Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is among the most recognizable and influential artists of all time. For all of his much-discussed dispassion and irony, he had an uncanny sense of the power and influence of American and popular culture, both in its superficial and more profound forms. Warhol’s focus extended well beyond his famous obsessions with commercialism, celebrity, and glamour. Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life in Pop features a broad range of the artist’s screen-printed imagery from 1964 to 1985.
learn moreAndy Warhol thrived on outrageousness and got used to critics trashing his work. But today, 33 years after his death, many see him—the king of pop art—as the most influential artist of the 20th century. Warhol’s creative activities were boundless: painting, printmaking, film, television, commercial illustration, sculpture, photography, installation art, rock music promotion, publishing, writing, modeling, advertising. He touched nearly every form of aesthetic expression. With this season of exhibitions and installations, MAG presents the most exciting and exhaustive opportunity to experience art by Andy Warhol ever mounted in Rochester.
Warhol loved filling walls and spaces with his art and inundating viewers with his garish color palette and abrasive pop style. But Cow Wallpaper? How absurd. How banal! On this installation of the artist’s wallpaper, MAG hangs the complete portfolio of his eerie Electric Chair prints (1971), effectively combining the banal with a most serious subject matter and striking at heart of Warhol’s famously conflicted aesthetic.
learn moreIn 1966, Warhol declared that he was retiring from painting (ha-ha!), and this installation signaled the end of his painting career. (He never actually stopped painting.) Warhol imagined these helium and air-filled silver pillows as paintings of a sort, exiting galleries and windows and floating away forever. Enjoy Silver Clouds at MAG before it floats away!
learn moreFor Warhol, television was a way to make anyone famous, and he often used informal real-time footage, a prescient version of today’s “reality TV,” to feature both trivial and glamorous subjects. This exhibition in MAG’s Media Arts Watch gallery showcases three of Warhol’s TV series as well as some of his live TV appearances, video clips, and advertisements. More recent material drawn from YouTube explores how his tabloid television anticipated contemporary modes of mass media production. True to the original medium, and in honor of Warhol’s visionary obsession with popular culture, Warhol TV is presented on an outdated CRT television inside a basement hangout space, complete with furniture, games, and a TV guide.
learn moreCelebrating 90 Years: Print Club of Rochester 1930-2020
December 1, 2020-January 30, 2021 | on view in the Lucy Burne Gallery, Creative Workshop
Founded in 1930, The Print Club of Rochester has had a 90-year love affair with the fine art of printmaking. Originally established by 22 print-lovers, at the suggestion of the Memorial Art Gallery, the club has continued and grown into one of the longest continually running print clubs in the United States. Although it was established in Rochester, in recent years it has become a truly national club with members throughout the United States. Members range from printmakers to collectors to enthusiasts, all sharing the appreciation for the medium.
To learn more about The Print Club of Rochester or to see the entire archive of Presentation Prints, visit their website at printclubofrochester.org.
shown above left to right: Robert Ernst Marx, 1978; Karen Kunc, 2011; Rockwell Kent, 1946 (detail); Kathryn Polk, 2018 (detail).
By 1900, many women wanted rights as men, and that meant the ability to vote. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, postcards were a cheap, accessible, and exceedingly mobile media for spreading the messages of women’s suffrage. Some postcards provide the short, thought-provoking power of a pithy contemporary tweet.
Watch Rochester Author Writes Book Highlighting Women’s Suffrage via Spectrum News.
now on view in the Hurlbut Gallery
Rochester has its own graffiti legends, none more esteemed than the collective FUA (pronounced “fwah”) Krew. Though many members of FUA Krew have dispersed over the years, becoming ambassadors for Rochester and building their international recognition, our city remains the center of their work.
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Argentum: Double-Positive by Jim Sanborn consists of two bronze projection cylinders in front of MAG’s 1913 building. These cylinders are perforated with a series of texts that light up at night and project onto the facade and surrounding landscape at MAG. The texts highlight the creativity and invention that have been the core industry of the City of Rochester for decades.
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Four major artists were commissioned to create site specific work for Centennial Sculpture Park. Wendell Castle’s Unicorn Family provides an outdoor grouping of chairs, a table, and a lamp for visitors who like to sit and enjoy the passing scene. Jackie Ferrara created Marking Crossways, geometric pathways and cameos leading from the ‘quarry’ area to the front entrance of MAG. Tom Otterness, known internationally for his engaging installations created Creation Myth, two heroic figures at the corner of Goodman and University Street as well as 17 diminutive bronze muses scattered throughout the Park. Albert Paley installed Soliloquy, a colorful 25-foot stainless steel sculpture at the Goodman Street entrance. shown: detail, Albert Paley, Soliloquy (2013). Gift of the Cameros Family and Ann Mowris Mulligan, with additional support from Bank of America Charitable Foundation, FULL MEA5URE, the Herdle-Moore Fund, the Rubens Family Foundation, and the Clara and Edwin Strasenburgh Fund.
photo: Brandon Vick.
