Wexner Center Hosts U.S. Premiere of Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms

Dazzling, Immersive Exhibition Features Warhol’s “Cosmos” Through More Than 700 Works, Offering Fresh Look at Pop Art Icon

 

Columbus, OH—This fall, the Wexner Center will present the only U.S. installation of Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms. Organized by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm—and curated by Eva Meyer-Hermann, an independent curator based in Cologne, Germany—this spectacular exhibition will be on view at the Wexner Center from September 13, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Occupying the entirety of the Wexner Center galleries, Other Voices, Other Rooms sheds new light on the oeuvre of the celebrated Pop Art master, who was inarguably among the most influential artists of the 20th century.

Featuring films, videos, paintings, drawings, prints, wallpaper, installations, objects, seldom heard audio recordings, and extraordinary archival material, Other Voices, Other Rooms focuses on concepts at the heart of Warhol’s work: consumer culture, sexual identity, social transgression, and the eradication of distinctions between high and low culture. The works in the show—some 700 items—date from 1949 to 1987.

“Upon visiting this astounding and ingenious exhibition in Amsterdam late last year, I immediately set the wheels in motion to bring it to the Wexner Center. It explores afresh the remarkable legacy of an artist who utterly transformed the cultural landscape of his own time, but also foretold with uncanny prescience today’s media-obsessed society,” says Sherri Geldin, director of the Wexner Center. “Given Warhol’s masterful manipulation of virtually every artistic medium, what better place than the multidisciplinary Wexner Center to present this exhibition. And what a spectacular opportunity to see it specially redesigned for the center’s distinctive galleries, which themselves have an almost cinematic character.”

The visitor experience begins with a “red carpet welcome,” including introductory material and music by The Velvet Underground, the band that Warhol launched from his famous Factory. From there, the exhibition unfolds in sections:

At the heart of Other Voices, Other Rooms is the Cosmos, highlighting the master’s ways of thinking and working and his imperturbable eye for detail. Here one finds iconic works of art and objects from The Time Capsules and The Factory Diaries—in which Warhol captured his life in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, featuring glimpses of such luminaries as Edie Sedgwick, John F. Kennedy Jr., and David Bowie. In addition, drawings, photos, and rare archival material are presented alongside audio fragments of Lou Reed, Truman Capote, and others.

In the Filmscape, visitors explore a cinematic landscape that includes films made between 1963 and 1968, including Screen Tests, Sleep, The Chelsea Girls, Kitchen, and Mrs. Warhol. These films were Warhol’s experiments; secluded behind the camera, he depicts—without intervening—behavior in all types of situations, using time and observation as his ingredients.

The TV-Scape section of the exhibition presents, synchronously, all 42 television episodes that Warhol created between 1979 and 1987, along with a selection of rarely screened videos. In this section of the exhibition, the artist projects his voyeurism onto everyone—stars and ordinary people, alike—in the medium that seemed best suited to the job. Just as in his magazine, Interview, Warhol had a keen eye for detail and trivia, with which he exercised a specific influence on the development of both media.

Andy Warhol (1928–1987), more than any other artist, merged the public with the private, the glamorous with the mundane, celebrity with anonymity, and ravenous voyeurism with seeming indifference. Well before the proliferation of media culture, he famously predicted that everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame—virtually foretelling the advent of American Idol and YouTube. Drawing upon the quite radical impulses coursing through American culture in the ’60s, Warhol incisively captured and reflected much that would ultimately demarcate a sea change in our social fabric of that time, with potent ramifications since.

Notes curator Eva Meyer-Hermann, “Andy Warhol once wondered about how it would be if one mirror would reflect another. He declared that everything which we want to know can be seen on the surfaces of him and his works. I thought I had to look behind these surfaces, but realized that what we are looking for is not behind but in front of them. Warhol’s surfaces reflect the world; his works are about you and me.”

 

SYMPOSIUM

Fall 2008 marks what would have been Andy Warhol’s 80th birthday. The Wexner Center will be organizing an international symposium on his work and influence, as well as a wide array of educational programs for teens, university students, and the general public.

 

CATALOGUE

Other Voices, Other Rooms is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue edited by curator Eva Meyer-Hermann, also a contributor to the publication. Other essays include those by Andy Warhol Museum film/video curator Geralyn Huxley, assistant film/video curator Greg Pierce, and archivist Matt Wrbican; artists Mike Kelley, Johan Renck, and Willem de Rooij; scholars Hubertus Butin, Hal Foster, Johannes Schmidt, and Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer; and Olle Granath, permanent secretary of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm.

 

THE TOUR

Other Voices, Other Rooms was first on view in Amsterdam last fall (which drew record crowds) before traveling to Stockholm, where it is currently enjoying spectacular success. In an unprecedented and somehow “Warholian” act of doubling, the Wexner Center’s presentation of this exhibition will overlap with its showing at the Hayward Gallery in London. The talented architect/design team of chezweitz & roseapple, based in Berlin, will completely (re)design the Wexner Center installation of the exhibition, just as it has for all of the exhibition’s venues.

 

WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS

The Wexner Center for the Arts is Ohio State’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. Through exhibitions, screenings, performances, artist residencies, and educational programs, the Wexner Center acts as a forum where established and emerging artists can test ideas and where diverse audiences can participate in cultural experiences that enhance understanding of the art of our time. wexarts.org.