As a reminder about the show:
... the survey spans the entirety of Warhol's illustrious career, from his early drawings and intimate Polaroids to instantly recognizable silkscreens and sculptures. "Thirty Are Better Than One" pulls in large part from the Brant Collections, which includes an expansive and coherent selection of Warhol's work. It is curated by Peter M. Brant, founder of The Brant Foundation and an early patron, collaborator, and close friend of the artist.
Tickets for the show are $20 ... there are discounts for students and folks 65-plus ... and tickets for East Village residents are $15. (Proof of residency includes naming three of Allen Ginsberg's EV apartment addresses.) And just announced: Tickets between 4:30-5:30 on Thursdays are $5. Details here.
Exhibit hours: Wednesday-Friday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a 5:30 p.m. close Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the space the other day (this is simply an FYI and not a review of the show) ...
The Brant Foundation features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors. Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.
Well, well, Jean-Michel, pictures worth 1 Billion [with a B]; that should tell you everything about the Brant Foundation. Art that is $$$$$$. As, Rhett says to Scarlet: Frankly, darling, I don't give a D---. I am waiting for Brant to celebrate other East Village Artists [Where is Howl Foundation to fill the void]--where is a large scale Paul Thek, Peter Hujar, David W., Barbara Ess, Bill Rice, Meg Webster, Richard Morrison exhibition?
ReplyDeleteThe Jean Michel exhibit was a joint collaboration show, with a number of collections participating
DeleteIt was electric!
DeleteI always thought the building would be a likely location for Dr. Stranger’s sanctum Santorum… Except that I think he lived in the West Village.
ReplyDeleteI went to the show and really enjoyed it, especially his drawings, which I'm not really familiar with. The space is beautiful and is part of the reason I went.
ReplyDeleteBeautuful photo out the window
ReplyDeleteLeave it to the EVGrumps to complain about a foundation lending their art and building to the community because it's not what they want to see. The Basquiat exhibit was excellent and he certainly had EV roots...
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to catching this exhibit as well. If only for the great views from the higher floors!
Yep, Dr. Strange lives on Bleecker Street somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI personally could live without seeing a Warhol ever again--when the Boomers die off, I reckon his reputation will diminish rapidly--but it's an interesting space and worth taking a look sometime. I felt weird and queasy seeing the Basquiat show, but Warhol is so much more of a piece with the BS modern hypercommercial approach to art, why not?
Anyway, I presume the Brant Foundation is mostly a tax scam, but it's better than random condos.
Andy Warhol is really big with kids today, actually.
DeleteI'm with Anon./9:35, MrNiceGuy and Sarah; these thoughts just amplify their points:
ReplyDelete1. There is no artist everyone will like. If you don't like the artists featured at the Brant Foundation, then the Brant Foundation isn't your cup of tea. So what? Others can love the place.
2. The Brant Foundation is apparently tax-driven, but if you don't like that, change the US tax code -- don't blame Peter Brant for COMPLYING with the tax code. (No one is accusing him of tax fraud; rather, you're accusing him of crafty tax code compliance. That said, he might've served hard time years ago on a tax beef, but no one seems to be making anything of that here.) If the Brant Foundation is a great feature of the EV (and yes, it is), then Peter Brant's tax returns don't diminish that. If we drop the tax issue, we're back to point # 1, above.
3. Basquiat has deep enough EV roots to be called an EV artist, and Warhol is an NYC artist. The Brant Foundation is in NYC, so by doing a Warhol exhibit, the Foundation is spotlighting a hometown local. If Brant only featured EV artists, some of you would complain that it wasn't featuring enough artists from East 6th Street. Pretty soon, you'd paint yourselves into the corner of arguing that the only artist the Foundation can appropriately exhibit is Walter de Maria (whose studio was what is now the Brant building). Obviously, the point is that if a NYC museum puts on an exhibit of art by a quintessentially NYC artist, it's absurd to criticize that museum for not being sufficiently local.
4. Brant's Basquiat show was amazing and thought-provoking; I saw it a few times. I also saw this Warhol show. It's great and I urge you to see it (at the $5 Thu. pm rate if you prefer not to fund Brant any more than necessary). But I walked through this Warhol show a lot faster than I'd gotten through the Basquiat show, and afterwards, I thought about the Warhol pieces a lot less. This show features many artworks, but few of these particular ones inspire contemplation (for example, one of the biggest is a wall-size piece of army camouflage: How long can anyone study that?). Of course, you could make this point about all Warhol -- his whole schtick was about depicting only the surface (it's called "Pop Art" for a reason). But my sense is that this particular Warhol show, although great-to-see and full of nice work, is, even by Warhol standards, a bit "lite."
5. This show contains a wall of Warhol Polaroids of celebrities, and the museum provides a listing identifying whom each photo depicts. Peter Brant himself is the subject of a ridiculous percentage of these celebrity photos. Brant-haters will have fun with this display; it's almost worth the price of admission. Can you spell E-G-O?
6. Their gift shop is selling a small (about 5" X 3") French porcelain dish/tray that we liked -- until we saw the price: $150. If we get back to complaining about the gift shop, I won't defend it.
I just went this evening for the $5.00 Thursday special. Well actually $6.32 after some extra fees. But it was a good show that exhibited several pieces of Andy Warhols best work. Brant did a good job in converting the former 6th Street Con Ed substation into a really good art gallery with large well-lit open spaces. Guests take the elevator up to the 4th Floor and then after viewing the art exhibits displayed on each floor you walk down to the main floor at your own pace and leave when you are ready. I highly recommend visiting the Brant gallery at least once.
ReplyDeleteLoved it!
ReplyDeleteWould be nice if residents got some sort presale.
ReplyDelete@Anon.12:14am:
ReplyDeleteThey do indeed offer an EV-resident discount. A presale is unnecessary because tix are fairly widely available.
Brant could put a few subsidized artists' studios in the building, you know, for all the artists in the neighborhood they are helping to displace.
ReplyDelete