andy warhol polaroids.

this is how i feel about andy warhol:

i adore him. and i adore what he's done. but that's covering a very broad, wide, generalized range of things -- from screen prints and lithrographs to paintings, sculptures, photography, film -- you name it. a lot of it i love love love love (love!) -- his rorschach paintings, or his architectonic advertisements, repeating elvises, virgin marys, and so on (see september 26, 2009). but andy warhol produced SO MUCH (this is definitely just part of his ouevre), that there is, within it all -- good andy, and so-so andy. i wouldn't go as far as to say there's bad andy. there's uneventful andy. there's 'well, that's andy, so i guess i like it' andy. and then there's 'this is a really badly-hung show; why is andy here?' andy.

the latter is the problem i had today.

the lawton gallery on the university of green bay campus had a show entitled 'hidden treasures' which is a conglomerate of artwork from collections around the green bay area. these included local and not-so-local artists, contemporary and not-so-contemporary. it ranged from indian art to woodcuts from the osaka school, to gilbert & george (a total let-down because the one gilbert & george piece was one that could have been downloaded for free from the guardian.co.uk website in 2007)...

i can't reasonably complain about this show because it is green bay, and it is uwgb, and what is a person to expect? this isn't new york or chicago, or even milwaukee. i thought the show was laid-out poorly, though, but that's all i'm going to say about it.

the warhol polaroids were the reason i went. and worth looking at for any warhol fanzoid. the ones they had on display were part of a larger gift from the andy warhol foundation to the university of green bay. the basquiat polaroid pictured above is very similar to one they have at the lawton gallery, except without the hand and a little more of a smile. there were also photos of dolly parton, jean-michele basquiat's parents, bruno bischofberger's kids, and others. they weren't the best ones in the bunch, but of thousands of polaroids, seeing a few in a group like that is always a treat and i don't care where they are or who has them or how weird the rest of the show looks.

there are a few other green bay collection pieces at the neville public museum in green bay, although i did not visit there today. the show at the lawton is on display through april 1.