Andy Warhol Museum Director Tom Sokolowski Lectures On Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits Of Jews Of The Twentieth Century Reconsidered

ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM DIRECTOR

TOM SOKOLOWSKI LECTURES ON

ANDY WARHOL’S TEN PORTRAITS OF JEWS

OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY RECONSIDERED

AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM APRIL 3

New York, NY – Tom Sokolowski, Director of The Andy Warhol Museum, will lecture on Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century Reconsidered, a lecture at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, on Thursday, April 3 at 6:30 pm.  Sokolowski will examine the significance of these iconic works, featured in the Museum’s exhibition, Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered.  He will consider them in the context of historical models of similar portraiture-both religious and secular-as well as other series in Warhol’s oeuvre, such as Socialites, Reigning Queens, and Endangered Species, among others.

        Tickets are $15 for the general public; $12 for students and seniors; and $10 for Jewish Museum members.  For further information regarding programs at The Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3337.  Tickets for programs at The Jewish Museum can now be purchased online at the Museum’s Web site, www.thejewishmuseum.org.

        Tom Sokolowski assumed his position as Director for The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, in 1996.  Mr. Sokolowski previously served as Director for New York University’s Grey Art Gallery & Study Center since 1984. Under Mr. Sokolowski’s direction the Grey Art Gallery mounted 15 exhibitions and site-specific installations annually, including Against Nature:  Japanese Art in the Eighties and Success is a Job in New York…:  The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol, which was shown in Paris, London, Turin, Philadelphia, Newport Beach and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art.  Mr. Sokolowski served as chief curator for the Chrysler Art Museum (1982-1984), and previously as curator of European Painting and Sculpture (1981-1982).  He has taught for New York University (1989-1992); Old Dominion University (1982-1984); the University of British Columbia (1980-1981); the University of Minnesota (1979); and Kent State University (1979).

        Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered will be on view at The Jewish Museum from March 16 through August 3, 2008.  When it premiered in 1980, Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century was met with both admiration and hostility.  The series depicts such luminaries of Jewish culture as Sarah Bernhardt, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Franz Kafka, among others.  On view in this exhibition are the photographs that Warhol used as source images, several preliminary sketches, a preparatory collage, an edition of the final silk-screen print portfolio (of which 200 were published), and one of the five complete sets of paintings that he made for the series.  The drawings and source photographs have not previously been exhibited alongside the finished pictures.  Additional materials related to the portraits, including the list of nearly 100 “famous Jews” prepared by Warhol’s dealer, and television coverage of the artist’s trip to Miami for the world premiere of the series, will shed light on their creation and display.  Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (October 12, 2008 – January 25, 2009).

        An infrared assistive listening system for the hearing impaired is available for programs in the Museum’s S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Auditorium.

        Public Programs at The Jewish Museum are supported, in part, by public funds from by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.  Major annual support is provided by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.  The audio-visual system has been funded by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent United States institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

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