Everybody and Everything: Photographs by Andy Warhol
President’s Gallery @MassArt, 8/14/17 – 10/21/17

Everybody and Everything focuses on Andy Warhol’s obsessive fascination with capturing the people and things that he used to create the world around him. The exhibition draws from 19 out of the thousands of photographs that he took throughout his lifetime, including photographs of shoes from the early years of his career, everyday scenes captured on the streets, and models, sports stars, and celebrities who visited him at his famous NYC studio The Factory.

A man who famously said, “I think everyone should like everyone,” and “It’s not what you are that counts, it’s what they think you are,” Warhol mixed a sly pessimism with a sense of naive innocence, and both attitudes are on display here. “The world fascinates me. It’s so nice, whatever it is,” reads the first quote given in the exhibition. Similarly, Warhol creates a type of distance in his work to at once alienate and fascinate the viewer.

Warhol’s photographs are strategically ‘cropped,’ or purposefully directed to a point of focus that shows the artist’s intention. The composition of Warhol’s photographs are kept simple and clean, and props are included only when appropriate. Intense eye-contact in each photograph gives the impression that you are looking into the ‘true’ self of the subject that the camera captured.

Located in the President’s Gallery on the 11th floor of MassArt’s Tower Building, this exhibit brings a light, precise, and refreshing touch to a quiet space good for contemplation. Gallery hours are: Mon – Sat 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.
—Maryam Yoon