Bananas! My Visit to 'Season of Warhol'

          My mom's a talented artist and recently, she had a painting to drop off to Rochester Contemporary Art Center as part of an upcoming exhibition, so she kindly invited me to come along. She was all, “I could get us tickets to Andy Warhol!”, which, for each of us, is an offer that’s quite hard to resist, so I said yes (I mean, duh), and the trip introduced me to other impactful, fantastic work. Partway through my time in the Memorial Art Gallery, I started thinking about sharing notes with you on what I saw. I’m including images! Also, there were long conversations with my wonderful mom who threatened to abandon me in that city, far from home, only four times!

Did I make it home? Click to find out!...Or check your pantry. I’m on a kick that involves late night rendezvous with a tub of creamy peanut butter and a spoon.

  I like plenty of post-modernism, I gobble up pop art, and also have a grateful curiosity about the artistic identities of Native American people and there is a diverse array of pieces in Season of Warhol, which is up until March 28, 2021 and includes work for which room was available in the art world due in large part to the creations of one Andy Warhol, so it was early in my stroll that I came across the above piece by Fritz Scholder, whose website is spot-on in stating that he's known for his "brushwork and vivid colors" in addition to often addressing Native identity. This was the only painting of his I saw and was immediately inspired to up the artist's name.  

      

          Next up is the talented artist Jacob Lawrence, born in 1917, raised during the Harlem Renaissance, which was a major influence what with his being a Black American whose family moved to Harlem in New York City in 1930. 

 

According to the website for DC Moore Gallery, 

The twenty-four year old artist became the first African-American to be represented by a New York gallery. Fortune magazine published a lengthy article on the series that reproduced twenty-six of series’ sixty panels, and the entire series was purchased jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection.

           Now for the incomparable Mickalene Thomas.

   I am a big fan of Thomas' work. The bright, textured collages, photos and paintings always strike me with power radiating off of her subjects, shine, sparkle and punch from the materials used, and the fact that her style is distinctive. Again, f***ing love this stuff.

I appreciated the power of this next piece. It was a strong, necessary message from John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres:

  Please, if you can zoom in, do so with this sculpture.

 

          Angela Ellsworth addressed the Mormonism in her family history and its traditional oppression, specifically of women. Thing is, she did so using pearl-tipped corsage pins as a way of presenting a lovely design outwardly while the wearer of the bonnet would be in pain. The circles have a spiritual meaning as well. I think it was well explained on the blog Nanette's New Life. The artist has made sculptures of pioneer bonnets into a project.         
 
 

           And now for Roy De Forest, everyone!

 
 

 

          You may have seen work from Keith Haring before. His style and a few of his pieces are not only iconic but so popular, so attractive, so delightfully distracting and energizing, I've been a fan for years, but I'm not sure if I'd known about his "Andy Mouse" work, and this was certainly my first time seeing a collection of those pieces in person. 

  Based on a mentor of his, Warhol, and on the wall near this collection was a quote from Haring (which I unfortunately couldn't find to show you, I'm sorry) regarding the admiration that he and Warhol each had for Walt Disney. 

         

          Some of Warhol's work inspires me to think about the relationship I have with consumerism, which, by the way, is one of love and wariness. I take issue with some of the manipulative marketing out there and certainly with the repetition of incorrect cliché beliefs that perpetuate a mindset of lack, which can lead to greed, but Warhol's work also makes me think of the childlike enjoyment of color, reimagining ordinary things, excess, sparkle and shine. 

Warhol makes me think of not only balancing consumerism and fun, but also of how I value art far more than seeing/meeting an artist in person. If you're famous, I don't need a photo of or with you and I probably won't hit you up for an autograph. We're both just humans and I'm a creative doing worthwhile stuff, so I keep an eye on my own parasocial relationships, not wanting anyone or anything to be on a high metaphorical pedestal. I bring this up not just to talk some more about myself, by the way, but because Warhol paid at least one individual to impersonate him at universities around the U.S. as a guest speaker. 

I'm also thinking of how he was not only a devotee of American culture, obscure art and music, but a straight-up hoarder.

 
  

 Imagine framed images of the electric chair print in a few different colors mounted against a patterned backdrop of this beauty:

Which is its own installation. According to the website for Memorial Art Gallery, "Warhol was a pioneer of installation art. The same year that he created Silver Clouds, he produced Cow Wallpaper, which has since covered the walls of Warhol exhibitions across the world."

 

 

          As we drove around parts of Rochester, NY, running an errand, grabbing a meal (in my case, a delicious burger) at the Brown Hound, and, of course, visiting the museum, my mom and I talked and joked around. It was lovely overall, Mom advised three times that, "I could just leave you here", and even said something similar on the thru-way just outside the city on the way back! Doesn't everybody wanna hear that while in the passenger seat of a vehicle while far from home? I sure do!

          It's time for me to go, so we can talk later.