ASPEN ART MUSEUM
ANDY WARHOL: LIFETIMES
22
Warhol in Private
understood a certain kind of innocence; he made us see things critically in a way that hadn’t happened before. The way I’ve dealt with Warhol is really to think of him both as a concept and as a person and just try to move more deeply into him as an individual. He was so human. SK The archival dimension of the show is something that’s felt very key, especially in the idea that history is carried through the individual. The archival material and documentation creates a tangible connection to this person, and a richer understanding of the work itself. How did you get to the archive? What made that feel important? And at what point did you realize that it was going to be such an integral part of ‘Andy Warhol: Lifetimes’? MM I felt it was something that I wasn’t familiar with seeing. The materials we received from Tate Modern felt like the beginning of something that we could explore in Aspen that maybe hadn’t been unpacked as fully. As with a lot of queer artists, I am very interested in the archival. Our history constantly feels like it’s subject to erasure. Over the centuries, queer people have read between the lines of left-over materials, which remain because so many lives have been lived in secret. So, I’m used to thinking about archival materials as a way to feel connected to my tribe. I don’t think any artist really wants their work to be reduced to their biogra- phy. I was interested in emphasizing Warhol as a maker. I wanted the work not to feel so distant, so iconic, but rath- er that we were looking at work made by an artist at a certain point in time. In a way, I was trying to rewind the tape on the work, as much as I was rewinding the tape on his life. SK I wanted to end on the theme of time. Temporality and seriality have been an important part of this exhi- bition. A lot of the work is based on the concept of before and after and I wanted to ask you how time has played into this show for you? MM The reason I was thinking of the title ‘Lifetimes’ was because his work was so much about time. It’s been very well-re # ected on that he made time and the serial an important aspect of his work. For me, part of what’s so moving about the exhibition overall is the way in which it foregrounds his commitment to capturing his time. This man carried a camera and recorder to capture and draw out the individuals around him. There was a generosity about Warhol and the way that he was sharing the stage. He was a social documentarian who created a catalog of our time.
Left Exhibition planning and archival material in Monica Majoli’s studio, Los Angeles, October 2021 Andy Warhol Artworks © 2021 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. /Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Discover More — Explore the Aspen Art Museum from anywhere, anytime using our digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Access behind-the-scenes videos, audio guides, interviews and more. Scan the QR code to download the app and scroll to the Aspen Art Museum guide.
Monica Majoli is an artist based in Los Angeles whose practice examines the relationship between physicality and consciousness through the documentary sexual image, primarily through painting. Shifts in materiality mark bodies of work that investigate intimacy and power within the larger context of queer culture and history. Majoli received her MFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 1992 and is a professor of art at University of California, Irvine. Simone Krug has been a curator at the Aspen Art Museum since 2018. Prior to joining the AAM she worked at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in Artforum , frieze and Art in America , among other publications.
“As with a lot of queer artists, I am very interested in the archival.”
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online