The Nasher Museum of Art

"Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids" provides insight into the artist who sought to capture the world like a camera. The exhibition includes about 250 Polaroids and 70 silver gelatin black-and-white prints taken by Warhol from 1970 to 1987, many of them on public view for the first time.

"Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids" reveals an important dimension of Warhol's process in creating his famous large-scale portraits. Although his Polaroids served as aids for painting portraits, in and of themselves they are significant works and represent a relatively unknown body of Warhol's work. At the Nasher Museum, the exhibition includes his portraits of Patsy, Andrea, Joan and Nancy Nasher, accompanied by the original Polaroid studies. A selection of Warhol films from the 1960s will also be part of the exhibition, to help provide greater context for the photographic work.

"Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids" is organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. All three institutions received gifts of about 100 original Polaroid photographs and 50 gelatin silver black-and-white prints in 2008 from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in celebration of the foundation's 20th anniversary.

At the Nasher Museum, major support for the exhibition is provided by .

The exhibition opens at the Nasher Museum (November 12, 2009 - February 21, 2010) and travels to the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (June 6 - September 19, 2010), and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (October 2, 2010 - January 2, 2011).

Supporting Member Private Gallery Tour, Tuesday, February 9, 7 PM
Supporting Members (Young Friends, $90, Sponsor, $100 and above) are invited for an exclusive tour of Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids with Trevor Schoonmaker, curator of contemporary art at the Nasher Museum. Reception to follow. To become a member, or for more information, call 919-684-3411 or email nashermembership@duke.edu.

Exhibition Opening, Thursday, November 12, 7 PM
Art for All, presented by the Nasher Student Advisory Board for the Duke community, Nasher members and the public.

First Thursday, December 3, 5:30 PM Cash bar, 6 PM talk
Talk by Kristine Stiles, professor in Duke's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, on "Ever so Far at Close Shooting Range: Warhol's Polaroid Photographs."

Barbra and Andrew Rothschild Lecture: Dave Hickey, Thursday, January 14, 7 PM
Talk by art and culture critic Dave Hickey, English professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests
with Live Soundtrack by Dean & Britta
Thursday, February 18, 8 PM
Co-sponsored by Duke Performances.
Reynolds Theater, Duke University.
"One of the most influential sounds to emerge out of the '80s rock underground . . . seductively drowsy and intimate."
–Rolling Stone

Dean Wareham (formerly of Galaxy 500 and Luna) was commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh to compose music to accompany some of Warhol's rarely seen silent-film portraits, which the artist called Screen Tests. These documents of the 1960s New York art scene constitute a portrait gallery of well-known celebrities, Factory superstars and anonymous teenagers. Wareham's wistful tenor and Britta Phillips' dreamy harmonies make the perfect live sound track for Warhol's transfixing films.

Tickets: $28 and $22 ($5 for Duke students). For tickets call Duke University Box Office at 919-684-4444 or visit www.dukeperformances.org. More information: www.dukeperformances.duke.edu or www.nasher.duke.edu

Warhol Film Series
Co-sponsored by Duke's Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.

Thursday, Jan. 21, 7 PM
"Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film," part 1 (Ric Burns, 2006, 120 minutes)

Thursday, Jan. 28, 7 PM
"Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film," part 2 (Ric Burns, 2006, 120 minutes)

Thursday, Feb. 11, 7 PM
"Downtown 81" (Edo Bertoglio, 1981, 75 minutes)

IMAGE: Andy Warhol, "Grace Jones," 1984. Polacolor ER, 4 ¼ x 3 3/8 inches. Gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.