Pennsylvania artist, Andy Warhol, changed how we view art. Inspired by pop culture,
Warhol’s imagery defined the new age of fine art and influenced society, to in turn,
be a creator of pop culture. This exhibition examines the artist’s inspiration, process,
and wide influence to both fine and commercial art.
The Warhol Wednesday Lecture Series:
October 11: Curator's Tour with Director of the Sordoni Art Gallery and Curator of the exhibition, Heather Sincavage
(in gallery)
October 25: Andy Warhol is a V: Philosophical Bachelorhood & the Celibate Factory by Dr. Benjamin Kahan, Louisiana State University
"Andy Warhol is a 'V,'" locates Warhol within a tradition of what John Guillory calls
"philosophical bachelorhood" in order to theorize an erotics of celibacy that does
not just involve one person (as we typically imagine celibacy), but is alloerotic
and interpersonal like homo- and heterosexuality. Guillory understands bachelorhood
as the dominant underpinning of philosophy, arguing that the choice not to marry is
indicative of a willingness to think outside existing social structures and thus is
associated with the ability to imagine alternative modes of governance in their place
(exemplified by the "philosopher king"). While Guillory sees philosophical bachelorhood
as a largely early modern phenomenon, I read Warhol's The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
(from A to B and Back again) (1975) as self-consciously updating this tradition and
offering a philosophy of governance for the Factory. In particular, Warhol's 1964
marriage to his tape recorder can be read as a turn towards the contemplative life.
Recasting the famously queer Factory as a celibate sociality, this talk maps a secular
group celibacy in Warhol's studio and the particular Eros native to it.
November 15: Andy and the Rusyns by Dr. Elaine Rusinko, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (co-sponsored by the Eastern PA Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society)
Andy Warhol is the world's most famous American of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry. The icons
of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church were his first exposure to art. His unexpected
death in 1987 was followed by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the rise
of the Rusyn movement for identity, which embraced the flamboyant pop-artist, filmmaker,
and jet-setter as their iconic figurehead. From their own idiosyncratic perspective, Rusyns have reconstructed our image of Andy
Warhol, pointing up aspects of the artist that have gone largely unnoticed. In a reciprocal
process, Andy has had a significant impact on the Rusyn movement and on the recognition
of Rusyns worldwide. This slide-lecture establishes Warhol's Carpatho-Rusyn ethnicity
and explores its influence on his art and persona, concluding that a recognition of
the Rusyn Andy contributes to a distinctive perspective on the American Warhol.
