Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again

Peter Brant is pleased to participate on the panel Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back again, celebrating the highly anticipated Andy Warhol retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

 This exhibition reconsiders the work of one of the most inventive, influential, and important American artists. Building on a wealth of new materials, research and scholarship that has emerged since the artist’s untimely death in 1987, this exhibition reveals new complexities about the Warhol we think we know, and introduces a Warhol for the 21st century. This is the largest monographic exhibition to date at the Whitney’s new location, with more than 350 works of art, many assembled together for the first time. 

 The evening will consist of exclusive tours of the exhibit followed by a reception and conversation moderated by Will Smith, Editor of Art in America, featuring Eric Shiner, Artistic Director, White Cube, New York; Peter Brant, art collector; and Irving Blum, one of L.A.’s first successful contemporary art dealers, in conversation with guests. 

Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Irving Blum was one of L.A.’s first successful contemporary art dealers. In 1962, Blum’s Ferus Gallery was the first commercial gallery to show Andy Warhol and went on to promote Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Larry Bell and Ed Moses—all from L.A.—as well as New York artists Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Dan Flavin and Donald Judd. No gallery or art dealer was more influential in bridging the work of East and West Coast pop artists.

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Peter Brant is an entrepreneur, manufacturing executive, publisher, philanthropist, sportsman and art collector, whose eclectic mix of personal interests and commercial ventures have resulted in achievements in business, philanthropy and the arts. Among Brant’s longest-held personal passions is contemporary art. An avid collector since college, Brant’s first art purchases were two Warhols and a Franz Kline. Having continued to invest in art over the years, Brant’s well-regarded collection includes works by contemporary masters such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, as well as up-and-coming North American artists.

Brant’s interest in art also led him into film producing. He has been a producer of six films including: L’Amour in 1973, Andy Warhol’s Bad in 1977, Basquiat in 1996, Pollock in 2000, and along with PBS, Andy Warhol: A Documentary in 2006, winner of the 2006 Peabody Award and an Emmy Award. Brant produced and financed The Homesman, an 1850s period Western and official selection for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep.

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Eric Shiner is Artistic Director, White Cube, New York. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s. Shiner served as the Director of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2016 and was the Milton Fine Curator of Art at The Warhol from 2008 to 2010.

A leading scholar on Andy Warhol and Asian contemporary art, Eric lived and worked in Japan for a total of six years and was the assistant curator on the inaugural Yokohama Triennale in 2001. He has curated dozens of contemporary art exhibitions in cities around the globe and was the team leader on The Warhol Museum’s major Warhol retrospective that traveled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo between 2012 and 2014. Notable exhibitions include An Incident, the inaugural edition of the Platform section at the Armory Show in 2017, Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei in 2015/16, Deborah Kass: Before and Happily Ever After in 2012 and Armory Focus: USA at the Armory Show in 2013.

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William S. Smith is an editor and art historian who joined the Art in America editorial team in 2013. Since then, he has contributed numerous articles to the magazine, on topics ranging from abstract painting to digital technology in museums. William is a founding editor of the online magazine Triple Canopy, where he has published essays, curated digital artwork, and organized public programs in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and other institutions. In addition to holding curatorial positions at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery, Art in General, and the Fabric Workshop and Museum, William has lectured frequently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and taught art history courses at New York University, Colorado College, and Pratt Institute. He holds degrees in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and Brown University.