Warhol collection displayed for first time

BRATTLEBORO, Vt., Jan. 21 (UPI) -- The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center has pulled off an art-world coup by exhibiting for the first time Andy Warhol paintings, prints and photographs collected by the artist's last companion and hidden away in a fine-arts storage facility near Boston for almost two decades.

The show, to run through Feb. 6, has been made possible by former museum trustee Robert Fritz's friendship with Jay Gould, twin brother of Jon Gould, the Paramount Pictures vice president for marketing who was Warhol's closest friend from 1980 to 1984, two years before Gould died of AIDS and three years before Warhol's death.

Jon Gould, who lived briefly at Warhol's Manhattan townhouse, amassed a collection of 60 paintings and prints and hundreds of photographs made by Warhol in the 1980s. Gould bequeathed the works to his family.

"Jay's willingness to share his brother's collection with us is truly a gift -- both to Brattleboro and to the entire art world," said museum director Konstantin von Krusenstiern in opening the show in spacious galleries occupying what used to be the main floor of Brattleboro's railroad station before the station was relocated a floor below.

The show offers a rare opportunity to see two of Warhol's most important and least exhibited portfolios of prints, "Myths" (1981) and "Endangered Species" (1983), which were purchased by Gould in multiple sets, a never-before-seen painting created in collaboration with graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and some delicate watercolors and pencil drawings.

There are two previously unrecorded abstract works created in synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, both dated 1982 and untitled, and 50 unpublished photographs focused on Warhol's life from 1981 to 1984 when he and other "beautiful people" frequented New York's Studio 54 nightclub. Examples of classic Warhol screen print images -- Chairman Mao, the Campbell's soup can, flowers and a candy box -- flesh out the show.

The show also includes three versions of Warhol's screen print portrait embellished by hand of Jon Gould, commissioned by Gould himself, and several photographs of Warhol and Gould, a handsome, athletic man of whom Warhol, who, though gay, was noted for his platonic friendships, wrote in his diary: "He's tall and strong and I feel he can take care of me, and it's exciting because he acts straight, so I'm sure people think he is."

"This collection reveals a highly personal side of Warhol and provides a fascinating glimpse into his private life," commented Mara Williams, guest curator for the show. "It offers a unique view of Warhol's life and artistic production within the context of a special friendship."

The most arresting exhibit in the show is the "Endangered Species" limited edition series of 10 prints based on commercial photographs that Warhol cropped, ornamented, and tinted in ravishingly bright colors. Not only are the portraits of such animals as the Pine Barrens Tree Frog, African Elephant, Bald Eagle, Giant Panda, Orangutan, and Grevy's Zebra very beautiful, they also provide real personalities for their subjects, especially the glowing frog.

The "Myths" series, also comprised of 10 prints of fictional characters sprinkled with diamond dust, is more notable for its humor in portraying such subjects as Uncle Sam, Dracula, Mickey Mouse, The Shadow, Howdy Doody, Superman and Santa Claus. Warhol was particularly successful in his almost childlike concept of "The Witch," a glowering depiction of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West.

Particularly decorative in effect are two screen prints of lobsters, one red on a black ground and the other black on a red ground, and four prints of poinsettias. There also are two versions of a pencil sketch of a fish painted with blue fins and tail and an orange underbelly in watercolor that are quite outside the usual Warhol repertory of photo-based subject matter.

Warhol is believed to have tried his hand at abstract painting on canvas only 18 times, and the two abstracts from the Gould collection are splashily explosive tributes in red, orange and blue to the Abstract Expressionist painters who were dethroned by Warhol and other "Pop" artists. This unpublished aspect of the artist's work still mystifies Warhol scholars.

Warhol's better-known collaboration with Basquiat, who died in 1988 of a heroin overdose, is represented by a hand-painted copy of the logo of Paramount Pictures, Gould's employer, with the addition of Basquiat's signature and collage elements. One of the words appearing on the canvas, smeared but still readable, is "reevaluate."

The Brattleboro show may not be a re-evaluation of Warhol's art, but it does add to the previously known scope of his work. In conjunction with the show there is an exhibition of portraits of Warhol by photographer Christopher Makos on display at the Latchis Theater just up the street from the museum.

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