For the fifth consecutive year, the El Paso Museum of Art is collaborating with the El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival. This year’s collaboration, “Warhol’s World: Film Screenings and an Art Installation,” includes eight films, twenty Polaroids and nine screenprints by the renowned Pop artist/underground filmmaker Andy Warhol. All events are free
While the exhibition runs August 4-16, the 16mm films will be shown August 7-8 and will coincide with a “happening” in the tradition of Warhol’s events at his famous Factory studio. DJ Monarch will headline the 21-and-over dance party from 6-9 p.m. Friday, August 7. There will be screen printing demonstrations and more.
On Saturday, August 8, the museum will host a Creation Lab, where you can build your own mini-camera obscura (1-4 p.m.), screen printing demonstrations (10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) and a children’s story time featuring James Warhola’s book, “Uncle Andy’s,” about his famous uncle (2 p.m.)
Each film and artwork included testifies to the important role of photography in Warhol’s World and body of work. The films scheduled to be screened in the museum’s auditorium are:
Friday, August 7 6-9 p.m. “Mario Banana #2,” 1964 “Velvet Underground and Nico,” 1966 “Lonesome Cowboys,” 1968
Saturday, August 8 10 a.m.-Noon “Elvis at Ferus,” 1963 “Salvador Dali,” 1966 “The Life of Juanita Castro,” 1965
Saturday, August 8 3-5 p.m. “Screen Tests Reel #16,” 1964 -1966 “Sunset,” 1967 Highlighting the years 1963 – 1968 these films vary from the specific Life of Juanita Castro (Fidel Castro’s sister) to Warhol’s four minute screen tests of celebrities such as: the poet Allen Ginsberg; fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo; Musicians Lou Reed, Donovan and Bob Dylan; actors Edie Sedgwick and International Velvet; and artists Jonas Mekas and Salvador Dali.
The El Paso Museum of Art will host a panel discussion on Warhol’s films from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Saturday, August 8. It will feature professor Stephanie Taylor from New Mexico State University’s Department of Art, professor Melissa Warak from University of Texas at El Paso’s Art Department, and professor. Brian Rourke from New Mexico State University’s English Department. In 2014 the El Paso Museum of Art was the fortunate recipient of twenty Polarcolor Type 108 photographic prints by Andy Warhol generously donated by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its Photographic Legacy Program. From Warhol’s “Little Red Book #119,” these intimate photographs reveal the everyday life of numerous artists, actors and socialites that revolved around Warhol’s New York City studio known as the Factory. In addition to the films and the Polaroids, nine Warhol screenprints from the years 1969-1986 will be generously on loan from the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso as further examples of the repetitive nature of consumer culture and the briefness of media fame, so central to Warhol’s concept of art. The Polaroids and screenprints will remain on view in the Art Museum’s C2 Gallery from August 4-16. Image: Andy Warhol, “Life of Juanita Castro,” 1965 Copyright 2015 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.
