Fort Worth Museum Day

This post is a bit of a scattershot looking back on visiting museums in Fort Worth last week.

A freak blizzard in Funkytown managed to keep me from attending the opening reception for Warhol: The Last Decade, which is the current exhibition at the Modern Art Museum (it runs through May 16, 2010). So I was really pumped to see it. The show did not let me down - it was a fun romp starting with the opening walls painted pink and purple with an iconic portrait of Warhol and several self-portraits mounted over it - a dazzling display. Then an entire wall was devoted to celebrity photos that read like a who's who of the New York scene in the 80's. It was fun to stand there and watch people look at the pictures, then go to the wall chart that identified everyone, then back to the photos, then point, and start again. It was also fun to behave that way. ;-) The collaborative paintings between Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat were amazing to see up close. There was an energy coming off the paintings that still resonated with the two of them bouncing ideas and composition back and forth, a tussle, the give and take - resulting in a series of paintings that are remarkably filled with energy. Many years ago I had seen numerous images from Warhol's "Last Supper" series at the Dia Art Center, but was struck by how different my response was with fewer images. They weren't as overwhelming, and had space to breathe. Warhol impressed me in his balance of control and release - an incredible technician who reveled in the marks of the mechanical error. Oh and I loved the Warhol TV! Too funny.

For contrast this exhibit was followed by a visit to the Amon Carter Museum where I encountered 3 delightful surprises! First, they bought a Joseph Cornell box, Soap Bubble Set - (Lunar Space Object), c. 1959. I'm so glad that the Amon has included Cornell in their collection of American art, he is one of my all-time favorite artists. Another recent acquisition is a stunning vintage photograph by Dorothea Lange of a woman during the depression, this print is a significant addition to their already impressive collection of photographs. The big photo show was Edward Curtis', The North American Indian survey, which was a  massive project funded by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1900 that took 30 years to complete and resulted in over 40,000 photographs. The exhibit was selected from hand-pulled photogravures from this survey. While I was walking through room after room, I was struck by just how influential his work is in defining the image of the Indian. Every Hollywood cowboy and Indian movie ever made seems to lift from this body of work.

Okay so this concludes my museum district countdown....  go out and look at art

BTW When I got back to Amarillo, there was a lovely article about me in the student paper, The Ranger, written by the talented Sarah Cook. Mark that name. She can really write... I hardly recognized myself.

Photo Credit: Rene' West, 1st floor Fort Worth Modern Art Museum, 2010

Warhol Factory: Name's Missing Negatives

Billy Name was the official photographer during the Warhol Factory years. He lived at the Factory and Warhol gave him the Pentax camera that he used. Callie Angell, the adjunct curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Andy Warhol Film Project said, “His documentation of that era is really irreplaceable.”  Now these irreplaceable negatives are missing.

For years he has worked without a contract with an agent that took care of the business end of things for him. The agent had all the negatives and was supposed to be scanning them and converting them to a digital archive. But then he just stopped taking Billy's calls.

Mr Kushel, the agent, says

“I’m moving as fast as possible to rectify a situation in which I was basically sabotaged,” he said, declining to elaborate. Asked about the whereabouts of the negatives, he said only: “They are not missing. They’re just sort of being held captive.” When he was asked by whom they were being held, he added, “By people who want money.”

Warhol loved drama and this story has all the trappings of what Billy referred to as a "tacky tragedy." I hope it has a happy ending.

- Quotes from NYTimes article which has more info.

As an aside, "Warhol: The Last Decade" is opening at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth on February 13 (member's only party). The exhibition was originally organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and it is the first U.S. museum survey to explore the work from the last 8 years of his life. Show dates are February 14th - May 16th. I can't wait!

Photo Credit: Billy Name, Edie Sedgwick, 1965 - linked from artnet.com

Billy Name's official website

Lots of Name's images come up with a simple Google Image search