroid model like the one the artist used. They will then progress into a bubblegum pink room adorned with Warhol’s famous multicolored portraits, many of which are based on the photographs in the exhibit. One of the silkscreened paintings will be shown alongside the screen used to create it. Finally, viewers will enter a gray room where they can watch a rotation of Warhol’s “stillies” – one-shot screentests of recognizable stars, such as Dennis Hopper, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick and Salvador Dali.

“It’s really fun. Because it’s an experimental show, it’s great for a college campus,” Bonebakker said, adding some classes might incorporate the show into curriculums.

A smaller exhibit of Pop Art prints will accompany the main Warhol show. It will feature works by Warhol contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist.

Bonebakker hopes the exhibit’s viewers come away with a sense of the inherent contradiction in Warhol’s voyeuristic work: Warhol constantly documented his friends and acquaintances, but all of them were hoping to be documented. It is a contradiction still relevant today, as burgeoning Hollywood stars eat at new restaurants where paparazzi are sure to be present.

“We’re interested in Warhol’s way of looking at subjects fascinated by their own potential fame,” she said. “We’re so fascinated by looking through his own lens.”