November 16, 2019 – February 16, 2020
Andy Warhol, Mao Tse-Tung, 1972, color screenprint, National Endowment for the Arts Museum Purchase Plan, 1977.91. © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman explores the symbiotic relationship that developed between photography and contemporary art at the end of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1960s, photography rose to unprecedented prominence in contemporary art. As new movements like Pop Art found inspiration in consumer culture, commercial photography and photo-based design moved from the pages of advertising circulars to gallery walls. Artists like Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann incorporated photographic material into their work and emulated aspects of the medium in their compositions. Likewise, photographers of the 1960s experimented with color, collage, and vernacular materials—just like their Pop Art counterparts.
By the end of the 1960s, many contemporary artists relied on photography to document their performances and reconsider the possibility of artwork existing outside the confines of the museum. Photo-based media—television, video, and film—became central to the exploration of ideas raised in the work of Peter Campus, Chris Burden, John Baldessari, and Dara Birnbaum. By the 1980s, a politically active generation of artists—including Nan Goldin, Leon Golub, and Cindy Sherman—dominated contemporary art production, relying heavily, if not exclusively, on photography to probe questions of identity. Organized primarily from the Worcester Art Museum's permanent collection, Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman assesses the trajectory of contemporary art through a comparison of traditional media, such as painting, prints, and sculpture, with photography and emerging photo-based art.
Photo Revolution is a show less about date than feel, that feel being the grain of an era: scruffy, bolshie, uneven,…Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe
Artist and photographer Mike Mandel discusses his work, “Baseball Photographer Trading Cards”: his inspiration, his process, and his thoughts on the project 45 years later. The full set of cards is currently on view as part of Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman.
This exhibition is presented with support from the Lunder Foundation — Peter and Paula Lunder family, Catherine M. Colinvaux, the Schwartz Charitable Foundation, Marlene and David Persky, and James E. Hogan III. Additional support is provided by the John M. Nelson Fund, Don and Mary Melville Contemporary Art Fund, Hall and Kate Peterson Fund, Heald Curatorial Fund, and the Ruth and John Adam, Jr. Exhibition Fund.
The exhibition is sponsored by Fallon Health and Skinner Auctioneers and Appraisers.
Media Partners: Artscope and WBUR.
Related Programs
Master Series Third Thursday
Thursday, November 21, 6pm
Speaker: Diana Tuite, Katz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Colby College Museum of Art.
Art Talk: Paraphotography: Doing Things with Images
Presented with support from the Michie Family Curatorial Fund, the Amelia and Robert H. Haley Memorial Lecture Fund, the Bernard and Louise Palitz Fund, and the Spear Fund for Public Programs.
Master Series is sponsored by AbbVie.
Press
Artscope
Image is Everything: It's a Mod Mod World at WAM's Photo Revolution
By Suzanne Volmer, January/February, 2020
Popular Photography
Photo Revolution explores the untidy history of photography as an artform
By Jeanette D. Moses, December 16, 2019
The Boston Globe
Andy Warhol is at the head of a ‘Photo Revolution’
By Mark Feeney, December 6, 2019
Art New England
Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman
By Heather Martin, November/December, 2019
WBUR.org
From Andy Warhol To Cindy Sherman, This Exhibit Shows How Photography Influences Other Art
By Jenn Stanley, November 11, 2019
Worcester Living Magazine
Worcester Art Museum's ‘Photo Revolution’ examines photography's impact and influence on contemporary art
By Nancy Sheehan, September 26, 2019
Selected Images
