The Andy Warhol Museum unveils some of the pop artist’s 'Unseen' works
JOANNE KLIMOVICH HARROP | Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 4:01 p.m.
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Andy Warhol Museum director Patrick Moore at the Thursday press tour of the “Unseen” exhibition, which he curated.
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A portrait of the former Queen of Iran by Andy Warhol in the “Unseen” exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum.
Despite an entire museum dedicated to the work of Andy Warhol, there is a collection of 10,000 works by the native Pittsburgh pop artist that have never been in the public eye.
People can now see more than 60 of those pieces in “Unseen: Permanent Collection Works” at The Andy Warhol Museum on the North Shore through March 4.
“It is our responsibility as a museum to show our collection,” Patrick Moore, director of The Warhol and curator of the exhibition, said during a media preview.
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Andy Warhol’s artwork in “Unseen” exhibition.
He said the museum spent a year and a half taking a “deep dive” into every piece of its collection — which is how they found the ones that had never been seen.
Moore collaborated on the project with Matt Gray, the Warhol’s director of archives; Signe Watson, an independent researcher; and the Warhol collections and exhibition department.
The museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials.
“The Warhol staff works every day with an extraordinary collection that continues to surprise and confound,” Moore said. “ ‘Unseen’ is an opportunity for the museum to delve into areas of the collection that are new even to us. These are objects that are both aesthetically beautiful and that have stories to tell. We’re proud to share them with the public for the first time.”
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A view of the “Unseen” exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
The works had not been displayed for various reasons, Moore said. It might be Warhol didn’t think those particular pieces were valued at the time. Some appear to be unfinished — although Warhol created artwork that might not look like it was finished, but to him it was.
“He left things incomplete,” Moore said. “He left mistakes and left it up to the viewer to decide on their meaning.”
Others were possibly too sexually explicit or revealing for their time. Some of those works are on display in an adults-only area, sectioned off from the rest of the exhibit.
The artwork shows that Warhol yearned for romantic love, Moore said. His lover, Jon Gould, who was a vice president at Paramount, died in 1986 from complications relating to AIDS.
“There is also some sadness in some of these pieces, which were sold privately because of their sexual nature,” Moore said.
“People are more open and accepting of sexuality,” Moore said. “It has been an evolution. We are more comfortable with our sexuality as a museum.”
The first piece in the exhibit is a gift from Irving Blum, one of Warhol’s early art dealers. It is called “Red “Blank’,” circa 1963. Warhol used the term “Blank” to describe monochromatic canvases. It arrived in a crate that also contained 10 “Silver Liz” paintings (of Elizabeth Taylor).
Warhol is known as a portraitist, and the show presents several portraits, including one of him. Some are distorted. One is of a woman without a mouth and another has double registers of the silk screen. A portrait of O.J. Simpson is among the pieces on display for the first time.
Warhol might be suggesting that suggest that celebrity and wealth can warp an individual to the point of becoming grotesque, as described in the press materials. That portrait without the mouth “has kind of a ghostly quality to it,” Moore said.
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Patrick Moore, director of The Andy Warhol Museum and curator of the “Unseen” exhibition, discusses a self-portrait of Warhol’s on Thursday.
For the self-portrait, Moore said, Warhol most likely wanted to portray his fragility. He became concerned about his health after being shot in 1968 Valerie Solanas, who thought he was stealing her play manuscript. He spent months in the hospital. Warhol died in 1987 of cardiac arrest suffered after gallbladder surgery, a procedure he had delayed for several years due to his fear of hospitals.
In his work, Warhol utilized every medium, from painting to sculpture to film. He produced 600 screen tests, a series of short, silent black-and-white film portraits, and 1 million feet of film.
When asked to pose, subjects were lit and Warhol filmed them with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black-and-white, 100-foot rolls of film.
Two of those are part of the exhibit. They are preserved in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The research revealed many previously unknown facts, which have raised both additional awareness of the collection and of Warhol’s practices and intentions, Moore said. These findings are part of the exhibition.
“The fact that these works have never been shown reflects the enormity of the museum’s collection, and the complexity of Warhol’s legacy,” Moore said. “It also shows that there is more to learn about Andy Warhol.”
“Unseen: Permanent Collection Works” is on display until March 4. The Andy Warhol Museum is located at 117 Sandusky St., North Side.
Details: warhol.org
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact JoAnne by email at jharrop@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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