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Indepth Arts News:
"That’s How We Escaped : Reflections on Warhol"
2011-04-21 until 2011-08-07
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA,
USA United States of America
“That’s How We Escaped”: Reflections on Warhol illuminates a night on Penn’s campus that transformed an artist into a celebrity. A collaborative effort between University of Pennsylvania students in the Spiegel Contemporary Art Freshman Seminar and artist Alex Da Corte spotlights the night of October 8, 1965, the opening of Andy Warhol’s first solo museum show, held at ICA (then located in the Fisher Fine Arts Library). Through a marriage of conceptual and archival elements, the show presents an interpretation of what was arguably the turning point of Warhol’s career. It features 24 works, including photographs from the night itself, and an installation by Da Corte reconceptualizing the staircase by which Warhol and his entourage escaped from the crowd, into the night, and on to superstardom. “That’s How We Escaped”: Reflections on Warhol is on view in ICA’s Project Space April 21-August 7, 2011.
The 1965 exhibition was not only a crucial moment in Warhol’s career, it also marks a turning point in the
history of contemporary art, being perhaps the first time the persona of the exhibiting artist challenged the
primacy of the works on display. The repercussions of this moment play out in various ways over the next
half-century, giving rise to performance and media art, the ascendance of artist-celebrities such as
Jeff Koons and Lady Gaga, and everybody’s fifteen minutes of fame by way of reality television.
Among the works on view are the original Campbell’s Soup invitation, a Campbell’s Soup can signed by
the artist, an S&H Green Stamps invitation, an S&H Green Stamps blouse, photographs of the installation,
and photographs of the event.
This exhibition is unique in that it is curated by twelve undergraduate students as the culmination of a
collaboration between ICA and Penn’s Department of the History of Art. Through personal interaction
with curators, artists, and collectors, as well as extensive research of this historic event mining the deep
archives of the ICA and Penn libraries, hunting down television broadcasts and vintage photographs,
digging up newspaper articles written for the Penn student paper as well as the mainstream press, and
interviewing witnesses who attended the show—the students have come to understand the challenges
and creative possibilities of the curatorial process.
Student curators include: Anna-Marie Babington, Hilary Halter, Natasha Gabbay, Whitney Mash,
Sabrina Mills, Lucie Reed, Sarah Richter, Shaye Roseman, Sarah Richter, Sam Schnittman,
Alex Schwartz, and Danielle Schwartz.
The course is taught by poet Kenneth Goldsmith with Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow Virginia Solomon.
This exhibition is dedicated to Samuel Adams Green: ICA’s visionary director from 1964 to 1967 and a
lifelong champion of style, culture, and the arts. Under Green’s direction, ICA presented ahead-of-the-
curve exhibitions of Minimalism (7 Sculptors), Pop Surrealism (The Other Tradition), public sculpture
(Art for the City), a historic look at Abstract Expressionism (1943-1953: The Decisive Years), and a major
Tony Smith exhibition. What Green and ICA may both be best known for, however, is the first museum
exhibition in America of the work of Andy Warhol. In the midst of creating this current investigation, we
were saddened to read of Sam’s death on March 4, 2011. This show is, among other things, a tribute to
his lasting legacy at this institution.
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