Warhol exhibit featured at UMPI
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
WORKS BY ANDY WARHOL are currently on display at UMPI’s Reed Art Gallery in the Campus Center. Here, Heather Sincavage, gallery director, poses next to one of the most recently-acquired pieces donated by the Andy Warhol Foundation to the university, increasing the number of Warhol productions in the institution’s collection to over 150. The artwork will be on display through Feb. 21.
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
Image courtesy of UMPI
WAYNE GRETZKY is just one of the celebrities featured in the latest Andy Warhol exhibit at UMPI.
The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will showcase several never-before-seen photographs from its Andy Warhol collection, as well as several newly-acquired original Warhol screen prints donated by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, as part of its latest exhibit, “Warhol: Faces,” which will be on display through Feb. 21. 
“This exhibition will focus on Warhol’s attention to the portrait. With access to pop culture icons, socialites and the Hollywood elite, Warhol photographed his subjects countless times to prepare for his finished art work. ‘Warhol: Faces’ will include images of Wayne Gretzky and Carly Simon. These images are part of the collection of 153 silver gelatin prints and Polaroid photographs — valued at more than $100,000 — that UMPI was gifted from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program in 2008,” said Heather Sincavage, director of the Reed Gallery.
Reed was among 183 college and university art museums and galleries across the U.S. to receive such a gift from the program so that greater access could be provided to Warhol’s artwork and process. The university was one of three institutions in Maine to receive a gift from the foundation. Sincavage noted that the Reed Fine Art Gallery was the first in Maine to put these photographs on display for public viewing.
“In time, we’ll move to the library facility which will double our square footage. These and other artworks will be circulated through our public offices on campus, as a way to continue to share them with the public,” said Sincavage.
Sincavage said the five Warhol original screen prints that will be on display during the show comprise the second gift of its kind to UMPI from the Andy Warhol Foundation.
“These images, valued at about $25,000, include screen prints of Queen Beatrix, Queen Margrethe and Sitting Bull, as well as a pink camouflage and a fiesta pig, and range in size from approximately 20-by-30 inches to 38-by-38 inches,” said Sincavage.
She said these works were created between 1979 and 1987.
Some of these prints were completed close to Warhol’s death in 1987 and are thought to not have left his studio until the Foundation cataloged the work.
“This means these prints have not been exhibited before, although there are other editions of these images that are on display,” said Sincavage. “For example, Indiana State University has a print similar to UMPI’s Sitting Bull piece.”
“The university and the Reed Gallery are delighted to be showcasing our Warhol collection and to debut our newly-acquired screen prints. This exhibition is another clue into the artistic process of Warhol. We get to see the people he had access to, the subtlety of his postures, and the completed work full of color, using the screen printing process. It’s such a fascinating insight and we’re so pleased to be able to share that with the public.”
“These Warhol pieces are part of the crown jewels of UMPI exhibits,” Sincavage said.
The Reed Art Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; it’s closed Sunday and university holidays. For more information, call Sincavage at 768-9442, email heather.sincavage@umpi.edu, or follow Reed Gallery on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ReedArtGallery.
