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Shot by Andy Warhol
Photos in Fitchburg, Blow Job in Boston, Indian ‘Visions’ in Worcester
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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It seems in many ways the height of oxymoronity to associate Andy Warhol with intimacy. The celebrated, celebrity-obsessed artist — center of the teeming (some might say sordid) creative life at his Factory, prolific producer of experimental film and music, founder of Interview magazine, and incessant snapper of photos — was a deadpan provocateur whose studiously unjudgmental gaze brought out everything in everyone around him while revealing next to nothing about himself. The ultimate voyeur, Warhol always seemed to keep a camera or a squeegee between himself and his subjects. What a surprise then, to learn of "Andy Warhol: Intimate and Unseen," an exhibition of 50 of the Pop icon’s previously unpublished black-and-white photographs, many of them quite personal, that opens at the Fitchburg Museum on February 27. Curated by Stephen Jareckie, "Andy Warhol: Intimate and Unseen" is drawn from the collection of Jon J. Gould, a Paramount Pictures executive and later producer who, it turns out, was Warhol’s companion from 1980 to 1984 and who died of complications from AIDS at the age of 33 in 1986, the year before Warhol himself died of a heart attack following gall-bladder surgery. The photos on view run from shots of Warhol’s entourage — his studio crew, celebrity pals, and fellow ’80s club-scenesters — to photographs of his life and vacations with Gould. They’re part of a larger exhibition of Gould’s collection that was shown at the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont last fall; its curator, Mara Williams, writes, "Warhol was clearly drawn to Gould’s strong, handsome, straight persona. His diaries disclose, ‘I love going out with Jon because it’s like being on a real date — he’s tall and strong and I feel he can take care of me. And it’s exciting because he acts straight so I’m sure people think he is.’ The duality of Gould’s life — straight at work, gay at home (although he never admitted to anything more than bisexuality) — is captured in Warhol’s 1981 portraits of him." A rare show of affection by a famously cool character? Duality and paradox are also recurring themes in Andy Warhol’s "Blow Job," a new book by author Roy Grundmann that takes as its jumping-off point Warhol’s provocative 1964 film, a 36-minute silent view of a man’s face as he, well, gets a blow job. Grundmann will speak about his book and screen Warhol’s film at the Institute of Contemporary Art on February 24 in connection with the ICA’s current show of artists’ portraits of one another, "Likeness." This event should clarify yet another aspect of Warhol’s complex fascination with the highly visible and the shamefully — or suggestively? — invisible. Taking a different path in the 1960s, long-time Worcester residents Chester and Davida Herwitz began collecting modern Indian art in an era that saw an outpouring of creativity in the wake of India’s independence from British rule. "Evoking Rasa in Luminous Visions: Indian Art from the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection" opens at the Worcester Art Museum on February 26 with nine artists whose work expresses the many moods and emotions ("rasa") of contemporary Indian art. "Andy Warhol: Intimate and Unseen" is at the Fitchburg Art Museum, 185 Elm Street in Fitchburg, February 27 through June 5; call (978) 345-4207. Roy Grundmann speaks about his book Andy Warhol’s "Blow Job" and screens Warhol’s film at the Institute of Contemporary Art, 955 Boylston Street in Boston, February 24 at 6:30 p.m.; call (617) 266-5152. "Evoking Rasa in Luminous Visions" is at the Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street in Worcester, February 26 through July 17; call (508) 799-4406.
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