The Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM) is excited to open the exhibition POP-UP: Andy Warhol & the Portrait Impulse. The
exhibition highlights 96 Polaroids, 27 black and white prints, and 6 silkscreens generously loaned from the Permanent Collection of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University, courtesy of a gift by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy program. POP-UP will be on view through June 2nd, 2023 in BRAHM’s Fort Gallery.
Photography and its potential for experimental portraiture is foundational across Andy Warhol’s prolific career. In POP-UP, Warhol’s commitment to instant film as a candid documentary medium is explored alongside examples of his iconic silkscreen prints. Synthesizing the photographic, the painterly, and the commercial, the artist’s manipulation of the human visage constitutes some of his most lasting impacts on contemporary photography and image-making. In this exhibition, we see Warhol’s near-obsessive use of the camera—the Polaroid in particular—some examples of which would ultimately be transformed into the high contrast, color blocked images audiences are so familiar with today.
For more information on POP-UP, please visit blowingrockmuseum.org/see/warhol-pop-up. Those interested in viewing the new exhibition are encouraged to come to BRAHM’s Spring Exhibition Celebration on Friday, March 24 from 5–7:00pm. Docents will be on hand to answer questions and provide insight into the exhibitions, and light refreshments including a cash bar will be available. This is a free event welcoming all visitors. To learn more about the Spring Exhibition Celebration, visit the calendar on BlowingRockMuseum.org.
BRAHM is an art and history museum nestled in the mountains of North Carolina. Open to the public since 2011, BRAHM provides cultural enrichment by promoting the arts, and Southern Appalachian heritage and history, through educational programs, exhibitions,
activities and permanent collections.
BRAHM is located in downtown Blowing Rock and is open to the public, free of charge, Tues. – Sat. 11-5 and, beginning May 1 through October 31, Sun. 11-4.
February 2023