In the years since
his death at the age of 58 in 1987, Andy Warhol has been recognized as a
presiding genius of twentieth century art. Kynaston McShine, Chief
Curator at Large at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, describes Warhol’s
important position in 20th-century American culture in his introduction to the
catalogue of MOMA’s 1989 Warhol retrospective:
Very few
artists receive the level of recognition that secures for them a place in the
public imagination. Andy Warhol was an artist who did. However, this very
celebrity of Warhol’s, his sheer, inescapable fame, has often disguised the
fact that he was one of the most serious, and one of the most important,
artists of the twentieth century. He quite simply changed how we see all the
world around us. He had an uncanny ability to select precise images that still
have great resonance today.
Andy Warhol first
came to New York as a young graduate of the Carnegie Institute of Technology
art program in 1950. Early on, he worked as a commercial artist, creating ads
and designing store windows. During that time and in the years that followed,
he produced thousands and thousands of art works, in every possible medium:
sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, film, video, even
literature. While his work speaks eloquently of the concerns and issues of its
moment, it also has universality and a conceptual power that transcend any
particular period or artistic movement. It is for this reason that Warhol’s
critical reputation is stronger now than it was even during his lifetime, and
that he remains an inspiration for artists worldwide.
When Andy Warhol
died unexpectedly on February 22, 1987, he left a vast and complicated
inventory of works of art and personal possessions. His will dictated that his
entire estate, with the exception of a few modest legacies to family members,
would go to create a foundation dedicated to the "advancement of the visual
arts."
During Warhol’s
lifetime, he was a great champion of other artists and their work. The
foundation continues this legacy through its strong defense of challenging and
experimental art and its makers.
In
October 2001, the foundation’s president of twelve years, Archibald L. Gillies,
retired and was succeeded by Joel Wachs, a thirty-year member of the Los
Angeles City Council and a nationally recognized champion of the arts. With
the help of a strong board of national arts leaders, Gillies had guided the
foundation with wisdom and determination, steering it through difficult times
in the wake of its benefactor’s untimely death, and establishing it as one of
the nation’s preeminent funders of innovative contemporary art. During his
twelve-year tenure, the foundation converted its asset base from one based
primarily in the art bequeathed to it by Warhol’s estate to one with over $131
million in cash and investments, even as it distributed over $41 million in
1190 cash grants. During this time, the foundation also helped establish the
Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, to which it donated more than 3900 works of
art, including paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, sculptures, film and
video work, as well as all Warhol archival material it had inherited from the
estate. It also funded the preservation of all Warhol’s film and video work
by the Museum of Modern Art; helped establish Creative Capital, a foundation
dedicated to supporting individual artists; and launched the Warhol
Initiative, a multi-million dollar capacity-building effort directed at
smaller visual arts organizations. Throughout Gillies’ term, the foundation
was an outspoken champion of freedom of artistic expression, and supported the
legal defenses of the NEA Four and the Brooklyn Museum of Art in their battles
against government censorship. With these efforts well under way, the
foundation, under its new leadership, was poised to take significant new steps
towards its twin goals of responding to the needs of contemporary visual arts
institutions and advancing policies and programs that improve the status and
well-being of artists in the United States today.
One of the most
important measures of the foundation’s recent actions is the fact that it
increased its cash grant‑giving by 29% over the prior two-year period. This
increase in funding came during a time of national recession, when many other
foundations were cutting back on their grantmaking activities. While the
Warhol Foundation faced similar economic challenges, its 15‑member national
board felt strongly that the foundation should take a leadership role in
assisting the nation’s artists and arts organizations when they needed it
most. Thus, the board made the decision to increase grantmaking precisely
because so many other funders were cutting back.
One of the most
dramatic instances of this policy was displayed in the foundation’s quick
response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the days after
the attacks, the executive committee of the board authorized $100,000 in
emergency money to be distributed to police officers, firefighters, and other
direct victims of the attacks. It then created a special fund to give
emergency operating support to New York City visual arts groups located below
14th Street, and by January 2002 had distributed almost $700,000 to 32
organizations. In these actions, which earned the intense gratitude of the
arts groups that were hardest hit by both the physical and the economic
consequences of the attacks, the foundation displayed its deep commitment to
its core constituency and reaffirmed its status as a concerned and responsive
funder.
The foundation’s
ongoing commitments to the Warhol Initiative and Creative Capital – both
projects that offer money as well as technical assistance to arts
organizations and artists – further exemplify its willingness to increase its
grants outlay in response to the needs of the arts community. The Warhol
Initiative, which is now completing its fifth year, has provided substantial
support to 31 small to midsized artist-based organizations, helping them
attain greater fiscal stability while improving services to artists and their
audiences. Creative Capital, meanwhile, has in its first five years of
operation provided direct support to over 150 individual artists, assisting
them with cash grants and career development consultations. The foundation
has recently renewed its commitment to Creative Capital with a ten-year, $10
million gift that reflects its continuing effort to provide vitally needed
direct support to talented individual artists.
All of these activities have occurred simultaneously with
the foundation’s regular grants program, which funds the creation,
presentation, and documentation of contemporary art, as well as new policy
efforts aimed at improving the conditions under which American artists live
and work, such as access to affordable housing and health insurance.
Another essential
component of the foundation’s work is the effort it has made to solidify and
enhance its founder’s legacy. In March, 2002, the Andy Warhol Catalogue
Raisonné Vol. I: Painting and Sculpture 1961-63 was published to great acclaim
from critics and art lovers alike. Vol. 2, covering the factory years,
1964-1969, will be available in June, 2004 and work is well under way on
subsequent volumes, which will be published at regular intervals over the next
several years. An updated fourth edition of the catalogue raisonné of Warhol
prints was also released in April 2003, incorporating the latest scholarship
and information on the artist’s print oeuvre. In October, 2003, the
foundation funded a symposium and film series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Warhol’s birth. A complete
filmography is also being produced under the auspices of the Whitney Museum of
American Art. Meanwhile, the foundation continues to devote significant
resources to the cataloguing and preservation of the tremendous wealth of art
left to it by the artist, while making the collection available for important
exhibitions worldwide.
Over the past two years, the foundation
has also seen significant growth and development in its licensing program.
Licensed products designed from Warhol images have appeared in prominent
publications such as Italian Vogue, Interview, and i-D Magazine, where model
Naomi Campbell was recently featured wearing a Philip Treacy Campbell’s Soup
hat in a cover photo. Warhol products were also prominently displayed on the
popular HBO series Sex and the City, and the foundation was nominated for
International License of the Year by the Licensing Industry Merchandising
Association, competing against major properties such as Harry Potter and
Spider Man. The line of Andy Warhol products, including clothing, housewares,
stationery and other items, is well-established and successful in Europe, and
will soon move aggressively into the North American market with a new line of
products for the home.
The past two years
were exciting and productive years for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts, and as it looks ahead, the accomplishments of this period will be
the building blocks of its future achievements.
Joel Wachs
President
Sherri Geldin
Chair
Above:
(left to right) Andy Warhol, Camouflage, 1987. Andy Warhol,
Camouflage, 1987.
Andy Warhol, Camouflage, 1987. All artwork ©2002 The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts.
