thePULSEIntimate and unseen
Fitchburg Art Museum hosts an exhibit of Andy Warhol’s candid photographs
But what most people didn’t know was that Warhol was a shutterbug. Not until after his untimely death were more than 70,000
photographs found, apparently shot over a period of ten years. From 1976 on, he almost always carried a small Minox 35mm pocket camera and constantly took pictures for his own amusement. While he did use a Polaroid camera to photograph subjects for his commissioned portrait screenprints, these black and whites were never intended for public consumption. However, during their intimate relationship in the early ’80s, Warhol did give Paramount Pictures’ marketing exec Jon Gould some 300 candid shots of public figures and personal friends.
A selection of 40 prints from Gould’s estate is currently on display at the Fitchburg Art Museum. Mostly 6” x 9” images, these works have little of the refinement one would expect from such a prodigious cameraman. They are often unflattering, too high in contrast, poorly composed and bordering on garish. The three exceptions to this disappointing quality are two landscapes and a kitchen stovetop still-life, the only shots that evidence the artful eye of a master.
The works are arranged by subject, beginning with a small group of still-lifes that includes a shot of the famous marionette Howdy Doody. The exhibit progresses to pictures of various celebrities, including Nancy Reagan in the White House, director Robert Altman, fashion designer Halston, and rock star Mick Jagger. What is most striking about these images is not that Warhol actually knew these folks, but how young they were at the time the photos were taken.
The pictures taken during vacations in Aspen include several of unknown young men, a few of Jon Gould, and the two noted landscapes, one of a bungalow in the snow and the other of a fenced-in road winding toward the distant mountains. The two groupings of images featuring Gould are tedious, with the notable exception of the one featuring him posing on Montauk Beach wearing a gift from Warhol, an opera-length strand of pearls.
Warhol also had a penchant for giving his camera to others so that they could take pictures of him, photos he later copyrighted as his own. We get a chance to see him on the banks of the Seine and standing in front of an unidentified bridge. The last group of photos was taken during visits to Cape Cod and the Vineyard, with the final image showing an assistant from The Factory standing in front of a bus, neatly framed by the school name Gay Head.
Saving us from total banality, six brightly colored 36” x 36” screenprints have been incorporated into the show. The bright red, yellow and blue “Ingrid Bergman with Hat” and a red screenprint of the famous “Moonwalk,” with its astronaut and pop-up flag, do catch and hold the eye. Perhaps the most telling work is a 1982 black and red screenprint of Jane Fonda’s beautiful face, her giant hairdo artfully drawn in with blue crayon. Next to the print, for comparison, hangs the original Polaroid. Compare the two and you can see that beneath his façade of bland disinterest, Warhol was truly a pioneering artist.
