This post is written by Alexandra Nicholis Coon, Executive Director of the Massillon Museum. You can follow the museum on Twitter @massmu and on Facebook.
Immediate, spontaneous, playful: these are words that will spring to mind when viewing the Massillon Museum’s original, highly-anticipated summer exhibition, Snap! In the Photobooth with Warhol and Friends. Debuting with a free public reception on Saturday, June 22, this exhibition provides an opportunity to celebrate the leading figure in the Pop-Art movement, Andy Warhol (1928-1987). Most widely remembered for his artistic expression of celebrity culture during the 1960s, Warhol’s iconic images are characterized by bold colors and repeated images.
Warhol was fascinated with technology and mechanizing the artistic process through silkscreen printing, film, and photography. The Museum’s working vintage photochemical photobooth–one of only four operational photobooths of its kind in the state of Ohio—is the inspiration for this project. The exhibition will celebrate the artistic use of photobooth photography as championed by Warhol, along with the ways in which the artist used photobooth images and Polaroids as source material in his silkscreen “paintings.”
Original works of art will be on loan from a number of institutions, including The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, the Canton Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, and Kent State University. A ticketed gala and exhibition sneak preview will be held on June 21. This Studio 54-themed party will transport you to Warhol’s most prolific era for a night of fun, food, and dancing. Mark your calendars now, as space is limited!
The exhibition is supported by Day Ketterer, Ltd, Shearer’s Foods, the Canton-Stark County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, GateHouse Ohio, and Fishers Foods.
Find out more at MassillonMuseum.org.
