The Portland Art Museum is pleased to present Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation<\/em><\/strong>, opening October 8, 2016. This major retrospective exhibition of approximately 250 Andy Warhol prints and ephemera from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer is the largest of its kind ever to be presented. It spans two floors of the Museum and includes instantly recognizable images such as Warhol\u2019s iconic Campbell\u2019s Soup Can (Tomato)<\/em> and Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Printmaking was a vital artistic practice for Andy Warhol. Prints figure prominently throughout his career from his earliest work as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, to the collaborative silkscreens made in the Factory during the \u201860s and the commissioned portfolios of his final years. Portland collector Jordan D. Schnitzer\u2019s comprehensive collection establishes the range of Warhol\u2019s innovative graphic production as it evolved over the course of four decades. The artist\u2019s well-known fascination with popular culture also instills the exhibition with a chronicle of American life in the second half of the twentieth century. The two threads come together to reveal how Warhol\u2019s print publishing enterprise underscores the evolution of today\u2019s hyper sophisticated, saturated, and savvy visual culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The exhibition is organized chronologically and by series. The structure demonstrates in depth Warhol\u2019s use of different printmaking techniques, beginning with illustrated books and ending with screen printing. The exhibition also highlights links between Warhol\u2019s obsession with serial image repetition and the essence of printmaking as a mechanical means for reproducing images. With this convergence, Warhol famously complicated distinctions between the original and the reproduction. The results muddied the conventional approach of highly valuing unique works that display the artist\u2019s touch, instead celebrating print multiples as a medium for experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAndy Warhol harnessed the allure of media images of celebrity, consumer goods, sex, death, and disaster to create his iconic pop art,\u201d said exhibition curator Sara Krajewski, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. \u201cThis retrospective provides an in-depth look at how the artist manipulated the seductive power of the photographic and the televisual in his printmaking. Thirty-five years of prints offer a compelling view of Warhol\u2019s critical use of new imaging formats and technologies, from newsprint distribution to instant cameras, television and video. Our comprehensive survey of Warhol\u2019s vast print production demonstrates Warhol\u2019s impact on the evolution of contemporary visual culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Warhol\u2019s prints present a journey through the reproduced image in American popular culture: from icons Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to the socially charged Birmingham civil rights protests and political posters of the 1970s. In its entirety, the exhibition offers a bellwether of contemporary life and society\u2019s ongoing obsession with celebrities, fashion, political figures, athletes, sensationalism, and scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Portland Art Museum\u2019s ambitious overview of Andy Warhol\u2019s prints offers an opportunity to see the artist anew,\u201d observes Richard H. Axsom, contributing essayist to the exhibition catalogue. \u201cPlaying upon and manipulating the imagery of popular culture, Warhol fashioned in his major print series a body of work of immeasurable power. Under-appreciated is its profound humanity, often obscured by the glamor and glitz of Warhol\u2019s public persona. For an artist known for his superficiality, Warhol was among the least superficial artists of his time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation<\/em> is accompanied by an exhibition catalog published in partnership with the Foundation. A number of public and school programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition, including lectures by exhibition curator Krajewski and Blake Gopnik, art critic and Warhol scholar; Jordan Schnitzer in conversation with Richard H. Axsom, senior curator at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; and a variety of workshops, artist demonstrations, school tours, and community activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organized by the Portland Art Museum. Curated by <\/em>Sara Krajewski, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Andy Warhol prints on view this fall represent just a fraction of the collection of more than 9,500 prints assembled by Portland real-estate investor and philanthropist Jordan D. Schnitzer. Drawing from one of the country\u2019s largest private print collections, including many important contemporary artists, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation has organized over 100 exhibitions at nearly 80 museums. Mr. Schnitzer helped design and fund the renovation of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and is now funding a new museum at Washington State University in Pullman. A longtime Museum supporter and the son of Life Trustees Arlene and the late Harold Schnitzer, he spoke with us about the genius of Warhol and the importance of sharing a passion for art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did you start collecting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I began collecting art in the early \u201960s. What\u2019s exciting about this Warhol show is, for me and our family, this is where it all started. When I went to first grade at Ainsworth grade school, my mother enrolled at the Portland Art Museum art school. I\u2019d come down after school to see my mother and meet Mike Russo and Louis Bunce, who were amazing figures to me then. So to think about this exciting Warhol exhibition in the same building that previously held the classrooms\u2014it\u2019s quite a homecoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first piece of art I actually bought was from the Fountain Gallery of Art, which my mother opened when I was in the third grade. It\u2019s a study by Bunce called Sanctuary<\/em>, and it was $75. And with the family discount I paid $60\u2014five dollars a month. If I missed a payment, my mother knew where to foreclose, because my bedroom was right next to theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What drew you to Andy Warhol?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Artists have always been chroniclers of our time. If we want to go back and understand any age of history\u2014the Egyptians, the Romans, Greeks\u2014we go back and look at art and culture. Artists are the ones on the frontline, pushing the envelope, forcing us to deal with the issues of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, when our smartphones bombard us with what to think, where to go, what to eat, who to see, art is probably the last refuge. Whatever we see in works of art\u2014whether it\u2019s Michelangelo\u2019s David<\/em> or Andy Warhol\u2019s Marilyn <\/em>set\u2014no one else can tell us that our interpretation, our feelings, our thoughts aren\u2019t right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andy Warhol understood that. He was the greatest of the Pop artists because his work so perfectly meshed with the themes of his time\u2014and our time. When Warhol got to New York in the early \u201860s as a graphic artist, it was the age of Madison Avenue and Mad Men<\/em>. So the artists of that time were asking, how do we find our values when we\u2019re being bombarded with one advertising message after another? The challenges of popular culture shaped Warhol\u2019s greatness as a fine artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think this Warhol exhibition will knock people\u2019s socks off. It will be the largest Warhol exhibition ever mounted, in terms of the number of pieces, and it\u2019s going to turn this museum into the Factory of the \u201860s and Studio 54 of the \u201870s. It will be a Magical Mystery Tour of another time and place, with themes that are relevant today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In these screen prints, you can also see one of Warhol\u2019s objectives throughout his whole life, which was the democratization of art. He was saying art is all around us, not just in museums, not just for some elitist people\u2014next time you\u2019re in the grocery store, look around at the shapes, the forms, the graphic designs. In choosing the elementary technique of the screen print, he was essentially making a statement to mass-produce art, to get it out to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve been successful in getting art out to the public as well, by inviting museums to create exhibitions from your family foundation\u2019s print collection. Was that your intention in building this collection?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, first, I simply love the art. It doesn\u2019t matter to me whether it\u2019s sculpture, canvas, paper, digital prints, Xerox prints, ceramics\u2014whatever medium an artist wants to use. And while I collect in this print collection what I\u2019ll call the post-World War II modern masters\u2014Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Richard Serra\u2014I always talk about the importance of supporting our local artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My first love\u2014and still greatest love\u2014is our local artist. In my bedroom I have a fabulous Mike Russo painting and a Lucinda Parker painting. And I love mixing the greatest of the American artists\u2019 works on paper with the best of our Northwest artists in all mediums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I\u2019ve become so enamored, madly in love with works on paper. Roughly 25 years ago I started buying a few prints, and then a few more, and a few more. Then when some museums started asking if they could have exhibitions, the light went on and I thought, \u201cWow, maybe I\u2019ll marry my passion for buying art with a public exhibition program!\u201d That program now encompasses over 100 exhibitions at more than 75 museums\u2014all of which we do for free\u2014and therefore it has allowed me to be obsessive about buying the works on paper because they\u2019re more affordable than the canvas works of these artists. I\u2019m able to collect works on paper in mass, which allows me to share a broad range of work by these modern masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take this Warhol exhibition as an example. If I were lucky enough to own a Warhol painting or two, I\u2019d feel like I was the luckiest person in the world. On the other hand, I\u2019ve collected about 700 Warhol prints, so when [Portland Art Museum Director] Brian Ferriso called up and said, \u201cCan we do a Warhol show?\u201d\u2014well, if I\u2019d had a Warhol painting, I\u2019d say, fine, you can borrow the painting. But because the Museum could borrow more than 260 prints for this exhibition, thousands of viewers are able to see some of the earliest work Andy Warhol did and the last work that he did, and hundreds in between. They can get in the mind of this brilliant man as he moved from one theme to another to another. Because prints allow me to collect both broadly and deeply, visitors to this extraordinary retrospective can get a broader, deeper understanding of the artist and his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is your goal in making these exhibitions possible?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal of those exhibitions is sheer, unadulterated joy. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone in the world who gets as much pleasure as I do from going to these exhibitions and seeing this art\u2014and that joy is only surpassed by the joy I have in sharing it. I have no sense of ownership, only a sense of stewardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We get to work with so many wonderful regional museums and incredible art leaders. The curators pick whatever they want from the richness of this collection, for free, mixing and matching works to put together strong exhibitions with hard-hitting themes. Wichita Museum of Art has one this fall called Shiny Sticky Smooth: Pop Art and the Senses<\/em>. In Laramie, Wyoming, they just had an amazing exhibition of Kara Walker, the preeminent African American artist in the country today, and down in Louisiana, the Alexandria Museum of Art has one coming up called Beyond Mammy, Jezebel, & Sapphire: Reclaiming Images of Black Women<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m thrilled to help make these exhibitions and programs happen, for the same reason I support the university art museums: to bring in the next generation and help them realize the importance of these cultural institutions. Part of my Johnny Appleseed mission is to help develop and expand art museums on university campuses, where they make going to those institutions part of their ordinary campus life. Then maybe when they\u2019re home, they\u2019ll come by their local art museum and get involved, and thus we create patrons for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing I\u2019ve learned is that in too many communities, the school districts are broke, and the programs they had when I was growing up\u2014field trips and so forth\u2014are so limited. So in addition to loaning the work for free as we\u2019ve done here at the Portland Art Museum, we generally offer the museums funding to bring school kids in, host artists-in-residence, and present lecture series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple of years ago, we had an exhibition called Under Pressure<\/em> travel to the Missoula Art Museum. It included Joe Feddersen and Rick Bartow\u2014two of our favorite Northwest artists, both Native Americans. I worked with the museum director not only to fund buses for local school kids, but also to bring in 300 Kootanai and Salish kids from the nearby reservation. We also added more Feddersen and Bartow works from our collection, and brought in Joe Feddersen for a week as an artist-in-residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I\u2019m asked why I\u2019m excited about sharing the work, I think about those 300 Native American kids from Missoula, seeing this terrific work by Rick Bartow and Joe Feddersen, two Native artists, right up there with Warhol and Ellsworth Kelly, Kara Walker and Helen Frankenthaler. And maybe they thought, \u201cWow, if those people could do that, maybe I could too.\u201d That\u2019s how dreams start. So to be part of that\u2014how lucky I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And how lucky I\u2019ve been to grow up in this town, work hard and be able to give back to it. Art is a gift we all can give. If you can pass on a passion for the arts\u2014whether it\u2019s visual arts, dance, music, theater\u2014it\u2019s something they can always go to. And when they have ups and downs in their lives, maybe it\u2019s a place they can go to get a break, to get a better perspective, and feel how lucky they are to be alive and experiencing that form of art and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, too many eyes won\u2019t wear out the Warhol work. So bring your kids, your grandkids, bring the neighbor kids; go get your aunt and uncle, your grandparents\u2014flood the museum with people. Let Andy Warhol reach out and speak to every single one of them who comes to visit this incredible exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Screenprint](\"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Andy-Warhol-Mao.jpeg\")
Q&A<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Conversation with Jordan D. Schnitzer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n