LUAG to receive original Andy Warhol photos

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced that Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) is among 183 U.S. college and university art museums chosen to receive an unprecedented gift of original Warhol photographs. LUAG maintains and develops the university’s permanent art collection.

The gift is made through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program in honor of the foundation’s 20th anniversary. LUAG will receive approximately 150 original Polaroid photographs and gelatin silver prints.

“A wealth of information about Warhol’s process and his interactions with his sitters is revealed in these images,” said Jenny Moore, curator of the program. “Through his rigorous—though almost unconscious—consistency in shooting, the true idiosyncrasies of his subjects were revealed.”

Andy Warhol Foundation president Joel Wachs says the aim of the program is to provide greater access to Warhol’s artwork and process, and to enable people from communities across the country to view and study an important yet relatively unknown body of Warhol’s work.

Ricardo Viera, LUAG Director/Curator, said that this gift from the Warhol Foundation is a welcome and very significant addition to the growing photography teaching collection. It will offer research opportunities for students and interns to better understand Warhol’s legacy.

“Andy Warhol is an icon in America,” says Viera. “He was a great artist—a draftsman, a painter, a photographer, and a filmmaker—even a trouble maker.” LUAG already boasts a sizeable collection of Warhol prints in the permanent collection, including screenprints from two portfolios: Flowers (black and white), 1974 and Flowers (hand-colored), 1974. .

The gift is just one of the honors received by LUAG in recent months. On November 10, Viera and LUAG received The Photo Review Award for 2007 at a reception at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The Photo Review covers photography events throughout the country and serves as a central resource for the Mid-Atlantic region.

The annual award, given for services to the field of photography, was presented to Viera for his important support for photography. “This is a big honor, not only for me, but for Lehigh University,” says Viera.

--Tricia Long