Two exhibitions
Andy Warhol: Polaroids / MATRIX 240
Tables of Content: Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive / MATRIX 241
January 27–May 20, 2012
BAM/PFA
Woo Hon Fai Hall
2625 Durant Ave. #2250
Berkeley, CA 94720
Hours:
Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Open till 9 p.m. on L@TE Fridays
Closed Monday and Tuesday
510-642-0808
Andy Warhol: Polaroids / MATRIX 240
From 1970 to 1987 Andy Warhol took scores of Polaroid photographs, the vast majority of which were never seen by the public. These images often served as the basis for his commissioned portraits, silk-screen paintings, drawings, and prints. BAM/PFA is proud to present forty selected Polaroids drawn from an extraordinary gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to the museum. Armed with his Polaroid Big Shot camera, Warhol captured a wide range of individuals—royalty, rock stars, executives, artists, patrons of the arts, and athletes who epitomized 1970s and 1980s high society. The selection for this exhibition reveals that superstars were not the only figures that Warhol photographed. Over half of those who sat for him were little known or remain unidentified. Seen all together, the Polaroids destabilize the iconic status that a Warhol image assumes when displayed singly. On its own, a Polaroid image is fully identified with the artwork that ultimately grew out of it; the face depicted becomes a kind of signifier for larger cultural concepts of beauty, power, and worth.
Tables of Content: Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive / MATRIX 241
In 1988, New York–based collagist Robert Warner began a correspondence with the enigmatic artist Ray Johnson. Until Johnson’s death in 1995, Ray and Bob continued their exchange, mostly by mail and telephone, and only occasionally in person. Over the course of their relationship Warner received hundred of pieces of mail art from Johnson, ranging from collages to a hand-delivered piece of driftwood. At one of their rare in-person meetings, Johnson gave Warner thirteen cardboard boxes tied with twine, labeled “Bob Box One,” “Bob Box Two,” and so on.
Tables of Content displays all thirteen boxes and their contents. Warner has selected and arranged the letters, drawings, photocopies, and found objects like t-shirts, tennis balls, and random beach trash—the material of Johnson’s art—on an assembly of thirteen tables and surrounding gallery walls. Johnson annotated many of these things with personal codes, puns, and dark, irreverent jokes. Johnson’s work—collages, correspondence art, and performance events—remains mysterious and a bit hard to pin down. But his influences are obvious and surface repeatedly, among them Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Rauschenberg, and Elvis Presley. His collage approach was diaristic, a stream-of-consciousness flow through the matter and memory of everyday life, shifting from one topic to another, across all variety of things. Johnson once remarked, “My work is like driving a car. I’m always shifting gears.”
Artist’s Talk: Robert Warner
January 27, 2012; 12:00 p.m.
In conjunction with Tables of Content, collage artist Robert Warner illuminates the intriguing contents of the “Bob Boxes,” gifts to him from artist Ray Johnson.
Support
Andy Warhol: Polaroids is organized by Curatorial Intern Fabian Leyva-Barragan and Assistant Curator Stephanie Cannizzo. Special thanks to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for making this exhibition possible.
Tables of Content is organized by Lucinda Barnes, chief curator and director of programs and collections, in collaboration with Robert Warner.
The MATRIX Program at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is made possible by a generous endowment gift from Phyllis C. Wattis and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu
Press contact: Peter Cavagnaro pcavagnaro@berkeley.edu
