February Issue 2001
Deborah Kass: The Warhol Project,
Opened Jan. 28 at Weatherspoon
New York artist Deborah Kass's The Warhol Project, opened,
Jan. 28 at the Weatherspoon Art Gallery, the contemporary art
museum at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The
exhibit will continue through Apr. 22.
Heavily influenced by the post-modern movement, Kass embarked on The Warhol Project in the early 1990s, in part as homage to the late Andy Warhol, but more importantly, to comment on pop culture's disregard for gender, ethnicity and sexual identity. Whereas Warhol exposed the superficialities of American culture that few artists had ever troubled to explore, Kass shows us the "other" America, said Ron Platt, curator of exhibitions.
"In The Warhol Project, Kass has crafted a beautiful, witty and profound commentary on art, society and culture, which adds an important dimension to the Weatherspoon's programs." he said. Kass's work seems to ask, "In art history and popular culture, where have I seen my reflection? Where were my people, my icons?" To construct a picture of complex identity, Kass portrays her own heroes in place of Warhol's celebrities: Gertrude Stein as Chairman Ma instead of Warhol's Chairman Mao, for instance. In her Jewish Jackie series, she has Barbra Streisand stand in for Jackie Kennedy. Where the viewer expects to see Andy Warhol's face, she substitutes her own.
From Warhol to Pop and Back Again encompasses three exhibitions, several lectures, a
film series, family workshops, noontime discussions and more.
The program highlight will be The Prints of Andy Warhol (From
A to B and Back Again), a retrospective of 70 Andy Warhol
prints or print series made between 1964 and 1987, opening Feb.
4. Rounding out the exhibitions is Pop from the Permanent,
presenting highlights from the Weatherspoon's permanent collection,
including works by Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom
Wesselman, Jim Dine and others.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.